Duck Lake Trail - Mammoth Lakes 7/6/10 11.6 miles

The three of us sped through the morning walk, dreaming of hot showers, clean laundry, motel beds and town food. The walk was fairly easy with an uphill beginning and level to downhill for the remainder. WE walked from 7am to 11:30am and made it into Red's Meadow just in time to hop on the bus. Chris and I dozed off on the bus ride into town, realizing the extent of our exhaustion. The bus dropped us off at the ski resort on the upper end of town. What a cool place! There was a bike rental facility that allowed folkes to ride the bus up the mountain and ride down onthe many trails. They also had a gandala and a climbing tower. We then caught the free bus closer into town and got off, running into Badger and Sweet Jesus, some guys we had ran into going into Independence as we walked off of Kearsarge. WE hung out with them for a few and then parted with Abby Normal. Checked into our room at the Motel 6 (with a hiker's discount :), paid a long overdue visit to McDonalds and ran a few errands in town. At Rite Aid we bumped into our London Friend Alex (super navigator Forrester Pass guy) and traded pass stories. WE brought some supplies and headed back to do some laundry. Oh yeah, we also saw our Belgian and Oregan friends Chris and Mary and also saw Whitebeard and The Third Monty (the badass 70 and 63 year old couple that are my heros.) Finished up laundry and showers, feeling so fresh and clean, then headed out to Mick and Willy's for dinner-huge salad with ranch and a Thai sub. Made phone calls to family and friends adn got some good rest. -KB