Day 62 - Monday, June 28

Tenting at the Carson River (mile 1024.6).  Walked 18.7 miles today.

Woke up at 3:45 am as we needed to hike 11 miles by 10:30 am in order to catch the shuttle into Kennedy Meadows Resort (AKA Kennedy Meadows North...not to be confused with the Kennedy Meadows that we stopped at before the Sierra).

We started with a climb which shortly went above the tree line and was nothing but scree with consolidated rock for the trail tread making for an easy climb.  Got to see sunrise as we climbed higher as well as some gorgeous views.

The trail gained and lost some elevation and we crossed quite a few snow patches.

Actually, we had almost as much snow today as we had in the past 300 miles through higher terrain.  Finally started the long descent down to Sonora Pass and a huge change in scenery.

We made good time and arrived right before 9:30 am.  It just so happened that the shuttle made an early run up to the pass and they were just about to head back down to Kennedy Meadows North.  We got on it and the driver, Ron, gave us information about the resort as well as some local history.  We got to the resort and saw all our friends: Hot Pink, Rambo, Sure Foot, Jedi, Clockwork, Bougie, Heather, and Microbe.  Rambo gave us some advice on the Resort (dorms are hot, Wi-Fi is non-existent, etc.) and then we dropped our packs before going inside.

We made the call to not stay here overnight as the Wi-Fi was a huge reason to stay and that made it less palatable to spend $30 to camp (or $45 for a dorm room).  We unloaded our bear cans (don't have to carry them anymore!) and gathered some other things to send home inside them (I'm sending home most of my cold weather gear).  After paying the exorbitant fee of $25 to ship the cans, we bought our resupply from the store.  They had a decent selection for how small the store was.  After we gathered our stuff, we ate lunch in the restaurant with a couple of other hikers we hadn't met before.  After lunch, we got some ice cream and then went to chat with the other hikers around including Mama, Thin Mint, AB, and Rugrat (who we saw at Tuolumne).  I also sewed my shirt as yesterday, Frank noticed a 4" tear in the shoulder.  Not sure how it happened.  The shuttle was supposed to leave at 2:30 pm, but we didn't get out until 3:00 because the keys were locked inside the van and they had to use a clothes hanger to extract them.  On the way back up, the clouds got dark and spotty rain fell as well as some hail.  At Sonora Pass, we put on our rain gear and trudged up the trail.  It was super steep and we went slowly.

On the way, we discussed my new book idea: Pick up lines for hikers. Publication date TBA.

The views here were still stunning and we are now officially in Northern California.

The trail is much different from the past few hundred miles and there were wildflowers everywhere.  We got to a spot with some cell service and I sent off a few messages and booked us a room in town before hiking on (we'll get there a day earlier than planned).

We continued down the mountain and eventually found a decent campsite for the night.  We hiked a lot longer than we had anticipated today and are ahead of schedule for getting to South Lake Tahoe in several days.  We'll find a way to spend more time in town I guess.