Day 119 Sat Oct 21st
Tent site near Death Canyon Creek – Kennedy Meadows Camp
1923.2 – 1949.4
Approx. 2812 ft ascent 5620 ft descent
26.2 Miles
We woke up to the Coyote chorus as I was boiling water for our breakfast this morning
We’re not sure whether they’re celebrating the onset of the morning sun or perhaps one of the pack has returned with the meal? Either way it’s quite entertaining listening to them howling as dawn breaks.
It was another cold night and ice formed on our tent as we packed it away.
Sarah woke up a couple of times last night saying that she felt the cold.
My left knee (the one with the torn meniscus) has been sore for the last few days.
I’m not sure whether it was the rock hopping and scrambling involved in climbing Mount Whitney, or whether it’s the sand that we’ve been walking through. Either way it’s sore,m which is a concern and has been hurting at night as well as when I am hiking.
We have one more sharp up to do this morning which will hopefully warm us up.
Both our hands and feet are freezing and numb. I’m walking with my trekking poles stashed behind my neck like a samurai, with my hands stashed underneath my arms. Let’s hope this uphill does the trick and we get warm soon.
Despite the cold it’s a beautiful morning. Frost has formed in the meadows and the sun is low and breaking through the trees casting light onto the mountains.
We walk through fields of sage and yellowing red currant bushes. This is followed by fields of bright vibrant green Manzanita bushes.
All of this vegetation is a welcome change to the granite rock we’ve experienced during the Sierras.
We take a short break before getting to the top and Sarah switches out of her leggings. I joke her legs are so well tanned that it’s almost like they don’t belong to her as her midriff is still lily white. It offers quite the contrast to say the least + she needs to work in the evening out her tan when we hit the desert.
The 4.5 mile climb was soon over and it wasn’t long before we were on our way down to Kennedy Meadows South (KMS).
As soon as we started to descend we were rewarded with epic views of a very green lush
looking basin below with patches of pine trees and grassy shrubland.
We have 22 miles to go to get to KMS. That’s still quite a lot to cover in 1 day, but it’s downhill baby and we have got our town legs on.
Wishful thinking I know but maybe we could call ahead to let them know we might be there late. So maybe they can leave the store open or some food, or a six pack of beers waiting for us?
We’ve also heard good things about the store owner rustling up a lasagna dinner for hikers before so you never know.
We just have to see where our legs can carry us. Although there’s no point aggravating my knee problem and Sarah’s foot issue just to get a couple of beers.
We descend through a maze of Sandy drainage channels aligned with sage and woody scratchy shrubs that snag and catch against our legs as you walk through.
Our friend Sonic had told us about how one of his friends had been bitten by a snake. Its fangs had narrowly missed puncturing her skin and only punctured her trail runner.
We’ve only seen 1 small rattlesnake just before Sierra City. Although the trail conditions were similar to this. Sandy and rocky with the trail was lined with shrubby plants with plenty of places for snakes to hide.
We will have to be careful about where we place our feet and pay a little more attention moving forward.
We follow Cow Creek as it winds its way down the mountain. Towards the bottom we reach a meadow that we’d seen from high above. Realising that they’re made up of desert shrubby plants including sages and a number of other species.
Vibrant shades of green and yellow line the landscape out in front of us which are very pleasing to the eye.
We put our sun umbrellas up on the way down as there is definitely an increase in temperature.
We’ve dropped from or over 10,500 to 8,000 ft and by the end of the day we’ll be slammed down to 6,000 feet.
We have 15 miles remaining and the time now is 14:00 so we’re making very good progres. Although we’ve got 1 small up before the home stretch down to KMS.
We stop at the Kern River before crossing a bridge and completing the final up.
The river is crystal clear meandering through the valley. Whilst waiting for Sarah I used the opportunity to explore some of the pools and rapids and catch a reasonable size brown trout.
As we leave the river and complete the last climb we see even more signs of the desert in the form of spiky green cacti. This is getting exciting!
It’s 17:30 pm we’ve got a little over 8 miles to go, then we would have nearly completed 30 miles today. Although there is no chance of us making it before they close.
Sarah is keen to push on even though we still have no signal and we can’t get hold of the owner.
It will be nice to have a full day off tomorrow, so we are going to try and get as close as possible.
This is still a transitional zone and we are not in full phat desert yet.
It is not at all flat and we are weaving our way down through beige coloured mountains covered in vegetation ranging from pastel green shades through to bright vibrant yellow colours. It’s very pretty!
We even started to hear the evening chorus of crickets which is something we haven’t heard in a long time. Maybe even since Burney.
In the sand on the trail there are footprints of some kind of bird. It looks almost like a chicken + I think they could have been made by a Roadrunner (as per the cartoon roadrunner and the coyote). From what I understand they live in this type of desert environment.
The air is full of birdsong, insects chirping and bees buzzing. It appears that there’s a healthy ecosystem here and we wonder what other animal species we might be lucky enough to see.
On our way down we bumped into a German chap that was going up to Whitney portal. He told us that snow is expected as early as Monday and Sarah and I both feel grateful that we’ve
escaped the Sierras by the skin of our teeth.
As we dropped further we passed a group of hunters that were hiking up the mountain in the dark to get a good spot to try and shoot a Mule deer in the early hours.
Surprisingly it wasn’t anywhere near as cold as previous nights. We found wearing our puffy jackets was just too warm!
As we switched out of them a shooting star moved across the sky lasting at least 10 seconds. Sarah missed it, but I made a wish.
With high hopes to get to Kennedy Meadows South we pushed on as far as our legs could carry us.
In the end we pulled into Kennedy Meadows campground at around 20:30, which was approx 3.5 miles shy of where we had planned.
However after 26.5 miles today we felt that was more than enough and we would easily do the remainder tomorrow before the store even opened.
Kennedy Meadows South is an iconic spot along the PCT. For northbound hikers it signifies that you’ve finished the desert section. And for us sobos it is the end of the Sierras and the start of the final desert section.
The place has a good vibe and by all accounts hikers are welcomed in with an applause by other hikers that may be already sitting on the deck.
Arriving in the daylight made a lot more sense for the red carpet to be rolled out for us, rather than arriving in the pitch black.
Last night the tent had suffered quite a bit of condensation and we forgot to dry it out in the lunchtime sun.
However, setting it up with all the doors open seemed to do the trick and it soon dried in the cold evening breeze.
The campground was busy as it was hunting season but we managed to find a decent spot
with the picnic table. It was novel eating at a table for a change rather than sitting on our bear canisters or snuggled up in the tent.
On tonight’s menu was an old forgotten favourite of chicken and mash with gravy. It went down a treat!
Our plan is to get up tomorrow early and hike the remaining 3.5 miles to Kennedy Meadows South general store or hopefully we can grab some form of breakfast.
Then we’ll spend the rest of the day chilling and relaxing after 6 hard days on the trail + we both can’t wait to put our feet up. Especially after the amount of downhill over the last few days our knees could do with a break.
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