Kennedy Meadows - Bishop

I am so behind with my updates here that I am going to breeze through the last section of the desert and jump right into recounting the start of the sierra! A quick recap for the final days of the desert: I reminisced on the days spent in the sun, soaking hot and swollen feet in rare creeks, and planning our mileage around the sun and siestas. I said goodbye to the desert flowers that I became so aquainted with, and I bid a happy farewell to the tremendously heavy 5 to 6 liter water carries. Goodbye water caches and rationing, I’m headed to the MOUNTAINS! The desert will always have a special place in my heart for bringing me some best buds, for being the place where I learned to through hike, and for teaching me strength, resiliency and perseverance through the elements and emotions of this experience. 

When we hit the road to Kennedy Meadows, we turned a new leaf in our hike. A whole section down!!! Feeling proud of how far we’ve come, and anxious to see what awaits us in the mountains above. 

We got our first truck bed hitch into Kennedy Meadows, which is just a mountain town with a few homes, a general store and a diner like eatery where the hikers gather for days on the porch, do their laundry (hopefully in the machines, maybe in the sinks?) and camp together in masses in the back. It’s awesome to be with everyone at the same time- not separated by hotels and lodging and resupply timing. We were all on the porch for 48 hours straight, welcoming all new hikers who walked in with an energetic clap and cheers. I got to see some friends I hadn’t seen since the first weeks of my hike, and meet many folks who have been ahead of me. We celebrated my friend Diva’s 27th birthday, and changed out our gear for the snow! 

Kennedy Meadows was a very cheap version of an adult day camp: we sang, ate all our meals together, and ate ice cream and played cards on the porch. 

We hiked out after a zero day on the porch, and immediately our terrain was totally novel. We crossed rivers and walked into the forest. Our temperatures fell and I started wearing my down pants at night. This section held our first big mountain passes, so we decided to take it easy and decrease our mileage to get acclimated to the elevation. 

I don’t hate these views!!!! Or waking up to the sunrise over the mountains or spitting my toothpaste off of cliffs or washing my hair daily in alpine streams or planning our mileage around when we’d get to jump in alpine lakes. I’m stoked to be here! 

Mt. Whitney is the tallest point in the lower 48 of the US, and although not technically on the PCT, it is just a short side trail away so many through hikers plan to summit in this stretch. I’ve never summoned Whitney, so my group’s plan was to do so! We timed it with many of the folks we were hiking around to do a sunrise hike up the mountain to enjoy the views and have a cool crisp hike up and back down.

Unfortunately, I got quite sick on approach day and couldn’t make it to base camp. Some unknown GI bug got the best of my hiking bubble and many folks became sick and had to get off trail. I was fortunate to have some folks around me that were extremely compassionate and loyal and helped me continue on. It was an odd dichotomy- feeling so sick that I wanted to lay down and cry (which I did, multiple times) but being in the most beautiful section of the trail so far. Beauuuutiful misery. I knew that this was likely to happen at some point on the trail and I am grateful that I was able to navigate it safe and sound. I can’t express how amazing it is to hike around friends who are so vehemently committed to each others safety, wellbeing and happiness that they’ll give up their own Whitney summit to make sure you’re okay??? I’m lucky, lucky lucky to be here and to experience this extremely unique comeaderie and friendship. 

It took me all the way until Bishop to feel 100%, but after 24 hours I was back to walking my normal miles (and spent some time nursing others back to health as well). 

Because our mileage is lower in the mountains, I’ve gotten to spend more time with all the folks out here- with less miles to walk every day, we’re far less spread out and are often camping and hiking near each other. We got to have some campfires and a whole afternoon at Chicken Spring Lake together! 

Forrester Pass, the first sierra pass and the highest point in the PCT, was our big day this section. We woke up early to make it up the switch backs and glissaded (slid on our butts, like sledding!) through the slushy snow on the way down. 

I spent that night at a beautiful cliffside campsite alone to get some quiet time in the woods. My camp neighbor needed to borrow my fuel, and he gave me a salmon stick in return- such a treat! I made a warm cocao, had my salmon stick as an appetizer as my mushroom pot pie dehydrated, played some Maggie Rogers and felt right where I was supposed to be. 

I woke up the next morning at 5AM to hike out to Bishop, our next resupply stop. The hike out is over Kearsarge Pass, 7.5 non PCT miles that take you around Bullfrog lake and up and over switch backs that overlook the 395. It was a chilly morning and it started snow flurrying unexpectedly. I got to walk through a perfect snowy morning and didn’t see another soul until I hit the pass! Easily my favorite morning so far.
 

This section has held my favorite and least favorite days on the trail, the best and worst I’ve felt out here. It made me fall in love with the trail all over again in such a new light. I am far more grateful than usual to be heading back to trail and to the trees and soil and creeks that now feel like home. We’re headed to the hardest passes on the PCT, hoping that this enthusiasm sticks :)) see ya soon!