Day 44 Miles 636.5-658

Day 44

Start: 636.5 End: 658.1 Total: 21.6

I woke up around 6:30, relieved to have made it through the night without incident. I laid my sleeping bag in the sun and went to a spot on the trail where I had service to send a couple texts. Sparks was behind me and was alone so I wanted her to be aware of that guy hanging out there.

I packed up in a hurry and got moving. As much as I didn’t want to do that climb the night before, it was so nice to have woken up to it being done. It was pretty windy, foggy and cold for a while but it cleared up 4/5 miles in. The descent was beautiful and wildflowers were springing up everywhere.

I walked along a dirt ATV road for a couple miles until a short side trail that lead to a cabin and spring. It was sunny by the time I got there. My achilles was still killing me. It was fine when I got moving but when I stopped I could really feel it. I took of my shoes and laid some stuff in the sun & hot more water from the spring. I did some journaling inside the cabin as I didn’t want to do it the night before.

I kept going and it was super chill hiking, not much change in elevation. I ran into a couple heading south for a bit of training, FireWoman and Jim Hendrix (not the rockstar). I then began the long descent into Walkers Pass. This is where one could hitch into ridgecrest or Lake Isabella and get more food for the last 40 miles to Kennedy Meadows. This is also a good spot to get off and go somewhere as Ridgecrest has public transport options. I had enough food to make it to Kennedy Meadows so I didn’t need to stop.

I was so hungry on my way down but wanted to get all the way down before eating lunch and taking a break. I didn’t make it all the way down until 2pm and ravenously ate my lunch. I stretched a bit and my habitual lunchtime sleepiness hit me. I had a big climb to go so I decided to just get going before I got too lazy and sleepy.

It was a surprisingly quick and easy ascent up a couple thousand feet. It wasn’t very steep and there were steady switchbacks rising up. I just found a good pace that I could maintain breathing steadily though my nose and just fell into that rhythm.

I got to a spot where I had anticipated camping and debated going a couple miles further to finish the climb. It was 5 pm and I was just below 7000 feet and still had a little climbing to go to get up and over. The spot had a nice built up wind break, so even though the wind was howling and quite loud I was able to be unaffected by it. I didn’t want to risk going higher up and there not being good wind protection so I just set up my stuff there and had a nice relaxing evening.