After finishing the trail yesterday, we headed down to Lone Pine to start our hike of the John Muir Trail in a few days. The closest town we could find on the drive from Tahoe was Bridgeport which was an hour and a half south of Kingsbury.

We arrived at the motel at around 10pm last night after the drive. The motel was basic but clean and, after a few Facetime calls to our wives and family, it was time to grab some needed sleep.

The next morning, we headed down to the local bar for breakfast. It was one of those places where there are a couple of guys shooting pool in the corner and people look up when you enter. The waitresses were friendly enough and we had breakfast and coffee whilst watching the World Cup.

After breakfast, we headed onto Highway 395 to continue our journey south. We first went through Mammoth Lakes where we had last been on our 2015 thru-hike of the John Muir Trail. From there, it was onto Bishop where we stopped to head to an outdoor shop (Eastside Sports, great service) and then grab some lunch.

Finally, we continued south towards Lone Pine. The scenery became drier and more clearly desert as we drove and we tried hard to guess which of the peaks on our right was Whitney. It was amazing to see some of the passes we had covered in 2015 and see how high they looked from the valley floor. After a beautiful drive past the Alabama Hills, where many of the classic Westerns were filmed, we arrived in Lone Pine.

Lone Pine itself is a nice town totally based around being the closest place to Mt Whitney. We checked into the Dow Villa motel and then headed to the Ranger Office to ask about changing our Kearsarge permits. The town is very close to Death Valley and it was tempting to go but we just won’t have enough time.

In the evening, it was time for dinner and we headed out for chicken wings and some celebratory beers. It was a great restaurant but served typically huge servings which we had to leave most of. Then it was time to head back to the motel ahead of our second zero tomorrow.