700 and Scenic Route & becoming a Trail Angel

Two weekends ago, I was fortunate enough to go on my first camping trip in almost 2 years. Yeah, COVID will do things like that, but I digress. Most of you who are probably reading this, have already seen my video I put together about the hike we did on that Saturday up to Kearsarge Pass. If you haven't, I would suggest clicking on that link and watching it. As we were making our way up to Kearsarge Pass, we kept bumping into Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) hikers coming down the trail heading either to Independence or Bishop for a resupply of food. I talked with several of them and made up my mind if I could help a hiker or two get down the hill the next day, I'd do it. 

The next morning, Sunday, as I packed up camp and loaded up the Jeep for the ride back home, I did a good job of Tetrising my stuff so there'd be enough room for two other backpacks and two hikers I could bring down the hill. And as luck would have it, as I was entering the hiker part of the parking lot, there stood 700 with his thumb out and I asked him how many in his group. He said one other, Scenic Route and I said "Hop in." We drove down to where Scenic Route was and the look on her face as she put her thumb out, then realized that 700 was already in the car was priceless. We loaded up her gear into the Jeep and down the hill we went.

I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation as we made our way down the hill into Independence. 700 told me that he got his trail name because that's the amount of water he carries maximum. I guess in the Sierra, that's probably OK since there's lots of water around, but hiking with only 700 milliliters of water in the desert just seemed like downright scary to me. Scenic Route got her trail name because she ended up taking several hikers down the wrong trail at some point, thus she took them on the scenic route.

I dropped them off at the corner of the road as it joined up with HWY 395, we fist bumped and I asked if I could get a photo of the two of them. Now, I wish I could have gotten a couple more shots of them, but this one will do. Scenic Route took a photo of me with 700 for her albums. I got 700's Instagram account and am now following him there, so I can see how the rest of their trip is going. We then said out goodbyes and I watched them as they headed north to get a burger at a local restaurant.

And that's how I became a trail angel.