The Kennedy Meadows Shuffle

June 4, 2010

Mile 702 Kennedy Meadows General Store

Justin and I looked at each other and smiled after being dropped off at the trail by our friend Doug, a septic cleaner with a Mack truck, on a cool Tuesday evening. The loud rumble of the truck and the rushing wind from the rolled down windows overwhelmed our senses. The conversation with Doug entailed screaming in order to hear each other intermixed with the grinding of the trucks gears as it chugged up the hillside taking us back to the trail at Walker Pass from Lake Isabella.  We thanked Doug for the ride, as well as Gatorade he gave each of us, and waved as he honked the mighty air-horn and drove off into the distance. As the sun set behind the grand mountains surrounding us, we stood in silence before laughing at our unexpected, amazing ride. What a way to feel alive!  It was way past our bedtime (around 8:30pm), so we climbed about a quarter mile up the trail before finding a nice flat spot in the sandy, sagebrush terrain. We relaxed listening to the distant chirps of crickets and smiled knowing only 50 miles to Kennedy Meadows, the start of THE Sierra Nevada.

It was not until morning that we realized Justin’s sun hat was still hanging out in Doug’s truck. There is no way to hide from the harsh sun down south, especially when you hike all day in it, so Justin immediately began constructing a hat out of two green sapling sticks formed in an X using lashings and a bandana (Good ol’ Eagle Scout!). I giggled the entire 50 miles to Kennedy Meadows watching him walk in his new head attire. But boy did he need it. We assumed hiking to Kennedy Meadows would be in a terrain of Pine forests… but that was far from the truth.

We started out with a 2,000 ft ascent which immediately rolled back down about 2,000 ft before climbing another 1,00o ft up and down. After enjoying an early 4pm dinner at a tiny little trickling waterfall (water has still been hard to come by), we charged up another 2,000 ft ascent (4 miles in an 1hr 15min) and then another 3 or so miles before sleeping on a ridge at 7,500 ft tucked away in pines. We had gone a little over 24 miles with over 5,000ft elevation gain. And it felt awesome! We are realizing how much stronger we are at hiking. Our pace is also speeding up!

Thursday was a little bit rougher than Wednesday. Even though there was less elevation gain and loss, we found ourselves hiking through miles and miles of burned forests which meant zero shade. The sun really beats it out of you. But we still made it another 22 miles before settling down next to the South Fork of the Kern River, the most water we had seen in a long time, and it was moving so swiftly!

This morning we hiked into Kennedy Meadows excited to see what presents awaited us! My wonderful mother sent us delicious beef jerky (which will be our main muscle repair unit in the Sierra), snickers (those will go quick!), a hat she knit for Justin which is incredible with velcro flaps!, a NEW TENT!!, and tons of Mountain House dehydrated meals! Whoooo hoooo! We are lucky! My Aunt Rosanna also sent us som delicious coconut juice, chocolate soy milk, chocolate peanut butter packets, fruit leathers, and dried plantains! It has definitely been Christmas in Kennedy Meadows.

We are so lucky they sent us these amazing gifts because we unfortunately did not receive our re-supply package here with our ice axes, bear canister, and food for the Sierra. We sent it parcel post over two weeks ago, but the US Postal Service does not seem to know where it is presently. We have heard stories of folks waiting for weeks for their boxes to arrive and we are not able to do so. At first, Justin and I took turns panicking about the situation before calling my mother who helped us figure out that we could order new equipment and have it sent to the last place you can leave the trail for a while, Lone Pine. But we still did not like having to dish out extra cash and re route ourselves… and then the trail magic shuffle began!

Our hiker buddy Colter, who we met this last 50 mile stretch of the trail, has chosen to go up to Ashland and then hike South from there to Kennedy Meadows before completing the trail North again from Ashland. He had his bear canister and ice axe sent here, but since he changed his plans, he is letting us use them! We will carry his ice axe (which Justin will use) and his bear canister to Tuolumne Meadows and leave them at a post office for him. The Kennedy Meadows General store happens to have a spare ice axe around my size which was left by a previous hiker, and they are letting me use it as well. The only other issues were food and maps. Lo and behold we meet Jellybean, a thru-hiker from 2009, who is in the middle of a move and just happened to be visiting the Kennedy Meadows General store to hang with thruhikers from this year. She had a printer/copier in her car and our friends Tiff and Aaron let us copy their maps using her machine! Insane!!!! We have figured now with all the terrific food we received from family and these great gifts of trail magic that we will be able to continue our original plan of hiking through to Kearsarge pass, about an 8 day voyage to Onion Valley. We are still hoping the package will arrive tommorow, and my mom, Deb, has purchased and sent ice-axes and a new canister to Lone Pine as back-up, should we decide to exit.  We are still baffled how all of this worked out!

Now that we showered, done some laundry, and updated our blog and photos, we shall have a full days rest tomorrow before setting out on our Sierra journey.

~ Melissa