6:00am. Gotta pee. Nothing was moving in camp. Just 10 minutes later Intruder was up and packing. Then Mountain Goat started packing. Time to get up and get going. All three of us packed up and were walking together at 6:20am. That 1000 foot climb that we would have done late last evening went by quickly, and we kept hiking another 1500 feet up to just over 8000 feet through a significant burned area. The entire Dome Wilderness area was burned in 2000, thanks to a careless human. We hiked gradually down for several miles, finally reaching a gorgeous valley floor with a beautiful stream running through the center. Time for lunch! All three of us were famished and we each cooked a dinner, then polished off all remaining food in our packs. Salt and Pepper, section hiking the PCT, introduced themselves and joined us under the tree, which provided some shade despite being very dead and very charred from the fire.
Soon we were back on the trail together, hiking and talking. The conversation between me and Intruder was deep, meaningful, and it was obvious we connected very quickly and became fast friends. I already had developed a lot of respect for Mountain Goat, a super friendly guy with strong Christian values and strong convictions about his beliefs. The miles flew by as the three of us discussed a wide range of topics. Before we knew it we were at the paved road leading to Kennedy Meadows General Store, .7 miles off the PCT.
Just before 3pm we arrived at this rustic remote store which is powered by a generator. I went straight to the freezer for a pint of Ben and Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk and a six pack of St. Pauli Girl. No sooner had we arrived when a trail angel (Ray) offered us a ride (3 miles) to the Kennedy Meadows campground where Meadow Ed had set up for feeding the hikers, and we would be camping. We were reunited with more hikers than I can list here, and I quickly found a place to set up the tarptent to call home for a couple of nights. Hikers and Meadow Ed and Ray were busy preparing dinner for all of us as I unpacked my gear and studied my new crampons, which had arrived via UPS.
At 6pm dinner was ready. We feasted on penne pasta with three kinds of sauce, garlic bread, salad, sodas, and beer. I was assigned to clean up crew in the dishes line, which was a lot of fun, working side by side with thru-hiker friends. A nice campfire was blazing and there were many evening hours of hiker talk and laughter and late evening readings of Meadow Ed’s poetry and trail stories of the PCT. I was happy to officially be out of Southern California, to be past the 700 mile mark, and to really be in the Sierras where it will begin to really be beautiful, green, forested, and snowy. I spent some evening time journaling before rejoining the fun at the campfire, then retiring for the evening.
Today’s weather: sunny. Low 34, high 75. Today’s mileage: 21.5, cumulative mileage: 702.8.
