After last fun night we all “slept in” and woke up at 8am. We had to check out by 11am so we had plenty of time to pack everything, take a shower and bring our packages to the post office. I also called my family again, especially since it was Monty’s birthday today. My boy is turning 7 already. Miss him so so much and can’t wait to hug him again. Afterwards we got lunch at Grandma’s Seasoning Restaurant – milkshake included –  and then it was time to get to the Vons supermarket where we would take a bus to Independence and from there we had already organized a trail angel that would bring us up to the trailhead again. Our packs were far from light since we were carrying 8 days worth of food. I was already dreading the way up to the Kearsarge Pass that we had to summit again in order to get to the trail and continue where we left off. Even though we weren’t exactly flying the way up didn’t take as long as I have expected and it also wasn’t that exhausting. I guess our bodies have already adapted to the occasional (almost everyday) heavy loads.

After we got back to the trail we all had a quick dinner and then continued for one more mile (1,6km) to our tentsite. There were already some other hikers camping but we managed to find some spots because we decided to cowboy camp again. It is way faster and honestly quite nice as long as there are no mosquitoes of course. The reason why we ate one more before camping is because we are in a bear country and the rules tell you so. That is also why we are carrying those heavy bear canisters. Unfortunately not everyone gets the rules and the other hikers happily ate their dinners right next to their tents. I don’t know but in my opinion if there are some rules we have to follow then what’s the issue? Especially if there is only few of them. At least that little we can try to do and for that we get endless tentsite possibilities in return. Simple. Hopefully no bear will come and eat me.