I wake late – 8am – but it’s still earlier than most of the others. I’ve got a lot to do today and so little time to do it, but I’m trying my damndest to get it all done. This is a working zero, or so I tell myself before I grab coffee and sit chatting with U-Turn, then U-Turn and Evac, then then then, as the others all slowly emerge from bed.

We go to the Cracked Egg for breakfast and then post up for internet usage at the Big Blue Bear Cafe; Evac and I split a bottle of wine and work work work until it’s 4pm and they’re closing – where did the time go?

Then it’s to the store for vittles and back to our lodging for eating and more write write writing, always write write writing, until it’s 8pm and we’re all trying to figure out how we’re getting back to the trail. I cook more, eat more – we’re all subdued this evening, lost in our own thoughts about the trail between here and Kennedy Meadows. Wolf says there’s a bus at 5:30 to Lake Isabella, then a bus to Onyx, then we can hitch – which is a better plan than anyone else has come up with, so we go with that.

There’s a flurry of packing and prepping for tomorrow, weaving in and out of each other’s spheres of packsplosions. We all turn in early – at least relative to yesterday – anxious about what the future holds. Me, I distract myself with Game of Thrones, catching up until my exhaustion catches up with me.

Start: 652.1 • End: 652.1 • Day: 0
Notable Accomplishments: Got a LOT of work done • Gave my body a rest • Hilariously, had my first trail hangover at 5pm