We hiked the short spur trail to the PCT and there was One Gallon (a 2X triple Crowner) and Oom, a lovely young woman from Thailand, studying cinematography in New York. One Gallon went down with David, for a ride into Lone Pine and I hiked on with Oom.
Our pace was well matched and conversation delightful. Oom was the first woman I had hiked with and it was fun and pleasant. She would be hiking Mt Whitney. I would not as I had climbed it in 2016.
At one point Oom needed a rest and I hiked on. This often happens on the trail, a key aspect is that you “hike your own trail”
I crossed my first real creeks in the next couple of hours, fording one and crossing on 2 log crossings on the second. These were relatively small but I did not know that at the time and I was feeling somewhat exhilarated to have crossed them.
Lone Star was just getting up from a rest break on the other side of the second creek. Glad to see an old friend we hiked on together the rest of the day.
We camped at a meadow lake with marmots and lots of fresh water. Short of my days goal but we were tired and the site was lovely.
Woman Walking Home 