It's Monday afternoon here in Japan, and I'm reading through all sorts of posts from people that have trudged through a hundred miles of snow in the High Sierra, and thinking that I just don't want that to be my PCT hike.
In a couple of hours, my flight takes off for Los Angeles, with a connecting flight to Mammoth Lakes that gets me in around 6pm on Monday evening (yeah, the dateline makes this a very long Monday). I'm staying overnight there, then plan on getting a bus to Independence and getting on the trail at Onion Valley to head over Kearsarge Pass.
Or that's the tenative plan. I'm not thrilled there's been so much May snow in the Sierra.
I'm also thinking about just skipping north to South Lake Tahoe or Truckee and starting there. Leave my bear canister and ice ax in the car at LAX, repack, take that flight to Mammoth, then get on the Wednesday morning Eastern Sierra Transit bus to Reno and just skip all that ugly snow. After I get to Canada, I can fly back to Mammoth or Reno and finish it all up, perhaps even head southbound. I'm not a purist, but I am a bit of a completist.
Have I mentioned how much I hate snow? :-)