Day 0 -NY to Mammoth Lakes

I did not sleep well and woke up every hour just waiting for 4am to arrive. I dressed and left the house at 4:20 and drove to Ridgewood for the airport shuttle for my 8am flight to LA.

The plan is for a 6 hour flight to LA where I will be picked up by Jerome. From there to his house for last gear check. Jerome's wife Teri is working a half day and when she returns we drive 5.5 hours to Mammoth Lakes CA.

The shuttle arrives on time and it turns out I am the only passenger for a 10 per van. The drive and discuss hiking the whole time to the airport which makes it a fast ride.

I was at the airport before 6am for 8am flight and had kill time so started this blog.

The flight went by fast as I was  listening to my audio book and playing video games on my phone. When I landed I received a text from jerome that he was already waiting to pick me up. This was the fastest I every left and plane and picked up my luggage all in 10 minutes

I arrive at Jerome's house to pickup his wife Teri and her friend Anita.  Teri and Anita will be spending 2 days at Yosemite and Mammoth Lakes. 

From left to right Anita, Jerome,  Teri and myself.

We now have a 5 hour drive to Mammoth Lakes where were are spending the first night .

Mammoth Lakes is large ski resort town and has another benefit it is at 8000 ft to allow us to acclimate to higher altitude.

The drive went fast with jerome and I in the back discussing the hike and Teri and Anita discussing yoga for the 5 hr ride and the whole at the hotel.

At the hotel I spent a hour trying to stuff all my food in the bear canister.  I am now ready to go.

On the way we stopped in lone pine just to take this picture of Mt. Whitney our end point 15 days later.  The is in the center and you cannot tell it is the tallest mountain in the USA at 14400 ft.