PCT 2018 Day 35, May 27, Sunday.
Start town of Independence
End Independence
Miles walked: ZERO
While taking a rest day, I do the routine preparations like purchasing and preparing hiking meals using the two convenience stores in town ($$), eating lots of town food, and researching the trail ahead. And the Eastern California Museum a couple of blocks away had good exhibits, particularly the Manzanar internment camp of USA citizens of Japanese background.
A Native American basket exhibit was also worth seeing.
And details of the Owens Valley project to bring water all the way to Los Angeles, part of the plot of the movie Chinatown, should be seen.
Outdoor mechanical artifacts, including some used on the water project, are out back.
Later I took a self-guided walking tour of town. Some giant Sequoias grow here. This one is decorated with lights for the holiday season.
A row of sycamores gives shade to the road back to the trailhead,
Rows of trees along the road are so pleasant, don’t you think?
The John Muir Trail joins the PCT. Also, a side trail leads to Mount Whitney, which many PCT hikers do as a day-hike, leaving much of their gear in a bear box. The water at Tyndal Creek ford was running fast. The water near the trail appeared more than waist deep, but going upstream a large flat rock creek-bed caused the water to run fast but shallow, a good crossing point. 
Climbing steadily towards Forester Pass, more snow appears. Fewer footprints are visible than I expected. 
Passing many high snowy peaks each day, I give thanks for the ones we bypass, as well as those we climb. 
I reach the final mile ascent of Forester at 4PM, but this is not enough time to climb up and get back down, and snow conditions in late afternoon are not recommended for the climb. After the pass you would be post-holing (suddenly breaking through the surface of the snow) for miles before reaching a suitable campsite.
Later a few hikers pitch tents on snow a hundred yards away, all ready for the pass in the early morning.