The Final Push to Kennedy Meadows – Gateway to the High Sierras

Days 14 to 16 were the final push to Kennedy Meadows. I wanted to get there so badly and eat cheeseburgers and milkshakes that I could taste it 75 miles out. I pushed out some of the biggest mileage days I had yet done over this period because I was so excited to get there.

The intense wind had died off by the morning of day 14 and I was able to do the 1,600 foot hill climb first thing without getting whipped around by wind. I had some of the last views of the Antelope Valley at this point and of Rogers Dry lakebed where Edwards AFB is located.

I received some trail magic that afternoon when I met a man named Claus and his daughter Talia who were doing some off-roading on 4×4 roads and planned to hike some sections of the PCT. They were celebrating Talia’s recent HS graduation before she heads off to Columbia next school year. They hooked me up with an ice cold beer and we chatted while they had their lunch. Then they hiked with me northbound for about four miles before they headed back to their vehicle.

Days 15 and 16 were the final 50 miles to Kennedy Meadows and I was so eager to get there that I did it in two long days. I had jet noise overhead to motivate me. There were nearly always Navy F-18 Super Hornets flying overhead and I constantly found myself looking up to find the jets and see what they were doing. I assumed I was directly beneath a military operating airspace.

This time period was the first point where I could really tell that I was getting into the Sierras because of the pine trees and granite cliffs.

But there were still some hot stretches that made it feel like I was still in the desert and I needed to use my sun umbrella. It was so hot on Day 15 that I hung out in the shade near a stream and chatted with two retired gentlemen (Ambassador and Professor) and had dinner with them before starting up again and doing a nighttime hill climb.

I got about a third of the way up the 2,000 foot climb when it was time to turn on the headlamp. It worked for one whole minute before going out on me. I thought it had plenty of charge remaining but apparently it did not. I needed to preflight my gear better than that! So I pulled out my battery pack recharger and connected to the light. I initially tried to strap the battery pack inside the headband but it wouldn’t stay. So I probably looked pretty silly with the battery pack sitting in my cell phone holder and a super short wire connected to the headlamp which made it so I could barely move my head. But it worked well enough and after an hour the light was charged enough that I didn’t need the Rube Goldberg setup anymore.

I was too exhausted to set up my tent by the time I got to a tent site at the top of the hill climb at 10:30 pm. So I just laid out my Tyvek ground sheet and sleeping pad and cowboy camped.

On day 16 I made it into what seemed to me the Shangri La of the hike so far – the valley that the South Fork of the Kern River flows through. It was such a beautiful sight. First off, the fact there was a huge stream with plenty of water for resupply, but also, I knew that I had my fishing rod waiting for me at Kennedy Meadows and I was going to be able to start doing some serious fishing.

I was able to send an inReach text to the place where I was going to be staying and coordinated for a ride to Grumpy Bears Retreat. They picked me up and took me to their lodge – what would have been a three mile road hike. Once there I saw a bunch of the other hikers I had been leap frogging with on the trail for the past couple weeks. They set me up with a beer, and since the kitchen had already closed, I cooked up some of the remaining couscous and tuna that I still had in my backpack. I set up my tent in the open yard outside Grumpy’s next to all the other tents and was asleep instantly.

Interestingly, I showed up to Kennedy Meadows on the day (June 10th) I had calculated to be there based on a common rule of thumb. This is called “Kennedy Meadows Day” and it is based off the measurement of snow at Bighorn Plateau on the 1st of April. It is a way to determine (on an average snow year) when you should expect to arrive at Kennedy Meadows with the snow in the High Sierras sufficiently melted to reasonably make it through the various passes. The snow depth on the 1st of April was 35 (PIU) inches at Bighorn Plateau and by using the formula, that came out to June 10th. It ended up being a happy coincidence of timing…although it has been a less than average snow year and people have already been successfully traversing the high Sierras for weeks already!

Trail Facts

• Trail miles walked – 246
• Current PCT mileage marker – 700
• Current Audiobook – Lincoln on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips
• Current Podcast – Planet Money by NPR, Washington Wise Investor by Charles Schwab
• Additional PCT Thru-Hikers I’ve met – Ambassador, Professor, Slack, Slow Train, Jeff and April
• Additional wildlife seen – Mule deer, red tailed hawk, pinyon jay, southern grasshopper mouse, American beaver, long-nosed leopard lizard