KMS – Ridgecrest – Day 121 – Mon Oct 23rd

Day 121 – Mon Oct 23rd
Kennedy Meadows General Store (off trail)
1951.8
Approx. 0ft ascent 0ft descent
Zero Miles

Today we had planned to get back on trial. The best laid plans n all!

We started the day waking up leisurely as our damp clothes needed some much needed sunlight to completely dry.
I sat on a chair outside the tent whilst Sarah slept, trying to finish editing the few days’ worth of blog entries. Although after a while my hands soon became cold and numb.

The rest of the crew had opted for an early start and were heading down to the outfitters, which really we should have done first (as we later found out).
Suzie rustled up a breakfast and we all sat on the deck in the sunshine. It was a lovely relaxed morning and I can’t remember when we felt this chilled. I think getting up to date on the blog really helped take the pressure off.

We then packed up and grabbed an 2nd beautiful almost hot shower. We should have then been good to go back on the trail, or so you would have thought.

We just needed to go to Triple Crown Outfitters (TCO) next to Grumpy Bears retreat to pick up some meals and last minute supplies that we weren’t able to get from the store.

After walking about a mile we managed to get a hitch from a guy called Rick in a sand buggy.
He was a local and knew exactly where to take us.
We both couldn’t believe that the dog end cigarettes on his dashboard didn’t fly off in the wind as the vehicle was an open cab design and he wasn’t messing about driving us there either!

We passed lots of off the grid style properties buried non the desert shrub land. Some of them looked very fancy and some at the opposite end of the scale. We both questioned what it would be like to live in a place like this.

We arrived at Grumpy’s which was a very quirky looking run down establishment.

The bar was set up for Halloween with a spooky looking silver skeleton model, greeting us as soon as we walked in and decorations across the bar.

The outfitters was next door and was made up of just a couple of shipping container units.
There was meant to be a walkie talkie radio for you to call ahead and contact the owner. We couldn’t find it anywhere and it appeared that the place had closed at lunchtime.
We later found out that “French Colin” had told the owner in the morning that he thought no more hikers were passing through today, which probably didn’t help our plight.

We headed back to Grumpy’s and had a pizza and a beer and whilst we were waiting a couple of locals made some calls and tried to contact the owner to try and help us out.
I think it’s fair to say that people enjoy a drink or five around here, but everyone seemed very friendly and helpful.
We met an English guy that had built a cabin out here that worked installing solar panels.
He said when the winter hits and you can’t go anywhere you just have to throw another log on the fire an fix up a cocktail.

Luckily we managed to pick up of dehydrated meals that were on display behind the bar, which were the last remaining. These kind of meals have a very long expiration date so we should be ok.
We then road walked the 3 miles back to the general store. We made a pact that if they were still open then we would stay another night. And stay we did.

Suzie was once again very accommodating and said it would be no problem for us to stay another night. There was another lady on the porch called Kari + she would drop by some trail magic later for us if we were lucky.

We pitched our tent in a more sheltered spot this time nestled between the trees.

Harry the Brit biker was also still there and had got his motorbike sorted as a weld had gone on his panier / luggage rack.
He had been travelling round the US on a motorbike for the last few months with a pal. Arriving in the US with nothing and sourcing a bike which was impressive and there was a decent overlap in what we were both doing + we had lots in common.

Kari then pulled up in her car shouting “Sarah and Fletch” and dropped off some delicious pasta, accompanied with a waldorth salad and garlic bread.
Harry had been raiding the hiker box for food so we couldn’t exclude him from this banquet.
I called him back to join us for dinner. It was delish and there was easily enough for the 3 of us.
Once again. Many thanks Kari!

I am now sitting on the deck outside the store in the dark writing this. Harry has been playing his Ukulele and singing from his hammock camp site buried in the trees and scrub.
It was a great end to the day and we definitely made the right call to stick around.

Sarah has also been in cahoots with Osprey as her backpack suspension system has failed. They have agreed to send a new pack out which is amazing as the current pack is not supporting the weight correctly. Unfortunately, it will take too long to deliver to our next stop which is at Ridgecrest, instead Sarah has opted for Tehachapi – 135.5 miles away.

Tomorrow we will aim to get an early start as we are playing catch up again.
My knee hasn’t been great, so if anything this extra day hopefully should have helped.
Sarah also hasn’t mentioned anything about her feet so hopefully we should be in good shape for the trail.

We were also able to get rid of our bear canisters at KMS as they are no longer required heading south. We paid Suzie for the collection of our plastic friends and said our farewells. I think its fair to say that we will not miss those extra 3lbs of weight!

There was a measuring scale outside on the deck so we took the opportunity to check the weight of our packs including 2 litres water, 3-4 days worth of food and other consumables such as gas etc.

The weight of my pack chimed in at 34lbs and Sarah’s was 32. Water normally weighs 2lbs per litre and each day of food normally weighs 2.2lb per day.

During the Sierras sections, our food consumption almost doubled, taking our pack weight closer to 40lbs or over.

Hopefully this gives you an idea of how much weight we were carrying and how important every gram or ounze becomes when doing a thru-hike.

Not having to carrying as much food or water obviously makes day hiking more attractive, but you never seem to get the same feeling of remoteness and being out there as you do with a thru-hike.