*these posts are coming straight from trail, I apologize in advance for typos!*
Location: The Desert
Start: Spanish Needle Creek – 669.9
End: Fox Mill Spring – 684.3
Miles: 14.4
Ascent: 3575 | Descent: 2146
Sleep: Tent
What an easy and lovely day! It got super crowded at the campsite last night, easily over 20 people. Thankfully it was quiet and I slept good. I was glad we put up the tent because the bugs were really bad, Gooey and U-Turn even ended up setting up a tent because they were getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. There were a lot of mice at the campsite and I heard them scurrying around all night, but they didn’t mess with our food.
Our big hill for the day was immediately outside of camp. We got up around 5 and Truffles and I were on trail just before 7am. Our group was the last to leave camp, which is wild to me! The climb was gradual but got us up to elevation quickly. The views were beautiful the further we climbed and we got a good look at the granite mountain tops as we got higher.
Truffles and I hiked together for the majority of the morning and talked on and off. Mornings are my favorite because it’s still cool, everything seems still and quiet. I feel like I do my best thinking in the mornings, too, and today I was day dreaming about hiking in the Smokies. Truffles and I talked about the Smokies a bunch and I don’t feel homesick, but I’m excited to be home in a few months. Mainly I’m excited to be back in the Green Tunnel just because it’s such a different landscape compared to what we’ve been seeing. I think Washington may be similar to the east coast, though, so I’m looking forward to that.
We made it to the climb in good time and passed a bunch of people taking a break at the first campsite just south of the top of the hill. I have decided I hate passing people, and even though I hike faster than most of the people we’ve been around I always feel bad coming up on someone and expecting them to move out of my way. When I saw all the people congregating at the campsite I sled up just so that they’d all be behind me.
My effort was in vain, however, because once I reached the top of the mountain I took a long break to enjoy the view with Truffles, Hangman, and Pinky. We sat in the shade for nearly 45 minutes before we got rolling again. Our plan was to make it to the Chimney Creek Camp for lunch and then to just do a couple more miles to camp by a water source before pushing into Kennedy Meadows South tomorrow.
I put in a podcast to help the descent go by faster. I think I get more bored going downhill so I liked the distraction. We had heard rumors that there was trail magic happening for Memorial Day at the campground so I was cautiously optimistic as the campground grew closer.
I caught up to Poppins and Turkey about a half a mile from the campground and they were looking at a sign. The sign was detailing the trail magic happening at the campground all weekend! We didn’t need further encouragement and all but ran to the campground where we were greeted by No-Hawk and his friends grilling hot dogs and handing out cold drinks. Apparently the group gets together every year to do trail magic in memory of their friend and hiking partner Strider. What a wonderful way to pay tribute to their friend!
There were two big easy up tents set up with a bunch of lawn chairs. It felt so good to sit down and kick our feet to for a while. There were lots of hikers around, many of whom I didn’t know or even recognize. We did reconnect with the Israeli couple Noah and Navid and spent a long time talking to them. We also hung out with Tracks and Silver Lining a bunch, plus we got to talk to Night Bird and Old Spice when they showed up.
We were happy with our trail magic lunch and planned to spend the rest of the afternoon just hanging out. Some of the trail angels went out to get more beer with promises of stew for dinner if we’d just stick around. It wasn’t hard to convince us to continue relaxing and chit chatting. The trail angels delivered on their promises and fed us a delicious “hobo stew” for dinner made from all the leftovers from the weekend’s festivities.
It was a real challenge to pack up and leave the trial magic, especially because No-Hawk was so kind and all but begged us to camp with them for coffee in the morning. We wanted to try and keep our hike into Kennedy Meadows under 20 miles, so we knew we had to go a little further. We said farewell and started hiking uphill. We only wanted to do about 2 more miles to get some of the climb out of the way. We hiked for less than an hour and made it to the water source with plenty of camping around the spring. We set up camp quickly and got to go straight to bed since we’d already been fed dinner. 700 miles and Kennedy Meadows tomorrow, what a big milestone day!
Location: High Sierra
Start: Fox Mill Spring – 684.3
End: Kennedy Meadows South – 703.4
Miles: 19.1
Ascent: 2698 | Descent: 3230
Sleep: Tent
What a big milestone day! We woke up around 5am and did the normal morning routine before getting on trail around 6:30am. The campsite that we stayed in was large and lovely, albeit kind of on a hill. We learned from yesterday’s trail angel, No-Hawk, that the area was heavily minded until the 1930s. He recommended that we not stay at the campsite because of potentially mercury in the water, but we didn’t see any concerning comments on FarOut and slept there and drank the water anyway. There was a ton of artifacts from the mining era, though, like lots of old rusted tubing and large bits of mangled metal.
Our only big climb of the day was in the morning right out of camp. We had pushed to the campsite last night in order to shorten the climb this morning. We had about 4 miles of a gentle uphill that would gain about 2500’. It was much more mild than I expected and I absolutely flew up the hill!
Truffles caught me near the top and when we crested the ridge we got a clear view of the snow capped peaks of the Sierra! We pulled out PeakFinder and were able to identify Mount Whitney. Road Runner caught up to us at the top and we hiked the next several miles together. She is probably in her late 40s or 50s and is from VA and also did the AT in 2021! We didn’t know her then but clicked instantly. The hours and miles flew by as the 3 of us chatted until we made it to the water source.
These last few days have been so nice because our water sources have been actual flowing creeks. What a stark contrast to the stagnant pools and water caches we had been relying on. This water source was a small flowing creek with some shade to sit under. It didn’t take long for Gooey, U-Turn, Pinky, and Hangman to arrive. We filtered water and set off with less than 9 miles to town.
Truffles and I hiked together for the rest of the day. The trail flattened out and we cruised over the easy terrain. We made it to Sherman Pass road around 1:30pm but knew we wanted to wait for our whole group to walk into Kennedy Meadows together. We found a spot in the shade to sit and wait. It took a while, but by 3pm our group had assembled and we started the brief road walk up to the general store.
We had to walk just under a mile to the store, during which we passed the iconic Kennedy Meadows sign. I have seen so many photos of the road sign and to actually be there felt surreal. We took our photos and continued on our way.
The tradition when arriving to the general store is for everyone on the porch to cheer when hikers walk in on the road. We turned the corner and cheers erupted, they even had a cow bell to ring enthusiastically! There were probably close to 50 people milling about on the porch and even more spread out all over the property.
We put our packs down and sat waiting anxiously waiting for the grill to reopen. The staff at the general store were working so hard and it was just a handful of people trying to serve a humongous crowd. It took a really long time to get to order and even longer to get our food, but I was so excited to finally get my burger! I got “the farmer” which was a whole pound of ground beef. It was delicious (or maybe I was just starving).
We didn’t do much the rest of the day, just sat in the porch hanging out and cheering when new people hiked up. There was a ton of room for tenting on the property so we set up our tents when we were done socializing. The only downside to the general store is the fact that the WiFi is horrible so it was frustrating to try and get any work done on my phone. What a silly thing to be aggravated by, but after not having signal for days on end I wanted to make updates and check in with folks. Looking forward to resting tomorrow!
Location: High Sierra
Start: Kennedy Meadows South – 703.4
End: Kennedy Meadows South – 703.4
Miles: 0.0
Sleep: Tent
Today was a pretty low mental day for me. This journal entry will likely sound very whiny and negative, but that’s the headspace I’m currently in. It was a zero and typically those are relaxed with a little stress around doing things like town chores, but overall good. All day I felt a gnawing anxiety about a variety of things: entering the Sierra, the extra weight of a bear can and ice axe, using said ice axe, what our resupply strategy will look like through the Sierra, the list goes on and on.
This anxiety was perpetuated by the fact that I didn’t feel like we were able to do our town chores on our own terms. The restaurant at the general store was so busy that it took hours to get food, and the actual store itself was overrun with packages and they couldn’t sort through them fast enough to get people their mail. There was a single flushing toilet on the property and 2 showers and 2 washing machines. The WiFi was also basically non existent so that was a cherry on top. I knew Kennedy Meadows wasn’t going to be a bustling town, but I expected more leisure to do things as I wanted.
I felt like we spent the entire morning waiting for breakfast and then the early afternoon waiting in line to shower and do laundry. A bright spot was that 4/5 of Truffles and I’s packages got delivered and we were able to pick up the important things like our ice axes and bear cans. Truffles also got new shoes and I got a new battery bank and my replacement Garmin. The only thing that was delivered but they weren’t able to find was my care package from The Trek…
We spent the afternoon trying to shower and do laundry while also making plans as a group for our Sierra resupply strategy. We ultimately decided to bite the bullet and carry 7 days of food from Kennedy Meadows to Kearsarge Pass. Throughout all the chores and logistical conversations, I was trying to use the shitty WiFi to activate my new garmin to no avail. Also during this time, other hikers began telling us about the “impending storm” and “cold snap” that would be hitting within the next few days. We are currently in a heat advisory but within the next 3-4 days the lows are going to be in the teens. Add another thing to be anxious about to my list…
At 2pm our group caught the shuttle from the general store over to Grumpy’s. We went to check out Triple Crown Outfitters which again was much different than my expectations. I thought it would be a building or store front, but it was just a store age container packed to the gills with resupply stuff. I will say I was very impressed with their selection and use of space, especially given how small the area was they had to work with. There was a lot of weird posts of the various Facebook pages about TKO mainly centering around the owner, Yogi. Some people said she was lovely and other folks called her “a parasite on the PCT”. We had a fine experience there and don’t have any weird interactions with Yogi or the staff, they all were very nice and helpful for us.
Once we were finished resupplying we walked over to Grumpy’s which was a bar/grill and “campground”. Again there is weird tension between Grumpy’s and the general store, other hikers said you would be treated differently if you disclosed you were staying at the general store instead of Grumpy’s. We were just there to eat and use the WiFi and we didn’t have any negative interactions with the staff.
Thankfully the WiFi at Grumpy’s was much better and we decided to take the 7pm shuttle back to the general store instead of the 5pm just so that we could have more time on the WiFi before going into the Sierra where supposedly there is no signal.
We arrived back at the general store and Truffles and I decided to go ahead and put all our food in our bear cans. Fitting 7 days worth of food into a bear can felt impossible, but thankfully Truffles helped me and was able to get everything to fit.
As I’m typing this in the tent before I fall asleep, I feel really silly for being so upset all day. Nothing actually went wrong, there were just minor inconveniences and logistics to sort through. I think I am on edge because I’m so nervous about the Sierra and the cold weather, so these little added stressors just piled up all day and put me in a shitty mood. I am so grateful to be leaving tomorrow because being here has made me feel almost claustrophobic. I am sad to say that I will not have fond memories of Kennedy Meadows. Ready to get hiking again tomorrow, but stressed I’ll either get hypothermia or slide off a mountain.
