resupply & not sure

I'm back around roads and cars and easy calories. There is a small store here I could resupply from, or I can take the bus to Bishop and back. I'm waiting for the bus, as Todd suggested. Yesterday, resting, wasn't sure about what to do next. Continue here?

If I can show you the pictures, you will see this is no longer easy forest strolling.

I was reminded of the simple plan, to walk 3hrs in morning and evening, doesn't really matter where. That got me up and moving and over Kearsarge Pass--

So, I expect I'll continue this way--decisionally simplest. I just have to hitch back up to trailhead 15 mi from Independence, and then hike 5 mi straight up to get back to the John Muir Trail/PCT where I left it. Until recently the hardest climb I had was the one out of Kernville.

This terrain requires very different eating--Do I want to burn through calories and run hard, or go somewhere where walking doesn't require as much consumption?

So, bigger decisions coming up: what do I resupply with (the small store resupply strategy requires larger budget)? And do I get the required bear container (+2lbs, -$$) or find a route where they're not required (if I get an internet connection to sierrawildbear.gov).

It's an odd world up there--once I got to the JMT and especially around Forester Pass. Forest Service workers camped near the top, as if it were an Everest base camp. For their work improving the trail up the endless cliff. Many people camped in the dark on steep hillsides among stunted trees on the north side, my way down, ready to go over the next day.

And I got prepared to deal better with rain.

It is eye-opening that so many people are out there to climb these mts.

As to what next? I still imagine getting a job on the biggest ship I can at some point.

$7 round trip to Bishop. I could hitch, but I like the bus.

Insight into stopping and starting: the start is in the stop, the stop in the start. I've never yet heard anyone address the mystery of why the buddha started or stopped meditating, or why anything starts or stops for that matter.

Writing this message, for instance.

The area around Mt Whitney sounds like an airport--pilots like to fly by it and there are helicopters.

Email: I've found before that I won't get messages if the phone was off a while. I won't get them until I log into gmail, unless you resend today, is my guess.

Should I follow this crest trail, or go somewhere more mellow? We'll see.

And I have been thinking of legacy, contribution.

With enough fat, carbohydrate, protein, anything is reasonable.

What I'm not yet sure what to make of: how eating affects behavior--if your body is able, and you eat enough Velveeta and Tortillas, you'll want to run the trail. If you don't eat enough, you won't want to move.

Add $2 to that fare.

And many of the hikers up there have a culture, a way of doing things I haven't totally adopted.

There are shrooms and fish to eat up there, and plenty of tame meat. It is a museum of scenery and I do feel in a museum. North of Yosemite and Tahoe, that may mellow.

I've thought of the Lost Coast, and of Los Padres.

Per Tagore: all this, an extension of self.

The bus is going by lava from the volcanoes that had something to do with these mad mountains.

A dessicated old smoker got on. Donkeys are standing in the road. Two of the preppie JMT hikers--they have the gear, they look good--are here too. There are all types out there, but mostly white. And the middle-aged men with GPS. L.A. Outward Bound did pass by. SD County Girl Scouts.

There are plenty of other trails to follow, but the PCT/JMT is decisionally simplest, what everyone does, an established channel. Do this, then branch out.

Does my walking help anyone? Do I love it?

possibly learning:
a new application of patience, how to care for/operate body in new scenario, unknown parts of earthly body, culture about its appreciaton.

"Wasn't that an awesome pass?"

Peace,