KMS – Ridgecrest – Day 122 – Tues Oct 24th

Day 122 – Tues Oct 24th
Kennedy Meadows General Store (off trail) – Tent site near top pf Chimney Peak by 1st Dirt road
1951.8 – 1965
Approx. 2301 ft ascent 1211 ft descent
13.9 Miles

So we got sucked into the town vortex once again and didn’t leave the KMS until about lunch time.

Annoyingly for some reason our Verizon phone contract has expired even though when we set it up we asked it to be rolling Sarah deserves an award for her patience and dealing with incompetent person on the end of the line.

We stupidly left KMS without getting any lunch and on the walk back to the trail we kicked ourselves, thinking that we should have grabbed just one last burger.

We also plan to stop again at Walker pass with the aim to get to Ridgecrest which is only 2 days away so we didn’t kick ourselves too hard.

Whilst we were packing up at the general store we were joined by another hiker that had been doing sections of the PCT since 1989 trial name “Bug man” He seemed like a cool dude and said to look him up when we finished the trail at Campo. He even offered to give us a ride back to the airport!

It felt strange being back on trial and the buzz of the Sierra had left us feeling a little flat.
I am sure the magic will return as there will be a whole host of new challenges for the next section, involving scarce water sources as well as dealing with possible rattlesnakes.

The first 3 miles were relatively straightforward walking through a flat basin with only a few ups and downs as we follow the Kern River.

Towards the end of the day we hit a 2500 ft climb spread over 7 miles.
Apart from my dodgy knee which is twinging and strapped up at the moment my breathing is strong and I’m hardly out of breath as we follow the contour lines up and around the mountain.
I think all the high altitude training we did in the Sierras should set us up nicely, as I’m hardly our breath as I record this entry into my phone.
Sarah is also behind me snapping up my heels and she’s also feeling strong which is a good sign.

We wind our way around the mountains gaining elevation from 6000-8500 ft. Here there is evidence of a very old burn and charred tree remains, amongst the established shrubby sage bushes and other spiky looking plants.
Way back in Oregon we had met an English chap that said most of the west coast of the US will eventually turn to desert and / or will be burning, burnt, or in recovery from a burn.
We wondered whether this is just a snapshot of what more recent burns will eventually look like in the circle of life. How long this cycle will take is entirely another matter?

For the last week we’ve been watching the moon grow from a crescent through almost a full moon.
With the light from the full moon we will be able to hike later into the night and / or will benefit from the extra light when we are in camp.

Just under 2 miles from the top of Chimney Peak Sarah clocked a sweet looking campsite and we decided to call it.
My knee was twinging still and my new trail runners seem to let a lot more sand in. This has been causing some additional rubbing and blisters betwix my toes.

On tonight’s menu was a Mountain House chili mac meal. We beefed out a little with a Knore pasta side, which actually turned out pretty well. Despite Sarah’s original reservations.

Things went pretty smoothly tonight and the only incident was hanging our bear line due to the shortage of sturdy trees. In fact, we managed to snap a sizeable branch in doing so which narrowly missed my head.