Day 68: Lake Kinney – Beautiful views all day

Miles traveled: 24.1

Mile marker: 1074.2

“My store!” Luxy tells me as I curl up on a rock and stuff my face with an ultra-processed bear claw (which, if you didn’t know, is filled with almond paste). “Last night my tent fell on me!” she continues. “A great gust of wind came and knocked him down!”

Bedrock is not the best place for tents.

It took us a while to get going and everything is uphill. It’s barely six o’clock when we arrive at a beautiful view of tall, thin trees backed by distant mountains and the morning sun.

As the hike continues, a giant rock fortress borders the sandy trail.

Today is a day of views! Only twenty minutes have passed when the road opens onto a beautiful field with the mountains to the right. I feel like I should be a puppy frolicking down this path. Bright pink wildflowers line my walk. A deep blue lake is just behind the trees, down the hill.

We are all grouped in the trees when the conversation of ‘Who smells worse’ arises.

I’m not sure how this happened, but soon everyone is sniffing their armpits to figure out who smells the most.

Surprisingly, it’s Rafiki.

If this is an armpit competition, this may be true. If it is a general competition, that cannot be right.

Luxy and Voyager win first place for smelling the best.

Our path soon turns back to sandy dirt and we walk among jagged gray rocks that resemble something similar to Mordor. The rocks are lumpy, like a gray-skinned cave villain covered in warts.

The landscape is so vast that all I see around me are mountains with trees dotted with spots. The trail crosses the hill in front of me. This is a ridge hike.

We have lunch at a river, where we slowly shrink between trees leaning with pine needles to avoid the sun; today it is strong.

I rinse off in the river, which is kind of pointless since I’ll just get dirty later. It’s been a dusty road so far.

Rafiki ‘discreetly’ reaches his hand towards me and steals my Twix chocolate bar.

«I know a magic trick,» Rafiki says. Voyager and I watch as he waves his arm a dozen times until the Twix appears out of his sleeve. «Magic!» he says. “It appeared out of nowhere!”

Then he reaches behind my ear and pulls out the Twix bar. «Amazing!» he says.

Very smart.

Behind us, Luxy says, «Okay, guys. I’m going to try an Almond Joy.»

Luxy has been rating the chocolate bars. Kennedy Meadows North didn’t have the most diverse resupply options, so we all have interesting food in our bear cans.

Luxy’s is a bunch of chocolate bars.

He takes a bite of the chocolate bar and chews it.

“Mmm,” she says. «I give it a nine or ten. It’s almost as good as a Twix. I like coconut.»

Wow! A nine or a ten? That’s a high rating!

We finished lunch and continued walking.

The air is filled with the stinking smell of sulfur. It gets stronger as we walk, and soon I’m standing over what looks like some kind of water drain. It smells so bad that Bumper gags. Luxy wrinkles her nose as she approaches.

This is another log hike. The bumper slides very slowly on it. I’m impatient while he moves. How long does it take to slide on a log?

«This is really slippery!» Rafiki says as he steps on the log. It is a white, barkless trunk that is tilted dramatically downward.

Uploading this wouldn’t be so bad.

Going down? Good luck, Rafiki.

Take a couple of steps. He staggers and then quickly runs the rest of the way. Climb the second trunk and reach dry land.

My turn.

I step on the trunk.

“Should I slide or walk?” —I say as I run my foot along the crust to test it.

It slides like a cold hand down a wall.

«Get!» Rafiki and Bumper say.

I straddle the log and begin my descent.

The beginning is scary. I’m pushing hard with my legs so I don’t roll face down and fall into the pool water. The crust is hot too! It burns my legs, but I won’t let it go.

I put my hands on the trunk and lift my body, bringing my hips closer to my hands. I inch along this path for a few turns until I find a knot. I pause, think, and then place my leg between the knot and the rest of the branch. I rise above the knot.

Oh. The hard part is behind us!

I’m nearing the end when I dig my trekking poles into the ground. I step my leg over the trunk, avoiding getting my feet wet, and climb up.

I did it!

Voyager is next and takes a few minutes. Towards the end, I awkwardly grab his backpack. I’m about to give her back her trekking poles when Rafiki and Luxy come up to me to offer their hands and help her complete the rest of the trail.

That was a tough question!

Luxy found a better way to cross.

We continue forward. In the next river, we all got our shirts wet. Luxy and Rafiki are overheating, so Rafiki takes a deep, brave breath and falls on all fours into the river.

«Cold!» he screams before completely melting underwater.

He stands up, dripping with water.

That’s one way to cool off!

It’s another five miles or so to camp. We advance through fields and sloping terrain. I push hard up the hill. Voyager catches up with Rafiki and me.

We walked through a giant double gate filled with burned and broken trees. I pass and enter a different room. The trees are white and burned. Immediately a breeze blows over us. The color of the room changes from gold to cold blue.

This is disturbing! What just happened?

We wander along the path of trash and dust. There was so much dust today that I could even feel it in my mouth at one point.

Soon we will be at our camp. The others will join us shortly. We wash in the river, as our toes are dark brown from the dust.

Our long day is over and it’s time to get some sleep!