Daily Miles: 19.1
Total Miles: 143.5
I was very glad I pushed on yesterday to Fox Mill Spring. It would have been quite daunting to wake up and have to climb 2500 ft. first thing in the morning. Instead because I pushed on it was only a 1500 ft. ascent. Right after leaving camp I also got to see my first massive cedar tree.
After that though it was a long downhill and relatively flat approach into Kennedy Meadows. The only thing I really didn't account for was that once again I would be hiking the majority of the day through burn areas, completely exposed.
It heated up real fast as I was at the highest point of 8000 ft. I have been thus far this trip at about 9:15. Looking down the valley, I knew it was going to be very hot, so I just took my time heading down. I also got my first view of the still snow-covered sierras about 50 miles away.
Every few miles if I found some shade and a comfy spot I would stop for 30-45 minutes and let my body cool down. At one point we even started to get some clouds in the sky. Not rain clouds but the big puffy ones that when they passed in front of the sun would instantly drop the temperature 10 degrees (or so it seemed). Whenever these clouds passed by I would pick up my step and get as many miles as possible.
Around 2PM I got to the point where I had to make a decision. I had reached the South Fork of the Kern River. It is the first fully flowing river I have seen this whole trip and was a perfect place to stop for the day. There was water to drink, water to soak my blisters in, or even wade into and take a dip. I knew though that aside from filtering something to drink, if I did any of these other things I would be done for the day and would have to hike into Kennedy Meadows tomorrow.
This is where I met Ed again. Ed was one of the hikers I ate with in Lake Isabella 3 days before and like me he wasn't a thruhiker, he was just out for 4-8 weeks doing a long section. He had just started at Walker Pass and was eager to get back to the idea of real food and a couple beers. He said he was going to push on the last 3.9 miles to KM and that the store closed at 5PM. I had just finished filtering my water and my watch said 2:50. If it had been any later I probably would have stayed, but his talk of food and drinks stirred my drive to go all the way in.
We hiked together a bit (the first real person I have hiked with since I got out here) before I started to pull away on him. It was real hot but I knew we were going to be cutting it close, so I took off on him thinking I could get there and get us both something in case he didn't make it in time. Somewhere around here we also passed the 700 mile marker.
He said he had seen the 1/4 marker the day before signifying 1/4 of the trail completed, but I must have completely missed it.
The last mile was very hot and very slow going before I finally made it to the road into Kennedy Meadows. This spot I remembered well as it was where I temporarily picked the trail back up after returning from injury in 2008. It felt really good to have finally completed the 143 mile stretch of trail I skipped that year.
I wasn't at Kennedy Meadows yet though as I still had a half mile roadwalk to the general store and it was 4:35. The time for celebrating was short as I made it up the road with about 10 minutes to spare.
The grill was closed, but I got Ed and myself cold drinks and waited for him to arrive. The ironic part was in all the rushing, the store didn't wind up closing until about 5:45. Ed showed up just before that getting out of a car. Apparently the heat had overwhelmed him and when he got to the road almost passed out from heat exhaustion. A car had come by and given him a ride into the store
Kennedy Meadows was EXACTLY how I remembered it. It was a small country store in the absolute middle of nowhere that did about 90% of its yearly business in about 6-8 weeks when all the hikers come through. This is the last official road crossing for almost 250 miles as hikers enter the high sierras. If you need to resupply you either have to hike out about 10 miles into Independence (Bishop) at Kearsarge Pass, or send yourself all your supplies in advance to a couple small resorts that are nestled in the high country. When I had been here in 2008 there had been maybe 20 hikers hanging out taking a day or two off before they entered the Sierras. Right now there were close to 100. It was surreal.
As I soon found out, even though the store was doing great business, there was a sense that this place could not handle this massive influx of hikers in the last few years. Many shelves and coolers were empty. Facilities that are available to hikers such as a shower and port-o-potties were run down and overflowing (7 port-o-potties, all filled to the brim). It scares me what might happen to places such as this if hiker numbers continue to escalate in future years.
However, even though I had seen the light in all the hikers eyes 8 years ago as the sierras loomed, this was a completely different feel. Everybody was celebrating and reveling like they had already finished the trail. Everytime another hiker came up the road, all 100 people would cheer and clap at full volume. The comraderie amongst hikers is still alive and going strong out here on the PCT.
The coolest part of the evening was that out here in the middle of nowhere they had a tv set up and about 30 of us sat around drank some beers and watched game 7 of the NBA finals on the deck. Different factions of people from all over the country and world rooting back and forth through one of the greatest NBA games in a generation.
After the game was over I found my way into the back woods lot they use as a "tent city", found a flat spot, and pitched my tent amongst dozens of others. I have made it back to Kennedy Meadows, and in doing so have finished the desert section of Southern California. Up next is a return to the sierras, and I can't wait!!!!
Patch
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