May 21, 2016

South Fork of Kern River (mile 706.6) to Death Canyon Creek (mile 730.8)

Miles: 24.2

We devised a new plan for the Sierras. We would get up early to maximize our daylight and allow for our slower speed across snow.

It was cold when the alarm went off at 5:15 am. Surprisingly we both started moving and we were walking by 6:10 am.

It was chilly walking into the morning air. We both started out with our down jackets, gloves and fleece hats to keep warm. Luckily we were climbing so our core temperatures quickly rose and we shed layers. Our fingers and toes were the last to get warm as the sun kissed our bodies.

Excitedly we walked through the forest but soon we entered a burn area with lots of blow downs (down trees blocking the trail). This made for slow going for a few miles in not so scenic areas. But of course, our efforts were worth it when we reached Beck Meadow.

We stopped for a few moments to take it all in before continuing on. We would have taken more time here but it was really cold.

We climbed again after leaving Beck Meadow and reached another bridge crossing over the Kern River around 11am. By that point we had covered 10 miles and we’re ready for a break.

And what a place for a break! The lazy Kern River flowed gently downhill while the swallows flew every which direction.

And the meadow! My goodness.

This is what we walked here for. Beautiful meadows surrounded by jagged mountains.

We sat on the grass next to the Kern eating our heavy and tasty trail mix watching swallows swoop in and out from their nests under the bridge.

Laurie washed her socks and underwear, then we back washed our filters. Town chores we didn’t get to in Kennedy Meadows but knew we could do out on the trail.

After 45 minutes we were ready to walk once more.

Today was climbing day so we kept climbing after shouldering our packs and walking through Monache Meadow.

Two thousand feet of climbing brought us to our first sight of snow! Just as we had anticipated, there was snow at 10,000 ft.

It was a gentle introduction. Patches of snow covered the trail. The dirty footsteps in the snow were easy to follow.

We climbed another 600 ft alternating between walking on snow and dirt.

Then we started our descent into Gomez Meadow. The first 600 ft had more patches of snow but then it was all dirt.

Once out of the snowy patches we took a late lunch in the middle of a switchback. We sat in the sun drying our feet and shoes which were now wet after postholing multiple times.

Now back on dirt we flew. With Andy leading we walked 2.5 – 3 miles per hour. We had planned on camping at mile 627 but we felt good and it was too early to stop so we pressed on.

We got to Death Canyon Creek around 6:15pm and it was like walking into tent city. We had seen only 5 other people all day (a couple and a family) and now there were at least 10 tents scattered about.

Everyone was hunkered down in their tents so we don’t know if we have been hiking with any of these people. Guess we will find out tomorrow on the trail, maybe.

Today was a great day and we are both tired. It got cold really quickly and we are only at 9000 ft! In a few days we will be camping at 12000 ft. Hopefully our bodies get used to this cold quickly!

Tomorrow we will encounter more snow. As Andy said tonight over dinner “it is make it or break it day….we either decide to keep going north or turn around and retrace our steps to Kennedy Meadows” depending on conditions.

We both hope for the former.

Tonight we are grateful for dry, warm feet and hot water.

May 20, 2016

Bushcamp (Mile 693.9) to South Fork of Kern River (mile 706.6)

Miles: 10.7 (+ 2 mile hitch)

Since we had only 8 miles to walk to get to Kennedy Meadows we decided to sleep in. Sleeping in for us means waking up around 6am and taking our time getting ready. We were on the trail by 7:50am.

The wind picked up last night so our sleeping bags, bear cans and shoes had a layer of dust on them. It didn’t matter though, we are used to being dirty now and embrace it (most of the time).

We walked 4 relatively flat miles through the rocky valley to the South Fork of the Kern river. This is the most running water we have seen in 2 months!

We took a few moments to take it all in.

We walked here… Just over 700 miles.

It feels pretty awesome.

The trail turned into sand as we neared the Kennedy Meadows road. We walked the one half mile on asphalt and ran into 3 people we had last seen at Paradise Cafe (before mile 200). It was nice to see them and even nicer to know that people like us were heading into the Sierras.

We are both nervous about what lays ahead. We know it is cold and snowy above 10,000 ft. People are switching out to boots but all we have are trail runners.

There are lots of other hikers with only trail runners but the idea that we may not be well prepared is both embarrassing and terrifying for Laurie.

We have ice axes and micro spikes and have been reassured by hikers who have been through this area in past high snow years that we will be fine. It comes down to confidence and right now Laurie is lacking it.

As we walked into the parking lot of the Kennedy Meadows general store we were met with a large applause and cheering from the patio. This is the welcome that every hiker gets. Very cool.

Getting this far is an accomplishment!

We put down our packs and took in the scene. Fifty or so hikers were scattered about – some on picnic tables in front, lots sitting at tables on the large deck and others roaming. The wait for laundry and showers are 1 day long.

We got our resupply boxes and Laurie’s new shoes and headed to the deck to sort and repack. Now that we are entering bear country everything has to fit in our bear cans. It is hard to get 7 days of food in those things but we did the best we could.

We chatted with fellow hikers: Mulan, Pretzel, Krispy and later Dirtmonger. Andy has known of Dirtmonger and followed his blogs for a few years now. The guy is an impressive hiker and his reassurance that as long as we go slowly in the Sierras we can make it helped us a lot.

Thanks for your words of wisdom Dirtmonger!

Everyone has different plans from Kennedy Meadows. Our plan is to head in and see for ourselves what the snow conditions are like. We are excited for the adventure and a bit nervous. We have plenty of food and can always turn around.

After sorting through our resupplies, we got a ride to Grumpy Bear’s restaurant for lunch and wifi. Kennedy Meadows has food but no reception or wifi and we had an important message to relay to Andy’s dad.

Laurie enjoyed a milkshake and we split a cheeseburger with avocado and fries. The food was ok but the trip over was worth it for the wifi.

Laurie checked in with family and Andy messaged his dad, successfully changing the address of our next resupply before he shipped the boxes.

Originally we had them going to the post office but since we are ahead of schedule we will now arrive on Friday of Memorial Day weekend and don’t want to have to wait 3 days to get our packages.

After charging our phones and getting in touch with Andy’s dad (our resupply guru) we headed back to the general store and packed up.

We headed out around 5pm and walked along the road toward the campground thinking it was faster and easier walking than the trail. About 1.5 miles in a family stopped and offered a ride. Initially we said no but then agreed – road walks just aren’t fun. And we enjoy meeting nice people.

Jason and Marilyn, and their 2 kids Addison and Mika, were very generous. Addison- who was probably 2- gave Laurie her lupine flower and Marilyn offered us dried apricots. Again, we were touched by these random acts of kindness. Thanks y’all!

Once back on the PCT we walked another 2 miles along the Kern River to our campsite near a bridge crossing.

We had dinner and Laurie reorganized the bear cans to stuff more food inside. The temperature is dropping and it definitely doesn’t feel like the desert anymore.

It is nice to go to sleep to the sound of rushing water. We’ve really missed it.

Tonight we are grateful for rivers and Andy’s parents for packing and shipping our resupply boxes.

May 19, 2016

Bushcamp (Mile 672.9) to bushcamp (mile 693.9)

Miles: 21

We awoke to a blue sky and birds chirping. We watched the sunlight pour in through the trees around us through the mesh of our tent. This is the life!

We have really enjoyed the precipitation free nights. Sleeping in our tent without the fly is like bug free cowboy camping. We see the stars and feel the wind but don’t have to worry about scorpions or snakes crawling over us at night.

We did a better job packing, breaking camp and hitting the trail. It was 7:18am when we started walking.

Immediately the trail continued up. It was a gradual climb which allowed our muscles and core temperature to warm up. We hiked amongst the trees feeling grateful for the shade and hoping that it would continue. Without the breeze the air was warm.

After 1.4 miles we came to a meadow colored with yellow and purple flowers. We took a moment to enjoy the view before starting down into a valley.

The trail was gradual which allowed us to walk faster. Andy was captivated by the jagged peaks and kept stopping to take pictures.

Just before the lowest point we stopped on some rocks to take our shoes off and eat a bag of very heavy and delicious trail mix. Our new strategy is to eat the heaviest foods first, no matter how much we like it (and want to save it for later) or how long it’s been since we last had it.

We ran into a botanist from the Bay Area who is out here doing field work. She mentioned that Chimney Creek Campground is a wonderful place to come without the typical crowds of a drive-in campground. We made note of this for the future and walked on.

From here the trail climbed another 2,367 ft. Two miles into the climb we came to Fox Mill Spring. The water was flowing well here. We filled up 2 liters each, Laurie washed out her socks and underwear and we ate lunch.

Hikers tend to gather at watering holes. The topic of conversation these days is “The Sierras” and what each hiker plans to do.

Laurie came up with a tentative itinerary for the next 6 days – we will learn more tomorrow when we get to Kennedy Meadows. It is reassuring to Laurie to have a plan so we will start with that and adapt as needed.

We chatted a bit with a couple named Jenny and Justin who are also from San Francisco and have a similar plan. We will see if our timelines match up once in Kennedy Meadows.

We left the spring and continued to climb. Laurie played music that we both could hear to help motivate and distract us from the effort. It was hot. We walked out of the forest and into a previously burned area. We could see the trail traversing the mountains around us.

Sometimes it is better not to know where the trail goes. This one went on for a long while it seemed, but looked very gradual.

Andy suggested that the trail should be called the Pacific Traverse Trail rather than Pacific Crest Trail.

Eventually we got to the high point. In the distance we could see white snowy peaks. Andy got goosebumps. We had made it through the desert and soon (hopefully) we will be walking through the Sierra Nevada mountains!

We started to descend, again traversing the hillside. We could see the trail in the distance and every turn we made the trail just kept going.

The wind was strong creating a lot of dust. Laurie, who was walking behind Andy, gave him more space than usual so as not to swallow dust.

“Eeeek” squealed Laurie

“What is it?” Asked Andy who was 20 ft ahead, now walking back to Laurie who was frozen in place.

“A little snake” replied Laurie. She’s never sure which snakes are rattlers and which aren’t so unfortunately all snakes scare her A LOT.

By the time Andy walked back the small garter snake had retreated to the bushes. They move fast when they want to!

About 20 minutes later Andy came to an abrupt halt, holding his poles out on either side. A rattlesnake slithered into the bushes near the trail. It never rattled and didn’t seem the least bit interested in us.

“I knew the desert wasn’t going to let us go that easily” stated Andy with a smile.

Three horny toads and 2 snakes – not bad for our last day in the desert.

Tomorrow we reach Kennedy Meadows – the official end to the desert and the beginning of the Sierras.

We continued our descent into Rockhouse Basin, reaching Manter Creek just after 6pm. We had anticipated to arrive here at 7pm. We were cookin on the gentle trail.

The General – a hiker we met the night before was already set up and greeted us upon arrival. He warned us of biting red ants and where to get good running water.

Many people were already camped here, including Bridget and Alex from Austin, Texas. We met them first near Mt. Baden Powell and hadn’t seen them again til yesterday.

We got two liters of water from the creek and hiked about a quarter of a mile up the trail before finding a nice, flat spot near a large, weathered rock with lots of character.

The entire evening we watched clouds roll in. Eventually Andy put up the fly in case the weather turned.

Tomorrow, we reach the end of the desert!! What a ride it has been.

Tonight we are grateful for the PCT water report and our hats.