9,000 miles
June 5th
In this stretch, we are pushing from Kennedy Meadows to Kearsarge Pass.
Paying homage to the Swiss King. Here I am with my ULA Circuit filled to the brim. The 2 lb. BV500 bear canister ate up all the space in the center of my pack. It would have been better to have lashed it empty on top. Photo courtesy of Honeybadger.
June 4th
Total mileage: 705
Today’s mileage: 3
June 3rd
total mileage: 702
today’s mileage: 26.5
The final flat-ish stretch to Kennedy Meadows (KM) dragged on in the afternoon heat. I knew the general store closed at 5 pm, and I was very eager to make that deadline, but unfortunately I did not. I didn’t realize there was a .8 mile road walk to the store off of the trail. I had a nice welcome upon reaching KM, and was thrilled to have both Snackies and Recon hand me cold beers simultaneously. I had missed the store’s open hours and was afraid I wouldn’t have anything cold, but instead I was immediately double-fisting.
KM has an almost a mythical presence on the internet. You know it’s the portal to the High Sierras. You know the first major chapter of the trail, the desert, is considered done. There is, in fact, a great sense of transition here. People are excitedly examining their shipments and packing their bear canisters. I met a ton of hikers I hadn’t seen before. A pickup truck, driven by a man named Grumpy, came at regular meal hours and shuttled people 5 miles or so to his restaurant, named…Grumpy’s. I went there for dinner with Darko, Taters and others and enjoying a peanut butter milkshake and burger. It was an expensive meal, but the remoteness justified some of it. The entire restaurant ran off a generator. Grumpy was grumpy about thru-hikers stealing his toilet paper.
A good example of how hikers clap in every hiker who arrives at Kennedy Meadows (KM). In this video, Recon and I have a bet as to whether Hendrix will be arriving by 4 pm or not. There were an estimated 80 hikers at KM. The entire small town runs off of diesel generators.
June 2nd
Total mileage: 677
Today’s mileage: 25
Pushing today and tomorrow toward Kennedy Meadows, gateway to the High Sierra. 52 miles.
EXTRA: Joe Brewer has an excellent video showing this stretch of trail from Walker Pass (Mile 652) To Lone Pine (Mile 745). I highly recommend subscribing to his channel:
May 31st & June 1st
Didn’t intend to take two full days off, but it took a while to make trail preparations today. I’ve got my bear canister and 8 days of food and am en route to Walker Pass atm. Should be on trail at first light tomorrow.
May 30th
PCT mile: 651!
Today’s mileage: 13
We reached Walker Pass at 10 am, yay!
Six-2, Honeybadger and I got our goal done of 85 miles in 72 hours. Lemme tell you, that was a hard 85 miles. Desert sun, sand and scree, 4 liter carries and a lot of climbing. So glad to be done with Section F.
Phanstern, the Undertaker, and Nymeria met us at Walker Pass with some much appreciated trail magic. Phanstern and Undertaker were also able to fix HB’s tent! Thanks guys!
We’re headed now to OxbowBurrito’s for 2 days of R&R and some Irish music tonight in LA!
Just weighed myself. I’ve lost 25 lbs, ack! Started at 219, now 194.4.
May 29th
Total mileage: 638
Today’s mileage: 22
We had joked the night before that the lone Joshua Tree sticking up was the barkeep at a tiki bar. Honeybadger, Six-2 and I camped on top of a beautiful vista. We knew today was our last long full day together. Sunrise over HB’s tent:
My first rattlesnake sighting of the trail. I thought it ironic that this happens only days from completing the desert portion and entering the High Sierra. I assumed I wouldn’t see any more, but I was surprised to see 3 more in North California, including a small one without a rattle.
It was unusual to see Joshua Tree with their fruit.
But…but what about motorized skateboards?
We reached Bird Spring Cache, where we’d hidden gallons of water days before with the car. Honeybadger, Six-2 and I took the most serious siesta of the trail yet, catnapping for 2 hours in what slim shade we could find. More so than the water, I was thankful for the respite from the afternoon’s heat. When we left at 5 pm for the big climb out, it was much more manageable by then.
We briefly met these British hikers. It’s hard to see, but they are camped immediately on a cliff edge. No thank you!
We stopped just before dark. Honeybadger unfortunately had a piece of her brand new Copper Spur tent break. Everyone was exhausted and talked about a very early morning to reach the pass on schedule.
May 28th
Total mileage: 616
Today’s miles: 23
At 616 now. Hiked until 9:30. Think we’re still on schedule for 85 miles in 72 hours.
Typical example of a “good” spring.
May 27th
Total mileage: 593
Today’s mileage: 27
night-hiked til 11:30.
Yesterday, I heard a staff member from the Tehachapi airport ask if 10 am would be an ok time to water the lawn where the hikers sleep, and to please pass the word on.
Well, at 3 am, the sprinklers all popped up and fired off, and it was a bit traumatic for about 30 of us. Six-2 and I were cowboy camping at the time. Fast asleep, I was suddenly hit with water, staring up at the clear night sky, not understanding what had happened. On the sprinkler’s second revolution, Six-2 fell upon it like it was a grenade and held it off to one direction while I tried to get my bearings and get some of our gear clear. Foolishly, we moved to the most distant part of the same lawn before connecting the dots that the sprinklers were divided into segments of grass and they functioned for a set period of time, before the next segment turned on. So again, an hour later, we realized it was time to move off of the grass all together and we slept in a concrete alley on the side of a hangar.
The runway was strewn with gear today drying out.
The day is already warming up and we are all tired, but we know the big miles ahead of us.
The place where we will be getting on trail today is where Cheryl of “Wild” fame began her hike back in the 90’s. Our understanding is that it isn’t a good place to start, as it’s a dry section with a lot of climbing. We have to go 85 miles in the next 72 hours. There is a very narrow window of time that I need to be at Walker Pass (10am-11am on Saturday morning), otherwise I’ll miss a concert in LA….so the pressure is tangible to really go hard the next 3 days.
Here we see the signs of Stage 4 dehydration. The Smiths:
We came upon this porcelain lamb head. This is in the middle of nowhere. Can’t really explain it.
This was my first late night-hike of the trail, with Six-2 rockin’ tunes on his phone the whole time. It was a surreal, kinda eerie experience to see windmills flashing on and off in the distance, while Snoop Dogg played in the dark. Six-2 also felt the lights reminded him of a Japanese horror film, so he’d occasionally voice things like ‘come to the light’ in his best Japanese accent.
EXTRA: Joe Brewer has an excellent video showing this stretch of trail from Mojave (Mile 558) To Walker Pass (Mile 652). I highly recommend subscribing to his channel:
May 26th
Today’s mileage: 0
Today, several friends are renting a Chevy Spark together to accomplish different tasks. Six-2, Darko, Honeybadger, Taters and myself will drive out in the desert and hide gallons of water for us and strangers at Bird Spring Cache. (Update: We stashed 24 gallons; 5 for us and the remaining 19 for others.)
Deep-fried smushed-up frog legs is the best I can think of…..
We will need to do big days this week, with 25s on Wed, Thurs, and Friday, and then 10 on Sat morning. There is also a lot of elevation gain, ugh. And the historical temps we’ve managed to avoid until now are catching up. Thursday and Friday should be mid to high 90s, so we gotta be smart the next few days.
More and more hikers arrived at the Thai restaurant for dinner. When we departed, we somehow managed to fit 7 people in this Chevy Spark. I think Hendrix is beneath Recon.
