Got up early and did a final gathering and packing of stuff for the trip. I remembered some last minute items but ended up forgetting to bring glasses and an extra light (can use bike light or light on solar power bank). Ann drove me over to Joe's house, where we packed stuff into his car and divvied up food for carrying. Mike and Jason arrived, and we then decided to try and pack everything into Mike's truck. It worked. We took his bike rack off too. We're on the road around 815, which wasn't too bad. The drive up was fun, easygoing conversation and banter. We stopped in Indian Wells, near Pearsonville, for a beer at Indian Wells Brewery, which had a vast selection of their own brews and flavored sodas, including some really offbeat ones. The others has tasters and I had a pint. I little further up the road we stopped for gas and ate at a Subway. It was edible but not good, left a strange aftertaste in my mouth. Then we drove a little further up and turned off toward Kennedy Meadows, which was about 45 minutes off the 395. Got up there and decided to stop at the general store, where a local resident told us about the significant fire activity in the area and the closure of the area where we planned to hike. Pretty disappointing, but we regrouped and decided to head further north, to stop at the Lone Pine Visitor's Center to try and get new hiking permits. It took us about an hour and a half to get there from Kennedy Meadows, and the ranger, Fernando, set us up with permits to hike around the Big Pine Creek and Lakes area, another 50 minutes or so north. So we drove up to the trailhead, had a little trouble finding where to park, then it was the arduous (for me) process of the others changing into their hiking clothes and packing their backpacks. Because of concerns about space in the bear canisters, I ditched some food, and I also left my fleece and gloves behind in a bear locker. I think we were hiking up the trail by about 6:30. Mike, Jason, and I hiked at about the same pace, and Joe was significantly slower, so we periodically stopped and waited for him. We had hiked a little over a mile when we came to an overlook for a nice campsite, with picnic tables, by the North Fork of Big Pine Creek. That's where we decided to camp, and it was a great choice. Joe's tent went up quickly, as did my setting up my sleeping pad and bag. I had the pasta and TVP for dinner, it was a little crunchy but edible, and I was hungry. Oh, and I drank a beer on the hike from the truck. The others took their beers and drank them at the campsite. We took a little night hike up to a junction of trails not too far further, then I was ready to sleep. Before that, we packed up most of the food into bear canisters, realized we didn't have enough space, and Jason hung the rest of our food and odorables on a makeshift bear line. Sleep was pretty decent, no issues with being cold in the night.
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