Tenaya Lake to Happy Isles: We officially completed the John Muir Trail!!! It was funny to see how we all had the intention of taking our time so we could explore Yosemite, but instead we ran down the mountain and got to the finish line before noon. Knowing the end was within arms reach made it nearly impossible to walk with patience.
Funky Chicken and I did headstands at the trailhead as we waited for the rest of our tramily to finish. Then, we got celebratory pizza, ice cream sandwiches and beer. We took a bus ride back to Mammoth Lakes. We were the obnoxious group in the back of the bus with Mo yelling, “Day hikers SUUUCK,” while CTM and I partook in a loud discussion about the perfect dick size.
During the ride, BD held me in his arms and said, “If you could not fall in love with someone while we’re apart that would be great, because I’m not going to be falling in love with anyone else on my part.” He continues, “Half the time I feel like I’m living in a dream. Hiking the JMT and then meeting you. Are you sure I didn’t fall off a pass?” I laughed and said, “If you fell off a pass, then I fell off with you.”
We got into Mammoth and settled into our beloved Motel 6. We rode the trolley around town and upon celebrating our completion, we screamed, “WE DID IT!!!” to random people walking on the sidewalk or to those who were trying to enjoy a quiet dinner outside. My favorite was when the trolley came to a halt and all the people we screamed at walked by while we sat there in awkward silence.
The trolley drove us down a dirt road towards Sierra Meadows Ranch. The wind blew through our hair and our eyes were wet with joy. Beyond the ranch were heavenly mountain ranges interlaced with red hues from the setting sun.
When we walked into the restaurant, there was a line of people who were also eager to eat. As we waited, BD grabbed my hands and slow danced me throughout the room. I blushed as he led me, not wanting him to let me go. Once we found out the restaurant had a longer wait time than we were willing to wait, we decided to walk back to town. Mo, BD and I held hands as we skipped down the sidewalk. We found a Mexican restaurant to eat at; CTM and BD took tequila shots to celebrate.
BD offered to do our laundry at Motel 6, so he wore a loner dress that he found in the hiker box. We got called hippies by the owner. When we got to the laundry room, I made out with him and felt him up underneath his dress. We saw a guy in the window watching us and I found myself getting even more aroused. It didn’t last long before we burst out laughing from how ridiculous the image must have looked.
Before we went to bed, BD and I went into the forest to explore my favorite fetish. After a few minutes of play, we emerged out of the dark to find CTM smoking a cigarette on the curb. She goes, “Really?? While wearing a dress??”
The next morning, we dropped BD off at the base of the mountain which led up to Cottonwood Pass. From there he planned to hitch a ride up, grab his car and head towards South Lake Tahoe to start the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT). The tramily stayed in the car while BD and I said our farewells. I told him I would write him when I made it to Alaska. We kissed and held each other until CTM honked the horn, signaling for us to speed it up.
I hopped in the car and on the count of three we rolled down our windows and yelled “BD!!!” one last time, just the way we did at VVR. He became teary-eyed.
Despite there being apparent red flags for me to move forward with BD, I was grateful that he taught me how to love again. He helped push me out of my comfort zone by guiding me to build a relationship deeper than I would normally have it.
We drove straight to Frisco from Lone Pine. I got dropped off at 3:33am and slept on a bench beside the river. I woke up well rested and felt excited to dirtbag it on the CDT again.
