June 9, 2012.
Day: 16 Daily Miles: 35.75 Total Miles: 704.75 Hours Hiking: 20 6:35am-6:05am
Listen to the audio journal above or Download June 9th Audio File Here
Day 16
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| Entering the Kennedy Meadows Campground. |
June 9th, Day 16. I traveled
35.75 miles today. Stopped at 0398170E 3990588N In the Kennedy
Meadows campground. Today wasn't an exceptionally wonderful day. I
had to hustle to make the Kennedy Meadows store by 5 o'clock, which I
did, but just barely! I literally got there at like 5:02pm. Which on
Saturdays I guess they are open a little bit later to like 5:30 or
so. But I made it regardless. The last about 8 miles I had to just
really focus, I took half a caffeine pill and just went. I was like
'this is what I trained for, 10 miles in 2.5 hours'. I woke up a
little later than I wanted to which made it so I had to really hustle
at the end of the day. Within a couple minutes of camp, there were
fresh bear tracks on trail covering other peoples footprints, so
there was a bear real close. There was a lot more up than I remember,
mostly in the section where I camped between the Spanish Needle
Creeks, well all the way to Kennedy Meadows really. It was fairly
warm, well hot almost. I believe my watch said 85 degrees and when
you're in a burn area and you're going up hill and there is no
breeze, its a sweat factory. But regardless, I made it, nothing too
exciting really, just trying to go fast and actually make it. The
coolest part about the day was when I got to the store – my main
goal was to get there so I wouldn't have to wait
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| The flats after Kennedy Meadows store. |
around for my
packages until the morning. I got to the store, asked for my packages
and the women said that 'your parents had picked them up and they are
down at the campground at site 34'. I was like 'really?? wow! Thats a
surprise!' I had said I would be arriving probably sometime on the
9th. They were looking to try and meet up with me, and I
said I might arrive late, so I may have to wait around until the next
morning to get my packages. So I guess they put two and two together
and were like 'we'll grab his packages for him in case he is late'. I
bought a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream of Half Baked, found the
log book, went out to the picnic tables, chatted with some people,
signed in, had them sign my witness log, ate my ice cream and
literally didn't spend more than an half hour at Kennedy Meadows
store before I took off again. They were actually having a community
pot-luck, $5 donation and you could eat a whole ton
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| The feet after 700 miles. Yes my legs are that dirty. |
of food. It was a
good little stop, one of those that I wish I could have stayed longer
because I know there were a ton of hikers there still, I only say
maybe about 20 hanging out on the porch or down at Mikes. O'well I'll
pass plenty of them up in the Sierras. The last few days they have
been busy with hikers leaving. I went and found my parents about 3
miles down the trail. I got a shower out of the camper, got some
laundry done, repacked. They had picked up 2 other hikers, Ben and Jeff. We had dinner, trail magic style. I ate a bunch. They knew from
2009 what thru-hikers want. And, I actually got to sleep on kind of
a bed, which was amazing. It's probably the only time for the whole
time I'm on trail that I will get to sleep on something other than my
1/2” x 33” pad. So I had a good night, woke up this morning, had
all my stuff ready and am ready to go.
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| The ridge just before dropping down to the Kern River and then ~ 8 miles to Kennedy Meadows. |
