Day 50

(Originally written Tuesday, June 23)

I'm finally and officially in the Sierras! And the first day, while good, was a bit disappointing. Not because of the scenery, which was beautiful, especially when compared to what I had been hiking in. I guess it couldn't possibly live up to the hype on the first day. But considering I should be at the top of Mt. Whitney before the end of the week, I expect that the scenery and views will only get better! First off, we left this morning around 7 and spent the entire morning without shade while we walked through the rest of Kennedy Meadows and then hit a section that had been burned in a wildfire. Then we walked through Beck's Meadow--which was enormous--and Monache Meadow where we recrossed the South Fork of the Kern River and stopped for lunch. It would have been fun to drop a line in the water there because there were several decent-sized trout there. After lunch we continued on for another 7 miles (we had already hiked 14 before lunch) and camped early at a nice spot just 100 yards from a small creek. Of course, that meant the mosquitos were a pain, but everything is a trade-off. In the desert, the bugs weren't bad, there were no bears, but you had to haul a bunch of water. In the Sierras, you've got water, but you've also got mosquitos and bears to be mindful of.

Mercifully, my pack wasn't as heavy as I was anticipating for this stretch, and today was the heaviest it will be through Central California. I'm packing 10 days worth of food in a bear(proof) canister and another bag that I'm hanging from a tree. The idea is that if they get my food in the tree, I'll still have plenty to get to an exit point for an unscheduled resupply. But from what I hear (knock on wood), the most active area for bears is Yosemite, which is still a ways away.

So the plan for tomorrow and Thursday is 20ish miles per day, which will get us to the Mt. Whitney summit trail from Crabtree Meadows. We'll attempt to tackle that on Friday, and then it is back to the PCT, which will have enough challenges of its own, including 13,000'+ Forester Pass--the highest point on the PCT.