Day 56- June 14th

----Read me----

Alright guys, this is the first of 13 posts that I'm posting all at once. I know it's exciting and you might want to fly through them but A LOT has happened since this. We definitely didn't "speed read" our way through the last two weeks, so read each entry slowly and pretend I released one everyday :p

----------

Today we woke up at the KOA nice and early! We felt fully rested from our zero day and were ready to hit the trail! All we had to do was go get our breakfast items that we left in the store's fridge last night. Doh'! They don't open until 9am! :(

We packed up all our stuff while snacking on peanut butter, and hung out in an area just outside the store, awaiting its opening so we could devour our apples, bananas, and yogurt! 

Luckily, they opened up a little early! We grabbed our breakfast, scarfed it down, and were out on the highway hitching by 9! This was the toughest hitch so far on the whole trail. We were probably out there for about 20 minutes when two others, Gazelle and Jeffery, came and joined us.

We told them the hitch was tough, but about 2 minutes later, a guy in a big truck pulled off on the side and picked up all four of us. It was just like a reverse-role of yesterday when we got to the road and witnessed the hard hitch, but that mini-van turned around to pick us up 30 seconds later! 

The man who picked us up was named Will, and he was really cool! Our hitch was 25 miles east, he lived only 10 miles east but went the other 15 out of his way to drop us off at the trailhead! He told us all kind of stories about the bears in the area and his personal experience with them as well as bobcats, lynx, skunks, mountain lions, and all kinds of other creatures! It was definitely a really fun hitch!

We started out on the trail by 10am! The sun was getting a little warm, but it wasn't too hot of a day! It's forecasted for 88 degrees the next few days, and then jumping up into the 100's! Hopefully that's only for the area that we're walking AWAY from, not toward! 

We started as we always do: Uphill..

We went up and up and up! Up for the first 8 miles of the day! Our packs were extremely heavy today because we have A LOT of food right now. We have food to last until Kennedy Meadows, and then snacks and bars to last 6 days out of Kennedy Meadows to wherever we resupply next. We have a box with a bunch of dehydrated food and our stove which we will be picking up in KM.

We climbed up into the trees and were in a nice forested area for a while. Then, we came across a really neat division. It seemed like someone just drew a line in the mountain. One side was composed of white granite and strong stone and was dotted with trees and looked nice and healthy. The other side was dusty with brown dirt/sand and very dry and barren with not many trees. You can sort of make out the split in the picture below.

When we transitioned into the barren lands we saw a plant we had never seen before! Very similar to a yucca plant but with big poofy yellow leaves (or flowers?) in multiple clusters! Sort of kernel-like; almost like a real bloated, soft ear of corn..

Eventually we reached a point where the up turned to down, and we traversed back down into another forested area on the same side of the mountain we had come from, just way down the ridge.

By that time it was about 3:30pm, and Claire and I stopped under a nice shaded tree for our mid-day extended break. Normally we hike from about 7 or 8am-2pm with a few small breaks, and then rest for two hours in the Tyvek and pads, then start again at 4pm and go until 7 or 8pm depending on when we can find a good site. Since we started at 10am today, we took our lunch a little later.

Shortly after we started up again at 5:30pm, Claire's day got just a little creepier.. She was walking ahead and I was a few paces behind because the dry dust always picks up in the wind from the first person and blasts the second person. She shrieked and said she saw a snake slither into a bush. She tuned around facing north and then saw this guy too!

Yup, my baby was standing on trial in between two snakes with just a couple feet on each side. Luckily, neither were rattlers, but the occurrence was definitely enough to make Claire and I think that any cylindrical object from then on was a potentially a snake.

Today I thought that we were closing in on the mysterious Mr. Peanut again, but it was just a fraudulent boot print. One day we'll catch you Mr. Peanut!!

Even though we started after 10am today, and still took a two hour break, we made 14.48 miles today and even got to a nice campsite by 7:20pm! We're definitely feeling nice and strong. A zero day did us well, and still no blisters on the feet! 

Only 36 miles till the Sierra! :)

-Thanks for reading!