JMT Rest Days #1 and #2 (Trail Days #6 and #7) : Reds Meadow Resort. August 10-11, 2014

With the morning came sunshine, and not just the solar variety.  Sage beamed.  She didn't wheeze, she didn't seem exhausted.  She beamed.

She also kept coughing. Not as much as she had the day before, but enough to make me glad we had arrived at Reds a day early and would therefore have two days of lounging instead of one.  We couldn't check into our reserved room until the afternoon, but we could hang about the resort and eat a ton of food at Reds' cafe.

Reds Meadow Campground has a check-out time of noon, so we left our tent and walked the 0.2 miles to Reds Meadow Resort (there's a trail leading to the resort from the campground -- it starts behind the dumpsters by the restrooms).

Approaching Red Meadow Resort's cafe.

There, at the cafe, we had hot chocolate and pancakes.  That hot chocolate was the creamiest, most delicious thing...I felt like I was pouring liquid life into my stomach.  After two sips, I realized how much my body needed hot food...going without a stove was the right choice for weight reasons, but my goodness, how we missed hot meals!

We didn't demolish the pancakes like I thought we would.  We felt full rather quickly...I guess our stomachs had shrunk over the past few days.  We took our time and ate as much as we could, then we walked back to the campground and packed our things.  Sage coughed every five minutes or so, and she seemed tired and sniffly, but besides that, she was fine.  Still, I was glad we had two days of rest ahead of us.

Once packed, we walked back to the resort and looked through the hiker bucket (a bucket where thru-hikers can ditch things they no longer want and/or take things other hikers have ditched).  The girls scored a bunch of lollipops and hard candies, and I took some beef jerky.  We then sat outside and played cards until early afternoon.

We saw Connie again.  She had arrived last night, and now she was on her way out -- meaning, she was getting off the trail and taking road transportation south.  She wanted to ascend Whitney, and she was behind schedule, so she was going to skip part of the trail.  I said goodbye to her...and I have no idea what became of her.  If you ever read this, Connie, then know it was a pleasure meeting you.

We also saw the kind fellow we had spoken to on top of Donohue Pass.  He was getting off the trail as well.  Unfortunately, he had sustained a knee injury and didn't think he could continue without making it worse.

The time came for us to check in, so we picked up the key from the General Store (seen below, with the red hiker bucket to the right of the door).

Our room for the next two evenings was the left section of a nearby building...

Our room had two large beds and a bathroom.  There was no television, but the internet access was fast and reliable.  The girls borrowed some books from the cafe, and we settled in for what would be two days of resting, eating, and pushing fluids.  During those two days, Sage's cough and sniffles persisted.  Though I was no longer worried about her succumbing to HAPE, I did need to know exactly what was going on with her so I could figure out how to proceed.  I therefore decided to take her to Mammoth Lakes Hospital after we checked out of Reds, just to be safe.  This would potentially put us a day behind schedule, but hey...who cares.  I needed to be 100% certain Sage was healthy enough to continue before heading back out on the trail.

**Next post -- Mammoth Lakes Hospital, and how we managed to give Sage an extra day of rest yet still wind up ahead of schedule.

I'm behind on our gear review -- I'll try to add another review late tomorrow evening.  I promise, by the end of this journal, everything we carried will be listed and reviewed.