Walker Pass to Kennedy Meadows

PCT MILES COMPLETE: 424.5

PCT mile 651.3 to PCT mile 702.2
Section mileage: 50.9
Days: 6/11 - 6/12

At Walker Pass, we were 50 miles from Kennedy Meadows: the start of the Sierras, and (more importantly) the end of the desert. You can hitch 30 miles from Walker Pass into a town, but we had decided back in Mojave that we were going to push on to Kennedy Meadows without stopping. Kennedy Meadows is a "town" of 200 people with just a general store, but they have things that we were extremely excited about: ice cream (me) and beer (Craig). And so we made a plan: hike 50 miles in two days. Remember, we just hiked our first 20 mile day a few days ago, and hiked until 1 am the night before. So this was ambitious.

Topo

There is a long, hot, exposed climb from Walker Pass to Owens Peak (cause that's the way of the desert). We started earlyish, which is to say that we started later than all of the other hikers. We passed Topo, this awesome woman from Missouri we first ran into after Cajon Pass. We passed Dr. Fierce who is hiking with his mom and best friend, Church Lady (three more of our favorites). It's a good thing we had decided to hike through the day, because there wasn't any shade anyways.

Owens Peak

The mountain was gorgeous; it was burnt, but the views into the valley were incredible. You could see way down into the valley, where there were these alien-looking crop circles in a completely arid landscape. As far as we could see, it was sandy brown with the exception of this irrigated landscape. And the craziest part is that that is common practice out here; the Central Valley of California grows much of our country's produce, and it is a DESERT.

The wind was strong and the sun was stronger. The trail led us back down into Joshua tree land, where we ran into some unknown hikers and our friend TinTin. TinTin is one of our favorites - she's this awesome independent woman in her 20s from France. She had gotten off the trail at Walker Pass to go into town to a hospital; the infection from a spider bite was spreading down her arm. She got her trail name because of a spontaneous new haircut that Church Lady gave her at the Saufleys.

Crop circles in the desert

We've climbed another small peak in the now suffocating heat, following the ridge to a glorious spring in the side of the mountain. It was lush with plants and bird life despite being just a trickle; there were even mosquitoes! We made a pot of coffee and set off into dusk to climb yet another peak. By the time we set up camp for the night, we had come 30 miles and climbed 5000 feet.

We woke up early (actually early) the next morning, in eager anticipation of the ice cream and beer we could have if we hiked 21 miles before the store closed at 5 pm. We were expecting a single climb followed by a long descent, but we were not expected a burnt, exposed landscape. All day we were under the relentless sun, which chips away at your motivation and enjoyment of hiking/life. We found shade only once, where we made coffee. We stopped again at the shallow Kern River for a swim, which we'd anticipated nearly as eagerly as Kennedy Meadows.

By the last four miles, however, we were driven to the brink of madness by the sweat pouring down, lack of water, and these bastard deer flies with orange eyes that circled relentlessly. It was endless hills of sage brush, and I swore as creatively as I could at the flies, telling them the horrible things I would do to them and their offspring. There is nothing that I hate more than deer flies. All the while, the sound of cicadas was this deafening SHHHHHH loud enough to drive you mad. We'd been expecting (unfairly, perhaps) that the transition from desert to Sierras would be more dramatic. That we'd round a corner, and there would be a real meadow (grass, not sagebrush) framed by majestic snow-capped mountains. And here we were, still in the desert, hiking in the middle of the day's heat.

And then, finally, we were approaching the store. All of the hikers (DOZENS) started clapping and cheering as we walked up. And the grumpiness dissipated. They had ice cold cans of Squirt! And Ben and Jerrys! And all of our friends, and people we had never met, were there and excited to see us. Kennedy Meadows may not be a meadow, but it was everything else we could have hoped for.