Day 38 June 13, 2017

• Daily mileage 22
• Total mileage 698
• Hours hiked from 5:15 am to 2:00 pm

Goodbye SoCal desert, hello Sierra.

My patch on the air pad last night worked like a hot damn.  No getting up every two hours to re-inflate.  Subsequently I had a great sleep.  Got up and at it by my desired 5:15 am.  First thing was a 2,500 foot climb.  I have been on this trail long enough to know that the PCT never makes these climbs all that difficult, but this one was ridiculously easy. Sort of like the SoCal desert was saying to me:

"OK, I am going to give you an easy send off. You hiked through some hot days, slept through some cold nights and hiked through a couple of crazy windy days. You did not incite any off my rattlers to strike you. You did not complain (that much) when I sent insects your way for two hot muggy days.  You packed enough water for my long dry sections.  You endured long stretches of mundane scenery with little complaint.  You put up with one of the worst waitresses ever in Agua Dolce. You avoided, for the most part, my cute little pet called Poodle Dog Bush.  You limited contact with all my cacti and other prickly plants. I reward you with a very easy last 22 miles in my realm.  But do not revel in your glory too long Silver Fox. For now I pass you onto my sister the Sierra.  And she is going to kick your teeth in.  Just saying."

Or something like that!  Anyway, got to the top of the hill and then made one last descent out of the desert and into the Kern Valley which is officially part of the Sierra! I ate pretty much everything left in my food bag that did not require cooking.  That, along with plentiful water sources made for a very light pack.   

Getting closer to the Sierra   

Last bit of the SoCal desert   

The Kern River

I made it to the Kennedy Meadows General Store by mid afternoon. Before even collecting my packages, I ate a pint of Ben and Gerrys and inhaled a cheeseburger. Then a few of us went to the other restaurant in "town" where I made six tacos disappear. And about a half dozen beers seemed to go missing along the way.  

Entering the metropolis of Kennedy Meadows

Somewhere between the burger and the tacos, I collected my boxes with my Sierra gear and food.  Well, I collected three out of four of them.  My food that I UPS'ed up from Tehachapi was AWOL. There is no cell coverage up here, and with about 100 hikers vying for the lousy Wifi, there was no way to contact UPS to track the box.  So I wandered back into the store to see if I could look for it myself. This time what I would assume to be an owner led me back there, and lo and behold, the first package we looked at was my food box.  So then I could get back to eating and drinking.

OK, so let's talk maps tonight. If any of you are PCT purists, you may notice that I am at mile 698, but all websites etc always refer to KM as being at 703.  That is because I am using an lesser known line of maps called Postholer.  Pretty much everyone else uses Half Miles maps. Now, there are things that I really like about Postholer's maps. They are in a book form, so I just tear out the maps I will need for the day and the rest of them stay organized in my pack.  I have found the elevation graphs to be very accurate. The camping spots marked on the maps are all over the place for accuracy, but nobody else's maps seem any better in that regard.  Where these maps fail is that when everyone else is saying lets meet at such and such a mile for a break, you are not entirely sure where they mean because your maps have different mileages. Also, the all important water report which shows us where all the reliable water sources are use Half Miles mileages. All in all, if I had to do it over, I would have printed off the Half Mile maps rather than going with Postholers. I write all of this just on the off chance that a future PCT hiker stumbles upon this page.