Day 36 - Wednesday, June 2

Cowboy camping along the South Fork of the Kern River (mile 698.0).  Walked 23.9 miles today.

Woke up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat.  I'm not used to it being this hot out here, especially at night and at 7,000 feet elevation (the last few days have been the hottest on trail so far).  Despite our campsite being sheltered, we still had a bit of a breeze, so I was able to throw my sleeping bag off and dry out quickly.  Apparently the same thing had happened to Frank as well.

Got up at 4:15 am, just like the past two days (in order to get a lot of miles done before the heat hits) and began a 6.7 mile descent to Chimney Creek, the first water source of the day.

I stopped here and snacked while waiting for  Frank to catch up to me.  We then started up today's centerpiece: a 2,500 foot climb followed by an equally long descent.  We got about 1/3 of the way up the climb and stopped at a water source.  The creek was running great and after we got water, we washed our feet and I washed out a pair of my socks.  They took so long to clean and even when I had them looking much better, they still produced brown water when I wrung them out.  Still better than they were, but we're close to town, so it's not too big of a deal.

Leaving here, I popped in my earbuds for some extra motivation and powered up the hill.  The pines gave way to scrubland and it was starting to get pretty hot.  Just after noon, I found a couple of shady pines in an otherwise shadeless landscape.  I had hoped to reach the top for lunch, but it's only 0.5 miles more to the top and I doubted there's shade up there.  Shade is the priority now.  When hikers start to get to the bottom of their food bag (as is happening to me), there's usually little bits of different foods left which results in some, interesting meals.  Today, I had a tortilla with peanut butter and crushed up Cheez-Its on it.  It was actually really good and I didn't even have to crush the Cheez-Its up as my pack did it for me!  This is honestly not a strange combination as some of these meals can get pretty weird.

A bit later, Frank turned up and we hung out in the shade.  Sisyphus and Slayer passed by as well as another hiker I didn't know.  I found a way to lay down and rest.  Almost got comfortable enough to nap on the rocks here, but not quite.

About 2 pm, we pushed off together under some light cloud cover.  It wasn't a lot but it kept the temp manageable.  From the top of the climb, we could see some of the peaks of the high Sierra that we'll visit soon.

On our 6- mile run to the next water source, we played 20 questions.  I did pretty well, guessing a couple and stumping Frank on a few, but also getting stumped several times.  It was fun, but it was also mentally draining.  Got to the water and found Sisyphus and Slayer there.  We chatted for a bit before grabbing a little water and deciding to make the 4.5 mile push to the river today.

The scenery is starting to get really pretty now and we're excited for it and to be soo close to the Sierra.

We hiked fast through the relatively flat terrain and did the last 1.5 miles at a 3.5 mph clip, making it the fastest I've hiked on the trail so far.  Even as fast as we were going, we still got passed by Slayer.  She's fairly tall and has long legs so that's one reason she can move so quickly.  Finally, we arrived at the South Fork of the Kern River.  This is only the second river we've reached on trail (the other being the Whitewater River around mile 220 or so).  Nearly 700 miles and only two rivers is pretty wild.

Found some relatively flat sites about 200 feet back from the river near Sam, Rambo, and the other hiker who is with them.

Frank made a backpacker cheesecake (just add water) and was kind enough to share ("cheesecake" is a generous term...it was basically a pudding, but still tasty).  She also gave me some mashed potato cooking tips which made it much easier and cleanup much faster.

It'll be short hike to Kennedy Meadows tomorrow morning.