Day 57- June 15th

Last night I did not sleep well.. Since Claire's air-pad had been leaking air, but there's no post office in Kennedy Meadows, we had to send the defective one back from Lake Isabella. That means four nights with only one sleeping pad. Last night was night 2 of me sleeping without my foam pad because I let Claire use it until we pick up her new air-pad in Kennedy Meadows. 

We have two little foam pieces that Duckman found in the free box back at the KOA and gave to us, but they don't provide any comfort. They may even be making the situation worse. The ground was really hard last night where we stopped to camp, and I kept sliding off of the tiny foam pieces, and finding myself straight on the ground. I may have slept only 2 hours last night, and none of it comfortably. 

A good nights' sleep is super important when backpacking, and the lack of it definitely showed during today's hike. Also, in the 14.42 miles we hiked today we went up over 3,500 feet, and down about the same!  Both Claire and I struggled through the day at very low energy levels. It was tough to say the least.

We started out on the trail by 9am. Within 3 miles of downhill we got to our water source, where we filtered a couple liters each and started the climb! Up and up and up. So long up we didn't even keep track where we were. But honestly, where we were didn't matter! The trail felt like it took us in circles today!! 

So, this might look strange but bear with me.. Below is a picture of what a normal section of the trail looks like. Traversing a ridge line, weaving in and out of canyons, but heading in one direction, in this particular case, Northwest:

Now, here was the trail for just part of today:

We were on a pretty straight mountain range, but the trail was going all over! Up and down and north and south and east and west! It was dizzying! Instead of the usual mountainside traverse through its canyons while maintaining similar elevation, we would drop waaaaaaay down onto the other side of the mountain, just to go back up again! 

To make things just a little bit crazier, it was really windy for 3/4 of the day, and the terrain was bumpy for the most part. I twisted my ankle pretty bad at one point, (no sprain thank goodness), and both of us had more than usual foot problems like sore arches, toe stiffness, etc.

But, it wasn't all bad! At one point about midday, after a TON of climbing, we broke through the ridge to this vista:

This was probably the most windy portion of the day so we didn't spend any time here, (in fact, I don't even know if Claire had the chance to see it, between trying to keep her hat on her head and not getting herself blown off the trail), but it was sure breathtaking.

Another good thing we had today were no bugs in general. And also, the heat was not unbearable! It was actually quite cold when the winds gusted through! It seemed that every time we took a break today, the reason we started hiking again was because we were too cold!

Also, another good thing about today were these bad boys:

In mom's last care package she sent us home-dried apple banana chips and slices, cinnamon apples rings, and pineapple spears and rings! Yummmm!! Thanks mom! I had to portion the bananas out into separate bags and hide them deep in my pack so I wouldn't eat them all at once!! (As I was typing this in the tent, Claire announced that she just ate all her banana chips!)

Well, I wish I had more to say about today, but that's about it. It was a lot of climbing and descending, and we are very tired! Tonight we picked a softer place to camp so hopefully my back and neck and legs and ankles don't hurt as bad tomorrow as they did this morning.  

Tomorrow morning we start steep by climbing over 1,000 feet in barely 2 miles, and 2,500 feet total in the first 6 miles. And then alllllll the way down 2,500 ft in the next 6, aaaaghhhhh!! It's ok, we'll survive! Only 22 miles until Kennedy Meadows! 

-Thanks for reading!