Sayonara SoCal!
34 miles wipes you out. It was a pretty tough getting going this morning, but that's all part of the mental challenge and growth. If you can put one foot in front of the other, you'll pick it up again.
One thing that made us laugh this morning had to do with the morning ritual. Dad was showing me where he had done the deed and we realized he had almost dropped a bomb right on the trail! Too funny, so obviously mine wasn't much further away.
As we climbed out of the canyon my mood definitely deteriorated. I was short on sleep and water from the night before, but most of all I was short on energy. Not enough food put back was leading into full-blown hanger. It was about to reach a boiling point when we ran into "third" (from the day before) at the top of the ridge. I was ready for a snide encounter when he simply remarked on how beautiful it was where we are. He also went on to tell us about how he's going to have to leave the trail for a few days to visit his grandfather in the hospital. Damn. We're all people working through our own lives and problems. The power of perspective hit me incredibly hard once again.
At lunch today we wasted quite of time by going up into Chimney Creek Campground in search of promised water spigot. We wandered around the abandoned grounds until we grabbed a much needed and re-energizing lunch.
With spirits on the up, we cranked through the rest of our day. We met more thru-hikers on our way down the endless contours into Rockhouse Basin. As we drifted off to sleep in the dried up riverbed, surrounded by reeds next to us and high ridges in the distance, we truly felt like we're knocking on the Sierra door.
BOOM BOOM. Short little 10 miler today heading into Kennedy Meadows. The terrain was beautiful and rolling, helping us make some great time before the heat started to hit. We hiked through more and bigger trees and boulders, really feeling more like the Sierras.
As we were getting closer and closer to Kennedy Meadows we kept trying to guess which building the General Store was...until we were informed we passed it. "You guys skipping Kennedy Meadows too?" Oh. Uuhhh no. So we doubled back and hit the road back up to the store.
As we crossed the parking lot and made our way up to the store, a raucous cheer and applause broke out. People who had been fixing packs turned to join those on the deck who started the celebration. It was undoubtedly one of the coolest feelings of the trip so far (even though everyone gets this treatment) to be celebrated by the community to reach this major milestone. It was also a blast to pay it forward to every new hiker coming in!
We were about to grab snacks in the store when somebody told us the truck to Grumpy's was outside, so we dropped the chips and ran outside with fantasies of all-you-can-eat breakfast in our heads.
The food at Grumpy's did not disappoint - a plate of eggs, potatoes, and a couple bacon strips was followed by the biggest pancake I have ever seen. The grumpy part also lived up to the name, kind of off-putting service and scolding for using the advertised free wi-fi for anything but the absolute minimum definitely tainted the experience.
We got back and spent the rest of the day relaxing. Had some iced teas out on the front bench and shot the shit with whoever walked by. Around 4 we forced down some burgers and beers (2 total) before the snack shack closed up. After that we spent the early evening relaxing up in our tent area by the giant teepee while the party really cranked up down at the deck. As fun as it would have been to join, I had way too much journaling to catch up on and did not want to be hung over that next morning for mom and Jenn.
As a beautiful, nearly full moon rose above Kennedy Meadows, we settled fully into our wall-flower roles. We watched the revelers with great entertainment and our conversation moved once again to deeper topics. After all this I fell asleep surprisingly well to the sounds of a nearby ukelele and harmonica jam session. Not a bad way to say good-bye to Southern California.
