Figure 8:

I woke up with visions of sugarplums dancing through my head. Not even the frozen dew that was covering the top of my sleeping bag (we rarely ever have the fly on), the tent and various other items left outside could get me down. Today was the day we finished the desert and arrived at Kennedy Meadows! Woo hoo! Since we needed a little extra time this morning to lay things in the sun to dry I made coffee.

Coffee anyone? And yes, that’s my sleeping bag catching some rays on a rock

We were both trying to remember if we ever made coffee before on a morning we were hiking and agreed that this was the first. I had a huge cup and by the time we were out of camp at 8:45 I was flying on caffeine. Daddie Gizmo and I gave each other a big hug before beginning the trail for the day and congratulated one another. Maybe a little early, but heck, we only had 9 miles to go. And they went fast! We met up with Nascar from Phoenix less than a mile in and the 3 of us hiked together to KM.

Hitting 700 with Nascar!

It was great to spend the 3 hour hike having “hiker chatter.” This typically involves where you camped the night before, various stories from your hike thus far, trail angel encounters, what wildlife you have run across, gear you need replaced and ills you have. Overall though, it’s just a really positive conversation because generally everyone you run into is in a great mood. Why would you be out of here if you weren’t enjoying it??

Kern river

We arrived in KM about noon and it was great to walk up to the general store and hear the group of other hikers on the patio cheer for us as we approached. I told you, getting to KM is a big deal. We finished the desert and we had a great time! Leaving ourselves enough time so as not to rush and have shorter days and zero days when we wanted was the best option for us. We promptly devoured a double double burger that was fantastic. I finally wasn’t hungry anymore. We were looking forward all day to seeing Dave who drove up from Tehachapi to visit us!! Daddie Gizmo and I really fell in love with him and his wife Dale when we were in Tehachapi. It felt great to have an afternoon to catch up with him. He has great positive energy around him. Since Daddie Gizmo had decided on the way to KM that it was best to see a Dr for his knee, we took Dave up on a ride to Ridgecrest where we were able to get an appt. tomorrow morning. We grabbed a cheap hotel, did some laundry, took showers and ate dinner. No sunset tonight but I’m sure it won’t be long before we are in our tent again.