Today we made it to Kennedy Meadows!!!!!
After an o.k. nights sleep, Sour Cream, Ben and I hustled out of camp in the dark and marched onward.
We went up and over ridges, saddles and hills. Marched through burn zone after burn zone. Suddenly, we were able to see small glimpses of the high Sierras in the distance. We were able to hike through the heat of the day (for once) and man, was it a long day. We descended for miles upon miles, the desert literally spitting us out into a low, wooded valley. The gateway to the Sierras, yes.
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| Check out the granite mountains in the distance!!!!! |
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| The Kern River - yep, swimming, finally. |
We reached the mighty Kern River at about 2:00pm and had come 22 miles at that point. Wow. My feet were killing me for the first time since mile 200! We jumped in the river for a bit to cool off, but quickly got moving again in order to make it to the Kennedy Meadows Store before it closed! Yogi's guide said something about the store closing at 4:00pm on weekdays so we had that deadline in mind.... We flew.
PASSED MILE 700!!
WE MADE IT! I definitely ran the last few miles to the store, cold drinks on my mind. Ben and Jerry's on my mind. A porch with somewhere to SIT on my mind.
Kennedy Meadows is a key milestone on the Pacific Crest Trail. It is at mile 702 and marks the end of the desert and beginning of the high Sierras. We are officially DONE with Southern California. The PCT is split into 5 sections:
Southern California
Central California (the high Sierras)
Northern California
Oregon
Washington
We have officially reached the 2nd segment of our journey. AND have passed the 1/4 point of the trail. Believe it or not, we are a quarter done!
Kennedy Meadows (or K.M. as I will call it for short) consists of a General Store and some camping. They provide outdoor showers for $3.00 and will do your laundry (first come first served). There is plenty of camping on the property and hikers gather here for at least a zero day (often a few) in order to gear up for the next section of trail. The Sierras are challenging, often require snow gear, and definitely require a bear canister (which we've sent to ourselves in advance - Thank you Jon Ulsh!!)...
We picked up our bear canister, food drop, bounce boxes and care packages and ripped into them. We got on the laundry list, we ate tons of ice cream, tons of food, drank gallons of gatorade... we were happy hikers. It was fun to see so many familiar faces in one place!
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| Scones, Sour Cream, Smiles, Viking, Gummy Bear, Lunchbox, and Dr. Slosh on the porch. |
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| Olenka sent a care package and I almost cried. Portland treats! Look at all the kale chips!!!!!!!! THANK YOU OLENKA! |
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| The front of the K.M. Store. |
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| The back porch where Happy Hour was currently taking place on a Friday evening. |
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| This is Whispers. |
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| This is Lunchbox. We were happy to reunite with him! |
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| Happy Hour and Rocky wearing what they can while they did laundry. |
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| Gummy Bear, Dr. Slosh and Rocky (I have to get used to calling Ben "Rocky") |
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| Games and Reason in their loaner clothes. |
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| I ate about 4 Ben and Jerry's ice creams during my 36 hour stay. |
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| The inside of Kennedy Meadows General Store. |
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| Night falls and we are still all drinking on the porch by the light of the Budweiser sign. |
1 comment:
Thyra (and company)! CONGRATS on making it to the second section of the PCT!!! I have been following your blog religiously and living vicariously through your adventures since you started. What an amazing experience you are all having! Best wishes to you all on your continued trek!
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