Change of plans, again

Greetings surprised blog readers!

I am currently in the city of Lone Pine at mile 744ish, about a day south of Mount Whitney. As you might imagine, I didn't expect to be here. However, the weather has been a bit nasty the last few days with thunderstorms and snow and such. About 11:00 I got to a trailhead and talked to someone heard who said that for the next four or five days there would be 20 to 30 percent chance of snow with highs of about 32 degrees. That's highs, my loyal blog readers, not lows. And oh, by the way, the next 100 miles includes a lot of stream fords (one that's about chest deep) and snow field crossings. Hmm. The trailhead I was at is not an easy place to hitchhike from as it's essentially the end of a road, but just then some local hikers came off the trail and headed to their car. I asked for a ride into town and they agreed, and so I got to town and found a hostel. It turns out there are a bunch of hikers in town waiting to see what the weather does. We're all prepared for cold-weather backpacking, but most of us are not prepared for what the forecast is saying.

SO ... I have no plan right now. I don't know where to get food, I don't know what I'm going to do about getting better/warmer gear, I don't know how long I'll be here, and I don't know how I'm going to get back to the trail. This is a bit out of my comfort zone, but I keep reminding myself that being stretched is a good thing and if I wanted an easy and relaxed summer I would have just stayed home.

That's all for now. Hopefully the weather will turn for the better and the next few days will find me back on the trail, up Mount Whitney, across Forester Pass, down Kersage Pass, and into the city of Independence for my next resupply. We'll see. Be flexible, right?

Joel