Lake Isabella

My friend Nic saw a picture I put up of the town, and he commented “Wow, you guys are… OUT THERE,” which we totally were! This town was something else. I don’t want to bad mouth a town, but man I swear 75% of the people there were on tweak. Our retro family owned motel was like a beam of light shining down onto the hillside.

The hotel was really cute, and operates by a husband and wife. They even cooked all of us hikers dinner one night, and oh boy what a feast! She made us tacos, soup, potato salad, the works! It was so sweet of them, and very appreciated by all of us!

We also enjoyed some town food with our hiker friends Topo, Hog, Rocket Llama, Teddy Rose, and Rei.

While we were in town, a storm rolled through, leaving more snow in the Sierra Mountains right ahead. The whole town was dark and stormy. We looked at the mountains in the distance where the trail is, and it was frightening! It really made us rethink whether or not we needed micro spikes for the snow. Our German friend named Rei (he thought the outfitter REI was pronounced “rye”) was shocked that we didn’t prepare for the snow. “You have NO micro spikes? And you mean to tell me that you have NO mountaineering experience?!” All of us hikers at the motel were debating what to do. We ended up calling Backcountry, and ordered micro spikes along with more comfortable sleeping pads, and silk liner for the sleeping bags. They were wonderful and overnighted us the items for free!! Thanks Backcountry!!

We left the next day after we got our package. It was raining when we got our hitch back to the trail.

Lake Isabella was a last minute decision, but a really great one! We left feeling rejuvenated, and confident with near gear for the Sierras.