Wed. August 17          Miles today: 20.4         Total so far: 1,638.5             Sierras Section G

Well, we should have put up the tarp last night, because we woke up to a clear, chilly, DEW-Y morning.  The tops of our sleeping bags were soaking wet!  Oh well, we could dry them at lunch time.  So off we went, very excited, under cloudless (hooray!) skies, and it wasn’t far to the South Sierra Wilderness boundary.  “Oh boy, this is it!” I thought to myself.  First off was a climb to the hiker bridge over the Kern River, which was roaring quite furiously.  Bill was impressed with the enormous I-beams supporting the bridge.  I was impressed with how deep and fast the water was, and started being a bit worried about the bridgeLESS river crossings that lay ahead of us.

Awhile later, as we travelled through a forested area, we found several miles of trail were just hopping with dozens of tiny frogs!  They were everywhere, and it was really hard not to step on them.  We had to slow down a bit in order to avoid squishing a frog.  Meanwhile, we were discussing our bear can situation and hoping the horsepackers would be able to help us out.  Then surprise–who should we meet but a PCT SOBO, headed for Kennedy Meadows.  He told us that from there, he would head back north to do Oregon and Washington.  And he said there were MORE “Sobos” behind him.  After we’d all headed out our separate ways, I suddenly thought, “Sobos don’t need their bear cans anymore!   Maybe….hmmm!”  Sure enough, half an hour later, along came a PCT Sobo girl.  “This may sound crazy,” I said to her, “but would you consider selling us your bear can?”  She lit up like a Christmas tree with joy and relief, and couldn’t get the can out of her pack fast enough!  For a second, we almost thought she was going to pay US to take it off her hands.  We knew the cans were worth $70-80 new, but she said $20 was plenty.  What a deal!  Then along came her girlfriend, who was equally thrilled to get rid of HER heavy can.  The cans really are a pain–heavy, bulky, awkward and annoying.  So now we were all fixed up with a bear can each–nowhere near enough to hold all our food, but enough to avoid ranger fines.  I thought our packs were horribly heavy before, but now, mine was so heavy and awkward with the bear can in it, that Bill had to help me get it on.  But despite the heavy weight, we fervently thanked God for providing us clueless, unprepared thruhikers with a bear can each, at just the right time, with no need to hike offtrail to the horsepackers.  It was AGAIN His perfect timing that we have seen over and over again on this trail!

Hiking on, we reached pretty Beck Meadow and had our first view of real High Sierra peaks.  In the meadow, there was a lot of evidence of cows, and finally we spotted them, looking very glossy, fat, and happy!  Thee was a cowboy camp on the far side of the meadow, while the PCT stayed on the opposite edge, winding around next to the forest.  Finally we reached the bridge over the South Fork of the Kern River, and found a warning sign that the river water was not safe to drink, thanks to the cows.  No problem–there were plenty of streams ahead of us.  But the river was so pretty that we stopped to rest a bit and had fun watching the swallows that were nesting under the bridge and the many trout that were hanging out in the water below. 

Then we pushed on for a late lunch at the next “good water” creek, followed by a climb up into Cow Canyon.  The guidebook warned that the many cow paths there made it difficult at times to follow the PCT.  No kidding!  Again we found ourselves “beating around” trying to locate the trail.  What made it especially hard was that our packs were so ghastly heavy, and we were basically trying to go UPhill.  Finally I told Bill that if he would guard the packs, I would go “trail-hunting”. (Usually I am good at this, and I did succeed this time, too.)  Running around with no pack was way easier, and finally I located a trail junction and a PCT emblem.  Hooray!  I ran back to Bill, and we were on our way again.  The PCT here was occasionally marked with carved and painted posts–I wish there were a LOT MORE of them!   And I was frustrated by the delay.  We had hoped to get in pretty decent miles today.

The rest of the day was up, up, up, often through areas that were green and pretty, but it did get tiresome having to push through all those plants.  We hiked as long as we could, up to a 10,540 foot elevation forested saddle, where we had to stop because the sun was almost gone.  As quickly as we could, we prepared for a COLD night, and wished we’d done better mileage.  It was a tough trail, plus we had to deal with the frogs and with being lost.  One of the PCT Sobos we met today warned us that the Sierrras were by far the toughest part of the PCT.  I figured we were beginning to get a taste of that.  But like a bright shining light of encouragement even though we were tremendously tired was the way the Lord had provided the bear cans for us.  We were VERY grateful!

Tues. August 16        Miles today: 5.5       Total so far: 1,615.9        Sierras Section G

Bill and I slept like logs last night, and boy, did we need the sleep!  The alarm went off in the predawn dark at 5:00 am, but we just couldn’t drag ourselves up till 5:30.  Yawn!  Then off we went into a very pretty morning with “popcorn clouds” in the sky above Kennedy Meadows, happily anticipating the food, showers, etc. that were ahead of us at The Store.

But soon we were in difficulty.  The big gullywasher, violent storm we went through on Sunday night had made for BIG runoff everywhere in the valley.  Since the soil is basically gritty/sandy stuff, there was no way for us to tell which “washout path” was just that, and which was PCT.  There were no posts or markers to indicate the way.  We lost the trail completely once, and had to spend quite a while beating around and backtracking before we could find it again.  “There oughta be more PCT posts around here!” we grumbled.  We were amazed, though, at how many people LIVED around the area.  There were little houses, trailers and barns everywhere we looked. 

Then I really messed up.  I knew that we would come to a road on which we should turn right to get to the Kennedy Meadows store.  But when we reached the road, for some dumb reason, I thought it was a different road, and that the NEXT one would lead to the store.  So instead of turning off the trail as we should have, we kept going…and going…and going, without crossing any other road.  Finally I realized something was wrong, we stopped and studied the map, and we figured out our mistake.  It looked like the shortest way back would NOT be to take the PCT, but to walk on another road that paralleled it.  So back we went, and hooray, we hadn’t even walked far on the other dirt road, when along came a pickup truck, the driver offered us a ride, and finally, there it was–the PCT-famous Kennedy Meadows Store!

Somewhat holding our breaths when we asked for our resupply box, we breathed a great sigh of relief when there it was!  Wheeeew!  And it was FULL of food–enough for 8 days of hiking through the High Sierras.  Opening it was like Christmas Day, with lots of goodies!  After a “second breakfast” of pastries and coffee, I headed for the rustic outdoor showers.  For $2, the Store supplies soap, shampoo, and a towel.  Man did it feel good to be CLEAN!  I felt energized again!  Now it was laundry time, and since there’s only a generator for electricity, it was once again a “solar dryer” just like at Stehekin!  While the laundry dried, Bill and I ate and ate from the great hamburger stand on the deck by the store.  They let you “run a tab”, which is awesome, and saves so much bother with lots of individual transactions.   The food was great–freshly barbequed burgers and chicken, iced tea, rootbeer floats, chili with cheese….you get the idea!   I also did a lot of journal-writing, sorted food, and we looked very carefully through all our gear to see if there were any things we could send home to save on packweight.  One item Bill decided to send home was our water filter; I was rather worried about doing that, but it does weigh 14 oz, and that would help.

I must say that Kennedy Meadows is a great place.  Some hikers call it “the vortex” because it’s hard to leave.  The Store pretty much has everything you could need (except bear cans–more on that later!), and for me, the gardenerperson, I got my “flower fix” looking at the pretty flowers out front.  The store has a large porch with plenty of chairs and tables, plus a railing to air sleeping bags. We’ve heard that at times there could be 20 or more thruhikers hanging out here on the porch.  There’s also an outdoor movie theater, where they show a movie every Saturday night, alternating old black and white films (like Tom Mix cowboy movies) with “modern” ones–next Saturday they were going to feature “Shanghai Knights”.  On the fun & furry side of the store were Wilhelm the dog, who is an ARTIST at begging for tidbits from hamburger stand customers, and Katz, the gray tabbycat who wants lots of petting, and kept lying down on top of my papers where I was trying to write.  But the “dark” furry critters are there, too, apparently.  Last Saturday night, after everyone had gone home to bed after the movie, a BEAR broke into the theater popcorn stand and ate all the popcorn, then it went and ripped apart the back door of the store, and ate a package of hot dog buns, some cookies, and a large amount of bird seed!  The solution?   By the back door of the store, stood a large bear TRAP, baited with hot dog buns and tuna.  So far no luck catching the bear, but there has apparently been a lot of joking about coming out some morning to find a trapped, hungry PCT thruhiker!  The teasing comes from the colorful group of “locals” who hang out on the front porch.  Bill had fun sitting with them for awhile, and he fit right into the group, with his bushy beard and well-worn clothes!

Overall, we had a GREAT time during our day at the store.  It’s very well organized for hiker needs, everybody is cheerful, friendly and helpful–BUT…..to our huge dismay, they had no bear cans for sale, or for rent.  We had assumed that since this is such a “jumping off place” for Sierra travel, that there’d be a whole stack of bear cans available.  No such luck.  Apparently thruhikers are expected to MAIL their own bear can to the store, not buy one there.  We were not one bit worried about bears, and would normally just sleep with our food if we had any real “bear concerns”, but what worried us was the thought of rangers on the trail dishing out a $270 fine to each of us for not having a bear can.  We went and talked to the bushy-bearded locals on the front porch to get some advice on what to do, and they said, “Why there’s a horsepacker outfit at Horseshoe Meadows; y’all just talk to them and I’ll bet they’d sell you a couplea bear cans.  They’ve gotta carry those darn things, too, y’know.”  Somewhat reassured, we went off to get a final round of ice cream, then hoisted packs (Oh MAN!  The packs were ghastly heavy!!!) and walked back to the PCT, then north to the campground, where we carefully hung our food bags WAY high and out of bear reach.  The 8 days of food were so heavy, that we could barely manage to haul the bags up.    It was a beautiful, warm, clear evening, so we just “crashed” and didn’t bother to put up the tarp.  I was very excited at the thought , “Tomorrow, the real thing begins–into the High Sierras!”