July 10th: Welcome to Mammoth! I woke up pretty darn happy because I knew that I didn't have to hike today. I had a whole day to relax and eat! I started my day off by calling Big Agnes (tent company) to see if I could get a new tent. The guy I talked to said that he could send me just the base of my tent 7 days ahead on trail. I was rather bummed by this information because the fly of my tent isn't particularly water proof anymore. So I tried to explain to the guy on the phone that having part of a tent shipped 7 days ahead on trail does not help me in the next 7 days of hiking through one of the most mosquito infested areas of the whole trail. I asked him what Big Agnes's policy for in store exchanges were. I was hoping that I could walk into the outfitter here in Mammoth and walk out with a new tent if the store could corporate with Big Agnes. So, my next mission was heading to the outfitter. I got them to call Big Agnes on my behalf and re-explain my situation. The guy on the phone said that the store could give me a new base of the tent and that Big Agnes would send a base to the store to replace it. I convinced the guy at the store to tell the Big Agnes people to let me just have the whole tent. Somehow they agreed and I walked out of the store with an entire new tent free from Big Agnes!! No more mosquitos in my tent. No more worrying about rain. I was beaming all day because of my new tent!
After I got my tent situation worked out I headed over to The Breakfast Club (a breakfast cafe) and had a nice warm breakfast with coffee! I then did a little running around town and shopped for resupply food. After all that was accomplished I went back to the motel. All day today we had hikers knocking on our motel door. Hikers were needing a place to store their packs while they explored town and word travels fast on the trail thus all the hikers knew that room 109 of the Motel 6 was inhabited by hikers. A hiker named Bouncer ended up staying in the room tonight with us along with the packs of many other hikers.
July 11th: I slept in this morning. I didn't get out of bed until 11am. I got up, went and got myself a Greek salad and just spent the rest of the day bumming around. Dinner was fresh mozzarella, tomato, and basil on fresh chabatta rolls (I bought the ingredients at the grocery store) and mint Klondike bars. Another lazy town day. A hiker named Navi stayed in the room tonight.
July 12th: Goodbye Mammoth. In the morning I went for breakfast at Subway. Then back to the hotel to pack up my things. I didn't end up getting on the bus out if town until about 1:45pm. By the time I actually started hiking today it was close to 5pm. Total PCT miles today = 13. It looks like I got my new tent just in time because the weather turned today. Thunder in the sky, humid air, strong cold winds. It's looking to be a thunderstorm tonight. I am camped not 20 feet from the edge of a ridge nestled in some small trees. If a storm comes I'll sure be quite exposed. My new tent is up for the challenge of keeping my gear and I dry tonight. My concern goes to Baboon who still does not have his new tent. Right now he is rocking the Tarp Tent Moment, which isn't really water proof anymore either. If the rain is bad I'm sure we will work something out. My tent unlike his, truly is a one person tent. My pack and I barely fit. I slept two in my tent only one time and that was while on the AT. It was, (hem hem cough cough)....cozy.
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