Day 55 : Zero In Mammoth Lakes

0 miles today

1743 miles to go

Mammoth Lakes is a great town for a zero. The free trolleys go everywhere you need to go. Most everywhere I need to go I can walk. Of course if I'm walking I'm not resting. I have first breakfast here at the place I'm staying. Then I try out the granola I bought yesterday for second breakfast. For third breakfast I head over to Base Camp Cafe and have the Base Camp Breakfast. I enjoyed all three breakfasts and finally felt ready to tackle the remaining chore of the day. I bought fuel by the ounce and some permethrin spray for my clothes. I have a feeling that the next section is going to have lots of mosquitoes. I spend the afternoon washing my clothes in the guest laundry where I'm staying and then spraying permethrin on them. I feel bug ready. I sort my stuff, especially my food. My snacks go in my pockets, some tortillas and peanut butter for lunch. Everything else fits in my bear canister, Tuolumne Meadows is only two days from here so I don't need much food. I have a whole pound of peanut butter and ten tortillas. That is the smallest quantities I could find of each. That's a lot for two days even if I have two peanut butter tortillas per day. I know I'm  going to hate carrying the extra weight. I also know that if I throw away food I'd regret that too. So I'll carry it till I'm tired of carrying it, then I'll eat it. Packing my pack after a zero has always been hard. This time was a little easier, I think it's because I don't really have to think about what's next, or if something will fit. I know it all fits and I know exactly where. The only difficulty was my microspikes. I am using the pocket they used to go in to hold my pound of peanut butter. I ended up putting them in the stuff sack with my spare ziplocks in the top of my pack. Now I'll have to stop to get out if I want to wear them. Before I could just grab them out of their pocket. I don't think I'm going to need them and almost shipped them home. I'll probably regret that decision too. So my pack is heavier because of more food and not lighter because of gear I am carrying that I don't need. In a week or so I should be at Donner Summit which might allow me a zero at home.