Kennedy Meadows ‘Into the Mountains We Go!’ — PCT 2017: A Hiking Story [16]

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Day 49 (16/05) – Kennedy Meadows

The previous night’s camp at Kennedy Meadows was freezing. If I hadn’t been huddled up to Rex, we’d both be cold. The cuddles were becoming a necessity for me to stay warm! There was frost on both the tents and the ground, with further condensation inside the tent… and we hadn’t even made it into the high mountains yet!

After getting up, we all went to Grumpy Bear Café for breakfast. A pancake, with additional eggs, bacon, and potatoes on the side. Some people tried to order more than one pancake, but the lady said they wouldn’t need more than one. We soon found out why… they were the size of a dinner plate! Even larger, with at least two inches hanging over the plate. It was the largest meal I’ve ever eaten in my life, and I felt like a bloated balloon afterwards. They earned their tip from me, that’s for sure!

We returned to the general store where we were camped, and began sorting out food and packing it into our new heavy bear canisters. These were required for the next section in the Sierras legally, to avoid bears raiding hikers for human food – I was OK with this!

After packing my food, I ended up playing two games of chess against Rubberball and Swim – a game I rarely get to play. Then began the task of sorting the gear out from the packages I received there at the Kennedy Meadows general store (the gear I had posted forward, including my bounce bucket). I remember seeing the (relatively new) pair of boots I had bought in Patagonia in the bucket. But, I had decided they were just too small for me, and left them on a table with a ‘FREE’ sign – my contribution to trail magic, I guess. An hour later and I saw Mellow the hiker wearing them and thanking me immensely as his shoes were in bad shape! Glad to help out another big foot hiker!

Some of us ended up going back to Grumpy’s later in the afternoon, and we ate there along with some drinks. I got a pulled pork burger with cheese fries. We were pretty drunk by this point, and some of us even started dancing to the tunes.

After returning again to the campsite, Rex and I decided that it was pointless packing two two-person tents (that we each had). We shipped her Big Agnes Copper Spur 2 forward, so we could use my MSR Hubba Hubba (it was slightly bigger). It meant we only had to carry half the tent each – a big trade-off since we had snow gear and a bear canister now as additional heavy items.

With another awesome sunset, we joined in the campfire conversation. Here, about ten of us were passing around a pipe of weed, getting a small buzz, and then we all headed to bed feeling relaxed.

Day 50 (17/05) – Bear Canisters

Thankfully, this night wasn’t as cold for once, and packing up wasn’t as hard. We (Rex, Corky, Echo, Swim and myself) left the campground and re-joined the PCT. A lot of hikers here in Kennedy Meadows had made other plans, such as flip-flopping (heading north and heading southbound to avoid the high snow), and some even took a break from the trail with the challenging condition ahead. However, many of us embraced the challenge, and pushed forward, including most people I knew well.

We were finally heading into the Sierra Nevada mountains…. FINALLY! We still had two days until we hit snow, yet, it was still on our minds. ‘How would we do in these new conditions?’ I thought to myself. We were confident about San Jacinto all those weeks ago in the snow, but this was a lot more than one small range.

Swim took off ahead, as he usually does, but the rest of us stuck together. We ascended most of the way and, after walking through a meadow-like valley, at last we could see the snow-covered Sierras in the distance.

We followed the Kern River (the same river we had seen previously before Kennedy Meadows) most of the first part of the day, which set up a change from the dry desert we had been used to seeing. It was pumping with the flow!

We camped quite early at a nice spot next to a smaller stream called Cow Creek. This small creek was running hard and fast, though only a metre wide. By now, we were all hungry, and making 4pm dinners. The bear canisters came in useful for one thing, though – seats!

It chilled off quickly, and we retreated to our tents for warmth. Before we did, we put our bear canisters behind a tree in the distance, so we didn’t get mauled. The idea is, you camp far from your food in a bear can and any scraps where you cooked/cleaned that may have been left behind (though shouldn’t be any). Some people ‘hang’ their food to keep out of reach of bears, but we were all content with the first method.

Distance hiked: 17 miles (27.36 km)

Total PCT hiked: 719 miles (1,157.12 km)

Day 51 (18/05) – Snow skiing!

I had a restless sleep, but we did go to bed early. Early in the morning, I retrieved our bear canisters, and we made coffee and breakfast before packing up. I remember Rex struggling to open her bear can, “Why is this soooo hard!” as she attempted to do the awkward manoeuvre to twist the lid off. Bear cans are tough to open – you have to kind of hug the can and push in on a tab, twisting the lid, all at the same time.

Rex, Corky and I were a little slower than Echo, Pirate and Cel (a new hiker to us) to our agreed-upon leaving time, but not too late. We all agreed on a campsite prior to leaving anyway.

We had camped at about 9000 feet (2743m) elevation last night, and today, we were to reach over 10000 feet (3048m) – putting us in the snow line. We hiked through patchy snow pine forest before eventually hitting the big snow, which covered almost everything by now. It was great to be back in the snow again! We didn’t need our microspikes in the early morning hours, as it was still cold and firm. Our trail runners were all brand new and had good traction for the easy.

We were a little disappointed that Echo had sped off again, particularly since we hadn’t hiked with him for long since we all reunited, but the three of us (Rex, Corky and myself) hiked close by together. In the desert, we’d often break apart at different paces, but the snow kept us together and is also much safer when we were all looking out for one another.

We had to constantly check our apps to figure out the direction to go due to the trail being hidden. At one point, due to poor navigation, we had misjudged a ridge and went the wrong way briefly before correcting our route. As long as we checked our apps regularly, correcting the course is easy, “I’m getting far more confident in this”, I thought to myself.

Eventually, after reaching the highest point of the day (and seeing a spectacular view of the Sierra Nevada mountain range), we started downhill towards Gomez Meadow. There was a point of marked switchbacks, but we decided the best plan of attack was to throw ourselves down the snowy slope on our arses, and slide down. This was extremely fun, and we all had a blast! We also ‘skied’ down, using our poles and sliding on our feet.

When we got back down to 9000 feet (2.74 km) elevation, the snow here was patchy again, and we removed our spikes and pushed the last 5 miles to the campsite.

When we arrived at the campsite, we found Pirate and Cel camping on the opposite side of the stream (Dry Creek), but no sign of Echo – we think he had pushed on further.

We gathered firewood, made a fire, and cooked dinner. I made a spicy ramen and potato mash combination – really filling and delicious. We chilled by the fire for a good hour, filtered some water by the stream, and then went to our tents to relax and sleep.

Distance hiked: 12 miles (19.31 km)

Total PCT hiked: 731 miles (1,176.43 km)

Next Post:

Part 17 ‘Off to Lone Pine’

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