Up again at 4.15am to catch palatable snow conditions. A short walk, but significant elevation gain, to the start of the Bullfrog Side Trail followed by a pretty, but snow covered, walk to Kearsage Pass. While not as high as Forester, still a substantial and tiring climb especially since we wanted to finish it before the sun softened the snow.

The descent from Kearsage to the Onion Valley Campground was through soft snow but no where near as taxing as the snow past Forester. Still, a couple of glissades sped things up considerably.

Upon entering the campground we got lucky. An ex-PCT hiker named Jim (Jersey) was reading at his car, and upon chatting he offered a lift. Now Kevin (Dickbag) needed to get to Lone Pine to pick up packages and I wanted to get to Bishop. Remarkably Jim drove us both to Lone Pine then back up the same road to Bishop. We bought him lunch for his trouble.

Now at the Hostel California, a brilliant hostel with loan bikes to get around town and guaranteed accommodation for PCT hikers (online they were full).

I was so tired I slept for 10 hours.