On Saturday I elected for a late start. I first had to pack. My food was all divided up; 7 days in the bear can, 2 2-day bags plus a package of tortillas, a few extra packs of ramen, a sausage, 2 bags of jerky, peanut butter, honey and oil. It's more than twice as much food as I had coming out of Mojave, or anywhere else.
I also added some microspikes for hiking in snow and traded out my shoes and socks for new pairs. I already had all the warm clothes I'll need. Many hikers picked up an ice axe, but due to the low snow I decided not to get one.
Now that we'll be in the mountains, water will be much easier to come by. I'll probably only carry a liter at a time, instead of loading up with 3-4 everytime I found water. That will save a lot of weight, but with so much food for this stretch it'll be necessary to not have to carry water.
I got mostly packed and went to the store for biscuits and gravy for beakfast. Afterward I hopped on one of Tom's computers to work on my GPS. I noticed recently that I was only able to see waypoints for the first 1000 miles of the trail. The tracks were showing the trail the whole way but I like having the waypoints to show distances (there's one every half mile). I got the files I needed and should be set for the rest of the trip. Now it also shows water sources, campsites and other points of interest along the trail.
Since it was almost lunchtime I decided to have one last burger at the store before heading out. I weighed my pack before leaving and it's a whopping 57 pounds. The most it's been all trip is maybe 40-45. I staggered out of Kennedy Meadows at around 1:00.
After 10 miles or so the valley I was hiking up got really smokey, must have been a forest fire somewhere nearby.
I hiked about 14 miles before camping at a river with several other hikers. In hindsight it probably wasn't the best place to camp. I woke up during the night, sleeping bag soaked with dew. It the morning it had all frozen, leaving my bag and everything else crusted with frost. Hopefully that's the last time I cowboy camp next to a river.
Now that we'll be in the mountains, water will be much easier to come by. I'll probably only carry a liter at a time, instead of loading up with 3-4 everytime I found water. That will save a lot of weight, but with so much food for this stretch it'll be necessary to not have to carry water.
I got mostly packed and went to the store for biscuits and gravy for beakfast. Afterward I hopped on one of Tom's computers to work on my GPS. I noticed recently that I was only able to see waypoints for the first 1000 miles of the trail. The tracks were showing the trail the whole way but I like having the waypoints to show distances (there's one every half mile). I got the files I needed and should be set for the rest of the trip. Now it also shows water sources, campsites and other points of interest along the trail.
Since it was almost lunchtime I decided to have one last burger at the store before heading out. I weighed my pack before leaving and it's a whopping 57 pounds. The most it's been all trip is maybe 40-45. I staggered out of Kennedy Meadows at around 1:00.
After 10 miles or so the valley I was hiking up got really smokey, must have been a forest fire somewhere nearby.
I thought you were going to say it wasn't the best place to camp because several snakes decided to snuggle up with you. Yikes!
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