Cabin to lake Isabella - 8.2 miles

Total - 653.2 miles

Woke up on the porch to half my sleeping bag wet from condensation. We had planned to head out at 6 but I can never follow a plan even if I make it so I was out of camp by 5:45. Plus I just kinda wanted to hike alone as it’s the only time of day where we are kinda separated and have true alone time. Love the guys but a bitch needed to be alone that morning. It was an easy day as we lost 3000 feet of elevation. Gorgeous views of the sierrras in the distance with a perfect downhill grade. I made it to the campsite where snake eyes who we met after scissors crossings like day 8 would come to pick us up and bring us to lake Isabella. He has this cool ass built out truck with the tent on the top of the truck. We were talking a lil before I saw the guys pull up. Next thing we know tho Leo a trail angel who was going to bring rock licker into town pulled up as well asking if we needed a ride. Caleb and I hopped in as snake eyes couldn’t fit everyone and he had to wait for Ben from Boston to come who was a lil bit behind. Leo was a sweet guy and he ended up having breakfast with us at the diner. The diner was goooooodddddd. Basically everyone and their mother got a breakfast skillet and a milkshake. The place had 50+ flavors for milk shakes and I got the most basic aka chocolate on chocolate. Still good tho. We got table pancakes and the skillet also came with biscuits and gravy. I downed it all and I honestly could’ve had one more to top it all off. After we walked over to the rank motel that had boarded up windows and pink. We decided to stay here for our zero. Despite the rough outside the place was nice on the inside. Outdated but nice. I can’t judge as I smelled like shit and we all look homeless. We then headed to a river because there was no way we were getting on a boat despite our gloating that we would. The river was fast and deep so we had to pick our way to find a nice eddie to hang by and dunk in. Apparently the river has over 300 drownings so after we heard that stat we were extra careful. It was ice cold and refreshing. We were also promised a pizza buffet from online sources but that was a dead end. Instead we ended up going to the diner once again for burgers and the burgers were gooddddddd. I got a Baja with green chilies and a green chili ranch sauce. So good but I was full from all the food we had been eating. I forgot to mention we had Burger King as an appetizer to the diner burger dinner. Hiker hunger is real. After we went to the bar Arlie’s next door to our shit motel. Best part was Ben finally got his karaoke night. The man has a voice. He yodeled for us and then sang Whitney Houston I will always love you. Truly amazing. The old ladies kept turning to us stating he needs to be on American idol. One of the guys kept making sexual jokes towards him? Couldn’t tell what the vibe was with him if he was gay or not. At one point he stated he would swallow anything. Strange but I guess a voice like the bards would do that to you or at least the guy lol. Also one woman sang the I’m proud to be an American song and had a good amount of people stand with their hands over their hearts while she sung her heart out. Felt like a fever dream. Glad Marc the German got to see it. It felt ironic but you knew it wasn’t. Ben from Boston also went up and sung a metal song which was electric. 11/10 performance. Then we hit the hay. Nothing like the VFM in Tehachapi but it was a good night with some good singing.