Day 41: 700 miles to Kennedy Meadows – we finish the desert!

Miles traveled: 15

Mile marker: 703.4

That afternoon coffee was a bad idea. It’s 2:00 am and I toss and turn on my sleeping mat. The black canvas above me has a billion bright stars on it. The Milky Way projects from one side of the sky to the other. Even when I turn upside down, the bottom of the sky is still full of stars.

At least I have a show while I can’t sleep, plus a slight panic about the rustling in the bushes that inevitably are those pesky kangaroo mice.

5:00 am comes too soon. It’s already daytime outside. Only fifteen miles today! I hurry to pack my things. It’s 5:45 and we’re walking through the overgrown landscape.

The hills shine on the horizon. Shadows highlight the rust-colored rocky terrain. The thin yellow line over the hills fades into light blue.

We walked for a while through rocky terrain. Dad pauses to look at a flower. It is called the flat-bud prickly poppy. It looks like a white daisy with a yellow egg yolk center.

We pass a petrified coyote (I have no idea how it died) and it’s frozen in place like it’s undergone a bad taxidermy job.

Small stones now write ‘700’ in the dirt.

We have traveled 700 miles! Every hundred miles feels like a huge accomplishment!

«There’s a stream we can swim in just ahead!» Dad says as the rest of us drink water from a buggy water fountain. The bumper has also been moved forward.

A moment later, we find Dad’s hiking stick stuck in the ground, a sign indicating where to go.

We walked down to the grassy, ​​overgrown yard to stand on sandy ground.

I take off my shoes and socks and get into the water.

This is cold!

The water tosses me around as I swim, clinging to the moss-covered rocks because the current is so strong.

Soon Luxy Lucie, Savannah, Rafiki and I join Dad, who is sitting on the rock throne with the water running next to him.

I tear off a fist full of moss that looks like grinch hair. I make a ball and throw it to dad. For the moment he has moved away from us.

Savannah joins me. Dad turns his head with a smile on his face. Look away again. I throw the moss at him and it splashes on his back.

This is the beginning of a moss throwing war, in which the four of us unsuccessfully try to hit dad with moss balls and he successfully hits us. I’m the worst target by far.

Rafiki and I floated a little further down the river. The current pulls me with strong arms. I lean on a rock. This change in position now causes everyone to throw moss at Rafiki’s cowboy hat.

Water refreshes us and invigorates the spirit. This is the mark of the end of the desert! Soon we will be in the Sierras. This hot, dusty, dry terrain will soon be behind us.

We get out of the water (Savannah takes me to the base because I can’t walk upstream that well) and continue our hike.

Large rocks now line the path. It’s hotter outside. I remind myself that we’re almost to Kennedy Meadows!

Cheeseburger!

The energy boost from the water has dissipated and I put on some music for the last stretch.

We all walk in line. Luxy Lucie has decided not to listen to anything today. You are trying to give your brain a break from noise and stimulation. He usually listens to music, so this is a challenge.

Luxy Lucie is a beast. His injured knee and illness this week complicated this hike and added an extra layer of challenge.

Despite being sick this week, she kept going. She was flushed, fatigued, and felt terrible, but she kept going.

I’m impressed!

We walked along a long stretch of trail with few bushes scattered across the terrain. We’re in a fishbowl of hills, except behind us is a small wall of trees. The sun hits us as we walk.

I can see the road ahead!

My legs keep spinning until they reach the asphalt!

On hikes like these it is always difficult because we reach our destination, but then we have a long way to the next place.

It’s very quiet here, there are only two shops in town.

As is tradition, we received applause as we walked to the general store. People shout and cheer us on.

The end of the desert! 700 miles! What an incredible trip!

The best part?

We have a long way to go.

This is the end of chapter one.

We proceed to go up to the deck full of hikers. People and their herds are scattered everywhere. New and old faces surround us. There is a small window with a couple of guys working hard to cook burgers. I order a chicken, avocado and bacon sandwich.

At the little store inside I buy a vanilla cream soda and an orange cream soda. My sandwich takes a while to come out. I’m pretty exhausted after this week. We did such great kilometers.

When my sandwich comes out, it’s pretty good! The avocado pasta is salty and the chicken is moist!

Dad and I are going to Two Foot Adventures. They have one of these stores in Julian. When I was there, I regretted not having Maria, the owner, watching my feet.

Mary is a hiker, having hiked the PCT in 2014. She knows what hikers need and works hard to satisfy them. She said that this year many women have had a lot of blisters. He mentioned that this generation of Topo (the trail shoes I use) has been very problematic.

We spent some time trying on shoes. Mary has two draft trailers in which she sells her items.

I call dad for help.

“Good job, Dad,” Mary says to my dad. Mary is a little shorter than me and wears glasses. «Your daughter’s feet look fantastic. Nice and wide. This is the work of twenty years of good shoes.»

I grew up with my dad always taking me shopping for shoes. He believes in the natural shape of the foot that has not been molded by thin shoes. Dad, who had been in the army, had poor shoes. I hate that the military makes such horrible boots.

“Your feet: you know what you need,” Dad says.

I wish he would be more direct in helping me. It’s easy when someone tells you what to do. However, that is not how I will be more confident and capable here. I appreciate your approach to teaching me.

I ended up buying the other Olympus 6 in the male version. My feet are wide, which is good. However, society considers long feet to be elegant compared to my hobbit feet. The Olympus 6 is the previous line of the Olympus. I get them for 30% off!

Savannah’s mother, Terri, drove seven hours to see her daughter! He took us to the next stop: Grumpy’s Bear Resort, a restaurant that allows hikers to camp for free.

We ordered dinner here. I see Rotem It takes a long time for the food to come out because there are so many hikers here! The three of us go to the showers while we wait for our food to come out.

I eat a pizza, pack the rest for lunch tomorrow and walk a quarter mile to set up my tent.

The tent goes up and I go down! I blog for a while, but I soon realize, as I write, that my eyes are closed. I keep writing and the same thing happens.

Well. I’m falling asleep here. I’ll finish this tomorrow, but I’m a day and a half behind on my blogs! Oh ok. We will be here for two days!