7/1/2023

Section: Milepost 682.3 to 703.4

Distance: 22.03 Miles  

Moving Time: 09:00 hrs

Elevation Gain: 3,864 ft

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Happy July 1st everyone!! It is a commonly held belief by all who hike the PCT that Kennedy Meadows marks the end of the desert and the beginning of the Sierra and the views of the Sierra seem to confirm that. The profound irony of our grand adventure here is this - the hottest day we have had on the PCT was day 1 in the desert, just outside of Campo and the second was today on our last day of the desert. Two appropriate bookends for the hottest section of this trail but I have to reiterate, again, that we have been exceedingly lucky in the desert. I‘m not sure we had a single day above 90 degrees - it could have been so much worse. This season has been tremendously mild in the southern section of the PCT.

We woke around 5 - my alarm didn’t go off but we were up anyway. Another great sleep which is digging into a major deficit we have developed on the trail. I had some more breakfast snacks - we loaded up in Lake Isabella and so I was going to town every snack session. Izzy left as we were finishing breakfast, Ben accompanying her for the first mile. We followed shortly after. Some people had arrived later in the evening last night and had arranged their tents along the road. Amanda and I made our way back down the trail and eventually arrived back at the road. From here we said hi to a couple who had slept there and then pushed on up the trail.

The first part of the day today was a consolidated climb for a little over 2800 feet and about 7 miles. Nice grade but consistently up. We meandered up in relative silence, lost in our own thoughts. At around noon, we stopped at a nice log and sat down for lunch. Despite reloading only about a day ago, I had done some good work on my food. Honestly, some real favorites have started to emerge as I travel on this trail.

  • Potato chips - I ate through a family size bag in less than 24 hours

  • Homestyle rice crispy treats - so glad Kellogg’s came out with these

  • Nature’s Bakery Fig Bars

  • Peanut Butter Filled Cliff Bars

After lunch we continued on down the trail. There are these grasshoppers in this area that make a high pitched buzzing sound when they take off and now that we have heard a rattlesnake rattle the two sound very similar. Needless to say, Amanda was very on edge for the warmer part of the day when these guys get to be really active. The trail continued to wind down to the mouth of a canyon we had climbed into, which amplified the heat, before it set us down into a wide open valley. This was the Rockhouse Basin through which the South Fork of the Kern River flowed, and it was flowing. We heard it before we saw it but eventually the trail drew up beside the swolen river where we found Izzy and UK Sam (Trip Hazard) chilling in some bushes nearby. 

We broke here for lunch, quickly finding the horse flies to be an absolute menace. I walked down to filter water. I have a new method where I stand on the squeeze bag lightly to get the water flowing through the filter and then finish off by rolling the squeeze bag up to pressure the rest of the water out - it’s lazy but it seems to work. After I had filtered out about 2 liters for both Amanda and I, I returned to find Izzy gearing up to leave. Trip Hazard was going to stick around till about 1:30. Amanda and I had some more snacks - Amanda is going to actually finish net positive on food for this segment and gave me some of her snacks. I had my last Homestyle Rice Crispy treat and we started packing up. 

The trail paralleled the Kern Riverall the way back to Kennedy Meadows, sometimes getting closer and other times winding away from it. The path meandered for a while and it wasn’t long before we saw Izzy’s tell tale silver sun-brella off in the desert. We caught up to her and passed as she paused for a break - it was hot and all Izzy said was “I’m so f***ing done with the desert.” We laughed and agreed before pressing on. It’s a sentiment we are all feeling as we close in on Kennedy Meadows. You have been fun desert but it's time for something new and I can see that new something off in the distance every day now. 

The path went up and down for a bit before passing through the west side of private property. We passed through two more gates and Sherman Pass Road came into view where we could see cars coming and going and weekend warriors setting up for the long 4th of July weekend. 

We reached the road and stopped for a while. We hadn’t really thought of what to do once we got here. Trip Hazard had mentioned a shuttle but we had no idea what times it came and there was virtually no service in Kennedy Meadows. Feeling a little let down that there was no massive procession of hundreds of people clapping for our momentous ascent out of the desert we begrudgingly began walking the road. Just as we were about to start complaining about tarmak trudging, a guy in a green Danger Ranger (Ford Ranger) came swinging around the bend. We threw our thumbs up in desperation and asked if we could get a lift. English was not the driver's first language but we were able to battle through a few misunderstandings to tell him we wanted to go to the General Store. He smiled and told us to hop into the bed of the truck. We thanked him profusely and jumped in and he took us the extra mile into the general store. 

We arrived at the General Store, which slightly larger than a gas station convenience mart. We found a large party in progress upon arrival. Eveidently there had been a 4th of July tractor parade and a band had been set up to perform on the back deck of the store. I got a beer and a Gatorade and Amanda got a Gatorade. I put my name down for the packages I was expecting to receive there. The clerk smiled and said it would be about 45 minutes to check for them. We relaxed in a side yard away from the music with some other hikers and enjoyed our drinks and the free Wi-Fi service. The small town tractor parade after party was quite a wild affair. There was a drunkenly officiated wedding at one point and one old lady walking around asking personal questions to the foreign hikers which I’m pretty sure they didn’t understand. Eventually Izzy showed up and we clapped for her before I went in to get my packages. There were 6 of them because REI had decided to send everything in separate packages as well as one large one from my parents with the snowshoes. Amanad and I considered getting some dinner but decided to wait for later in the evening. Just before 6 pm about 7 of us hikers, including Trip Hazard, Izzy, Aspen and Chicken Feed Backpack Man (Dumor) went down to the edge of the road expecting a shuttle from Grumpy Bear’s bar and grill. While the General Store might be where many hikers resupply, Grumpy Bear’s is where many of them stay the night and they run a shuttle from the trailhead to the bar, stopping at the General store to pick up anyone that might want to come spend some money at their establishment. The problem was that 6 o’clock came and went and no shuttle showed up. At around 6:30, Amanda spotted a big Dodge truck come into the parking lot and suggested we go ask if they could take us into Grumpy Bears. I walked over to the truck and offered 20 dollars to the guy, which he gladly accepted, and we all piled into the bed. 

The truck drove us 10 minutes (about 3 miles) down the road and deposited us in front of Grumpy Bears. We went inside and an overwhelmed bartender looked at us and said “Ok, we’re doing this out on the deck.”  Out on the deck the bartender gave us a long spiel about what went and didn’t go and gave us all wristbands before delivering some final, devastating news. “The owners and staff got crushed today given the festivities and shut the kitchen down early to take the afternoon off. I’m not even getting paid to be here, just volunteering to run the bar. Sorry but not sorry.” I immediately looked at Amanda to see her crestfallen face before asking “Will the kitchen be re-open for breakfast?” He confirmed that it would be and there would be all the pancakes we could eat at that time. So, instead of eating i got some more beers and ice cream and we sat out on the deck the rest of the night chatting with all the other hikers. At this point we have been hiking with the same people for more or less the last 2 weeks and know everyone pretty well which is nice. I wasn’t sure how long that was going to take to happen but happy to have a little crew now. I did some blogging and Amanda played some games with a newer group we were less familiar with. Around 11 pm we turned in - Amanda leaving a little earlier to go set up the tent and i follow a little after. I had had so much fun catching up with everyone I forgot to shower - that and Amanda had started using my other pair of pants today because her brand new SmartWool leggings had ripped holes all along the inner thigh in under 5 days. My baggies were the only things that offered any protection from chafing so, i had no clean pants to change into. 

I grabbed my things and left, saying goodnight to the few people still on the deck. Leaving the bar, I walked along a road back to the campground where I searched for Amanda’s tent spot, finally finding it. I set down my things and hopped into bed relishing our achievement of finally making it out of the desert.