Daily Miles: 19.2
Total Miles: 124.4
I knew there was a heat wave coming today. I was pretty lucky to have cooler temperatures thus far through the desert. Even though I am moving towards higher altitudes, it is supposed to get back to upper 90 and over 100 degree temperatures down in the valley and I knew we would still feel the effect of it even at higher altitudes.
There were three big ups in this section. I had soldiered through the first 2000 ft. climb yesterday after leaving town. Today there was water at about 6 miles in which I would need to power up the second climb of about 1700 ft.
By the time I hit the water source there were about 12 hikers waiting in line to filter out of a very small trickle of water. I was able to get 5 liters after a while though the process was slow going. The bag that I use to catch my water before filtering with my Sawyer Squeeze Filter is only 16 ounces. So to fill up 5 liters I had to go through the catch and filter process 10 times. Once I get to any sort of decent outfitter I'm going to try to get at least a liter sized bag instead.
Once hydrated and filled I started the climb. It was 11AM and the sun was blazing. I don't have any way of telling the temperature but even at 7000 ft., it had to be 90+ degrees.
Once at the top of the ridge it was a long walk back down. The wind picked up again to help but we were walking through a lot of burn areas from previous forest fires, so there was full exposure and not many places to hide in the shade.
By the time I reached the bottom, it felt like my feet were on fire from the heat and the friction on the dirt/sand as I shuffled along. I drank all 5 liters in 11 miles to Chimney Creek. This is where the most recent forest fire had occured 2 weeks prior. It had started at Chimney Creek Campground which was a mile off the trail. I tried to keep looking for signs of the fire but I never saw any as the fire had moved away from the trail (thankfully) and had scortched over 1800 acres. The only reason this section of trail was open was because the fire never had actually touched trail.
The water at Chimney Creek was probably the best I had seen so far. The last big climb started right there. It was 2500 ft. up to an elevation of 8000 ft. There was another spring about 2.5 miles up the climb so I hoped to get there for the night and divide the climb into 2 days. The only trick was I knew there wasn't supposed to be a lot of camping near it and there was a large group of 8 people hiking together that were headed there too.
Once I got to Fox Mill Spring I started searching for a good tent site before anything else. Another hiker there told me about some spots hidden on the far side of the spring and low and behold there were actually a plethora of good spots. The large group showed up and I directed them there too. It was good getting where I was going by 6PM and being able to hang out and talk to people all night as well. The group of people saw a fire ring and decided they were going to have a fire. Personally, I thought it was a bad idea because there had just been a fire 3 miles from here two weeks ago. Plus, even though it cools down at night, I was still completely wiped from the heat of the day, and a fire and more heat were not very appealing to me. They managed it well though, and did the right thing and completely doused it out at night. When I am thruhiking I have never really wanted or needed a campfire. If I am doing a small trip, I love them, just probably not in the desert. This group of people seem to be doing well though, and have obviously made it almost 700 miles so I'm sure they know what they are doing. More power to them.
It's 19 miles to Kennedy Meadows tomorrow and I am debating whether I am going to go all the way in or take a shorter day and an easy hike into there on Monday.
Patch
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