Thursday, May 31, 2012

Day 40-41 - The End Of The Desert

On Tuesday I got a nice wake up call a little after 5:00 in the form of a couple horse trailers pulling into the campground.  They were unloading horses and their dog was barking constantly so I just got up.  About the time I had everything packed though, they put the horses back in the trailer and left.  Everyone else who camped there seemed to go back to sleep.

I tried getting some phone service on Walker Pass just above the campground so I could publish several blog posts, but no luck.  Around mid-morning I stopped for a break and met a hiker named Knute (not sure if that's how he spells it, pronounced Ka-noote).  He saw a small bear just a half-mile or so behind me.  As I walked on I could see some bear tracks on the trail.  It had been walking up the trail, somehow I went by it without seeing it.

I stopped at a spring for a couple hours for lunch.  The spring was flowing well when I got there around 1:30, but by 3:30 it was barely a trickle.  I was surprised how quickly it could slow down during the hot part of the day.

The day started with a climb, with another climb after lunch, ending with several miles of downhill; a fairly nice flow for the day and I ended up doing 30 miles, my first 30-mile day, and longest since doing 27 on day 3.  I reached a creek at the end where I got water and found a beer/soda cache, keeping cool in a crate in the creek.  So I got to have a Coke with my dinner at a little campground nearby.  A 30-mile day, a Coke and a picnic table to cook on made it a good day.

The next day was my last day in Southern California.  It was about 20 miles to a little community called Kennedy Meadows.  I arrived around 6:00, too late to visit the store but just in time to eat some tacos, made by Tom, then some fried chicked made by Dr Sole.  Tomorrow I'll pick up my box of food and other supplies and hopefully my shoes will make it here too.  Planning on at least one zero, maybe two.

2 comments:

  1. What a beautiful view. However does it get monotonous after awhile? Are you looking forward to lakes, pools and streams?

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    1. Areas like these pictures show are pretty nice, could use a lake here and there though. It's the endless rolling hills of sand and sagebrush that I've gotten real tired of. But I'll be up to 10k' or so in a couple days.

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