Day 36: Mile 669 to 703

34 Miles

I decided I was going to go for it. It would be my longest day, but I knew it would be worth it. Kennedy Meadows has a general store, but it closes at 5pm each day. So if I wanted to make the 34 miles worth it, I was going to have to start early, and hike very fast.

I set my alarm early, but it was just so cold. I planned on leaving around 4am, but didn't get going until 5am. Sweet As and Samwise were still sleeping so I looked like they were sticking to their 25 mile plan.

The day has 2 big climbs. Each one was over 2000ft of elevation gain.

After the first climb, there was a long downhill to a stream. Laying in the stream was a metal crate full of soda and beer. Trail Magic. The beverages were cold from sitting in the stream. I drank a Pepsi, but realized I couldn't stay long so I kept going. Taking a long break would threaten my chance of making it to Kennedy Meadows by 5pm. Ever since I woke up, the only thoughts in my head were which flavor of Ben and Jerry's I would get. I had to make it to the store.

The second climb immediately followed the stream. It was a bit longer than the first and the temperature was getting hot.

Once I reached the top of the climb, I had the most memorable moment of the entire trail so far...I could see the high peaks of the Sierras.

Right out in the distance were Mt. Langley and Mt. Whitney. I have climbed both multiple times, but by driving 6 hours by car to their trailheads. I have somehow walked to them. I'm not sure how.


From that point on it was all downhill and flat to Kennedy Meadows. It was super hot.

I kept looking at my watch, checking how many miles I had left, and deciding if I was going to make it. I realized I couldn't stop, or else no Ben and Jerry's. 30 miles in and I had an hour and a half to go 4 miles, plus a .7 mile road walk to the store. It was going to be close, but I normally walk 3 miles an hour, and at that moment I was probably walking fast than that.

At 4:40 I made it to the store. I bought a pint of Ben and Jerry's, Powerade, Hawaiian Punch, and a Pepsi. The store was cooking a dinner: tri-tip, baked potatoes, rolls, salad, with cake and ice cream for dessert. I had about 30 minutes until the dinner was served so I downed the Ben and Jerry's and drinks. The store also has an outdoor shower for $3. I took a shower and washed my clothes at the same time. When I got back to the store, dinner was served.

There is a trail angel in town, Tom. He has a trailer set up with a few computers in it, along with a few other trailers where hikers can sleep.

Another trail angel, Dr. Soul, is set up at Tom's place as well. He is called Dr. Soul because he works on everyone's feet. He was cooking up fried chicken tonight. He had 40 lbs of chicken and there are probably 15 hikers here at the moment.

I ate a lot of chicken.

During the cooking, Samwise and Sweet As showed up. Apparently they decided halfway through the day to just go for it too. They missed the store being open, but they also ate lots of chicken.

I had a resupply package that was supposed to show up today, but it looks like it was rescheduled for tomorrow. The UPS truck doesn't come until later in the day, so I may be taking a zero here, or possibly hike a few miles tomorrow night while I wait for my package.

I must now rest so I can continue eating as much food as possible tomorrow.

Day 35: Mile 640 to 669

29 miles

We are in bear country now. I've seen a lot of bear tracks. I pick up my bear canister so I can store my food in it at Kennedy Meadows in a couple days. Right now I sleep with my food as a pillow and hope no bears want to challenge me for my food.

We made it to Walker Pass after a few hours of hiking. There is a campground there and a couple hikers were still there when we arrived. Apparently the parents of a hiker named Super Girl were there last night, and cooked up a huge BBQ for all the hikers that stayed there. Unfortunately, we were 10 miles short of this food frenzy last night and now there was only one corn on the cob and a few beers left for Samwise, Sweet As and I. We broke the corn into 3 pieces and covered them in butter that was also left. We also had a couple beers (for the calories of course).

We are in position to make it to Kennedy Meadows tomorrow, but will require a 34 mile day. This is a big stop right before starting the Sierra section of the PCT. It is a big milestone, we will be done with Southern California.

I want to make it there tomorrow, Samwise and Sweet As are thinking about only doing 25 and then doing the remaining 9 on Wednesday. We will see what happens.

Day 34: Mile 612 to 640

28 miles

So in Tehachapi we all decided that we would be hiking long days to get to Kennedy Meadows as much as possible. To save weight, we all took a little less food than we should have.

At this point, "Hiker Hunger" and severely kicked in. Hiker hunger hits hikers about 500 miles into their hike. We are all burning about 6000-7000 calories a day. But while on trail, we are not consuming nearly enough calories. The weight of 6000 calories a day would be way too much to carry. So because of this, satisfying our hunger is almost impossible on trail. When we get to town, we cram as many calories into ourselves while we are there.

Rationing is key right now. We could very easily eat every single food item in our pack in one day.

Luckily, today our afternoon nap was located at a trailhead, and Samwise used a technique called "Yogi-ing". There were two cars parked at the trailhead, when each group came back to their car from hiking, Samwise would say "hey, do you have any food we could buy off you". This usually resulted in the hikers pulling a few snacks from their pack and giving them to Samwise.

The hardest part was deciding how to divide the food up between the 3 of us and another hiker who was sitting with us named Castle. Splitting up 3 clementine oranges, fruit snacks, beef jerkey, and a bag of trail mix between 4 hungry hikers is not an easy task.

We got a bunch of grapes from one hiker and passed them around, each taking one grape, until everyone had equal amount but there were 3 left....somehow Castle and Samwise got two of those grapes and Sweet As and I split the 3rd in half.

I don't want to sound like I'm starving, because I'm not. I'm just saying that there is basically no amount of food I can carry right now which would satisfy my Hiker Hunger.

Day 33: Mile 583 to 612

29 miles

Today was just a long day. The wind was freezing. Nothing exciting happened. We did pass mile 600. Yay. I'm hungry.

Day 32: Mile 558 to 583

25 miles

Today the wind was still bad. We had a long climb up to a ridge where we planned to camp.

I bought a Barbie kite and we flew it in the wind when we got to the top of the climb.

After messing around for a while I realized that my cell phone was missing out of my pocket. I searched everywhere, couldn't find it. I remembered using it 2000ft below at the start of the climb. After much debating, I decided it was important enough to hike all the way back down and see if I can find it.

I started down, and within 5 minutes, I came up on a hiker who was resting. And he had my phone....yesss.

Closer to camp, clouds rolled in and it was actually snowing a bit.

Day 31: Mile 545 to 558

13 miles


Today was another town day. We woke up early, did our 13 miles as fast as we could and got a ride in to the town of Tehachapi.

We got our town breakfast and checked in to a hotel. This is the last town for about 345 miles so we wanted to make sure we get a good rest in.

I got a new pair of shoes today. My old pair were almost out of tread.

I am planning on meeting my dad, Sara, and a few others up in Red's Meadow on June 9th. I had to change my resupply strategy around a bit so I can get there in time. But with the snow year the way it is, I'm pretty sure I can make it the 345 miles in 15 days.

I may not have much service for a while, so my blog posts may stop for a bit. The next 145 miles have spotty service and the Sierras don't have any service at all. Keep checking my "Current Location" page to see where I am. The Spot Messenger uses GPS to track my location so it will work the entire time.

Day 30: Mile 518.5 to 545

26.5 miles

Today was a little nuts.

The first 15 miles were completely flat, through the desert, along the California aqueduct. Luckily, the weather was cooling off this week. There was also a slight breeze and a large cloud in the sky which blocked the sun in the morning which kept the temperature low.

It was a little boring walking in a perfectly straight line for 5 hours but it was nice finally heading north after spending the last 200 miles heading almost west.

At lunch time the wind had really picked up, and we took shelter behind some aqueduct buildings. When we finally started moving again, the wind had REALLY picked up. We were walking through the middle of a wind farm full of huge wind turbines. The wind was a steady 60mph with gusts even higher than that. There was no protection from the wind anywhere in the gigantic field we were in. No trees, no bushes, no hills. To makes things worse the wind was at our face or our side the entire time.

Walking was difficult, everyone was staggering around trying to walk in a straight line. It was difficult to even stay on the trail. I had to walk with a constant lean to the left in a cross wind, then a gust would come and I would be blown off to the right of the trail.

There were times when I was about to plant my trekking pole out in front of me, but the wind would blow it to the side and I would again awkwardly stumble off trail as a result.

The worst was when a gust full of sand hit. I was wearing my rain jacket, hood up, headphones in, but also wearing my shorts because it was still slightly warm. The sand would sting my legs like it was getting hit with birdshot.

We all were a bit frustrated in this section. We finally made it to our camp spot for the night around 8pm. I built a nice little spot behind some bushes to block out the wind. Once we were all settled in our spots and laid down, the wind stopped completely.