Sierras – Bishop – KMS Day 120

Day 120 Sun Oct 22nd
Kennedy Meadows Camp – Kennedy Meadows General Store (off trail)
1949.4 – 1951.8
Approx. 217 ft ascent 223 ft descent
3.2 Miles

We woke up late waiting for the warmth of the morning sun + today we could have a lie-in as the store didn’t open until 09:00.

It was nice getting up without freezing hands and feet for a change! We basked in the sun and made some oatmeal and coffee on the picnic bench before heading off.

The campground was noisy last night + some V8 truck owning meathead decided to pull up right by our tent in the early hours, playing loud music with the sound of his engine roaring over the top. Thanks pal.

The hike to KMS was very flat and easy. We followed the footsteps of others in the sand through the meadow of sage and scrubby vegetation.

As we approached the general store we walked past a number of dwellings of people living in the desert. It looks a little mad max to say the least, but it’s interesting to see how people live out here. Properties look shabby and rustic with bits of rusty old car engines or shipping containers lining the ground.

We reach the store to a loud applause from people on the deck and we are excited to be here.
There is another Sobo already here, trail name “Toots Magee” Apparently because he farts a lot on trail.
He had passed us yesterday by the Kern River and had also stayed just shy of the store last night opting to arrive this morning.

Surprisingly there were few other hikers here and JW and Ben and French Colin hadn’t made it in yet.
We met the owner Suzie and she gave us the run down on laundry, showers and resupply.
She had 5 Mini Australian Shepherd dogs that seemed to follow her everywhere and romed freely around the property.

The restaurant also opened at 11:00 so we quickly grabbed a couple of burgers, some fries and onion rings.
We then sorted our laundry, although the washing machine had seen better days!
In fact we had to wash everything twice as the laundry tablet had made a right mess of our clothes.

We pitched our tent out the back amongst the sand and trees and hung a series of washing lines so that we could try and dry our clothes in the dwindling afternoon sun.
It wasn’t long before the other hikers we had passed arrived and we spent a pleasant
afternoon chillaxing and catching up whilst dealing with some blog admin.

There was also a projector screen and amphitheatre out the back which was meant to play films, but unfortunately it wasn’t working.
The place was a little run down and rustic, but it was just nice to be off trail.
The place closed at 17:00 so we grabbed a meal and a 6 pack of beers + bucket of ice.
As evening drew in we sat by our tent amongst the strings of laundry finishing up blog and sorting admin.

The downside to the washing machine saga was that our clothes were still a little damp. So we wrapped essential bits of gear like sleeping bag liners around our bodies to help finish them off.
Having these dry is essential as they help add a lot of extra warmth to help fend off the cold evenings.
We had been told to keep our tent doors zipped up to keep unwanted pests like tarantulas and snakes out. I need to get better at remembering to do this in future + kept forgetting much to Sarah’s disappointment.