Day 66: Mammoth Lakes
Date: Fri 6/22
PCT Start Mile: NA
PCT End Mile: NA
PCT Mileage for Day: 0
Total PCT Mileage: 906.7
The Highlights: rest and post office woes
Knowing that we would be visiting family for the better part of yesterday, we took another full rest day today, to actually (mostly) sit on our butts and do nothing. The way a zero should be. It was also Squishy’s birthday, so she was happy to take another zero.
For those that have asked about LOL, she arrived in town yesterday morning and was heading back to the trail sometime today, so we may see her up the way again. It turned out she camped less than a half mile behind us the second day of our last section, and we just remained apart for the entire section. This happens a lot on trail – hiking near others you know but not actually crossing paths.
Anyway, there really wasn’t much exciting about today. We slept in and ate the hotel breakfast before tackling one major errand I had for the day. I had ordered new shoes and shipped them general delivery to the Mammoth Lakes post office; they were being delivered via UPS Sure Post.
Arriving in town on Wednesday, we had talked to a FedEx delivery guy that was trying to find a hiker. He had a package for them that was also sent to the post office, but the post office would not accept it. Apparently the post office stopped doing hiker mail several years ago, and rejects anything that comes their way. Later reading some reviews, it appears that even the locals hate the local post office because they are simply unwilling to do their jobs when it comes to the mail.
Anyway, after the FedEx guy told us how terrible the post office was, I went over to talk to them. The package was being sent SurePost, which means there is a hand off between UPS and the post office. At the post office, I talked to the woman at the desk and showed her the tracking number for the package being sent, showing her that it was a UPS Sure Post. She told me that anything that had Post in the name – SurePost, SmartPost, etc. – they were required to accept. Then she asked me if it was sent General Delivery and I confirmed that it was. She was assuring that the post office would hold it. Great. So…this was the information I was given on Wednesday. The package was to arrive on Thursday.
Thursday, we spent the whole day with family and knowing that I could pick up the package on Friday, I didn’t worry about it. Later in the evening, I checked the tracking information. It hadn’t been delivered. The most recent update said, “The receiver requested this package to be held for pick up at the UPS facility”. The receiver being the post office, which had just told me yesterday that they HAD to accept this package. I was livid, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it until morning.
Back to today… after eating breakfast so I wasn’t hangry for the visit, we went down the street to the post office. At first, I just checked to see if they had the package, as if I didn’t know they had rejected it. Shocker, he couldn’t find it. So then, I pulled up the tracking info and said it looked like they had sent it back to the UPS facility. He said it would be sent back if it was sent ground. I showed him that it was sent Sure Post. He seemed flustered. He couldn’t find the tracking number in the system. Basically, this post office tries to be nice to your face, but they reject even the packages they are supposed to be REQUIRED to accept. He told us we should call the UPS Distribution Center in Bishop to track the package through them. If you look up reviews for this post office online, you’ll see that it has 1.8 stars for 26 reviews, most of which tell you they would give it 0 stars if they could. Shocker.
Anyway, thankfully the regional UPS is much more accommodating. I called their distribution center and provided the tracking number and they said they’d have the box on a truck and delivered to our hotel by early afternoon, 1:30pm at latest. And, true to their word, it did arrive by then. Honestly, it seems the local UPS and FedEx are used to the Mammoth Lakes Post Office being complete shit and rejecting packages they should be holding and returning things to sender, and thankfully they provide better service.
Other than this ordeal, which thankfully turned out to be simple to fix since the distribution center wasn’t too far away and UPS actually does their job – unlike the local post office, we spent most of the day relaxing in the room, watching whatever good TV shows or movies we could find. We watched some Parks and Rec and even caught Dirty Dancing. I carried a watermelon? I had The Time of My Life stuck in my head the rest of the day.
In the afternoon we hit up the hotel pool and hot tub for a bit. Apparently hiking isn’t enough for Shawn, so he got in a few laps in the pool.
At 6pm, we met Squishy and went to the other brewery in town – Mammoth Brewing Company – which also had food. We had dinner and Shawn continued his PCT brewery tour with another flight.
After dinner, we hit up the froyo place one more time so Shawn doesn’t waste away – and then back to our room for one last night of sleep in a bed for awhile. Back to the trail tomorrow.
