1PM 6/8/2013
I've added a few more people to this email list (which has been quite small and will probably remain so because I end up having to retype all the names in half the time when I'm using my Android phone on which I haven't figured out how to "reply to" a bcc list or view the bcc list of a msg I've sent - works on windows, just not on my Android with the basic gmail app... (If anyone knows "the secret" ...I promise not to tell anyone else... ;-) (Guess I could workaround and send me a msg with "the list" in the msg sent just to me... later when I have the time...) Anyway, also hope to eventually catch up the newbys with my older msgs ... but not today...)
I got to Kennedy Meadows (here: http://hikethepct-km.com/ ) this morning at 9, after a six day hike from Walker Pass, after Ben dropped me off there Monday evening after I caught up with him and the other CNPSers at the conference last weekend in Big Pine, after I raced to drive there after visiting Rebecca & family at her new home in Davis after spending a few days in Santa Rosa to see Sandy off on her trip to Alaska and fetch my mail (which included my PCT permit for the upcoming leg of my hike) and fetch my big laptop to do the stuff I was having trouble doing "on the road"..., after having raced there from Inyokern where, in my last msg, I was trying to decide whether to go to Santa Rosa or check out whether my Bear Canister had arrived at Kennedy Meadows yet and/or check out some of the other east sierra trailheads to the PCT before catching up with the CNPSers at the Big Pine conference.
Whew! Did I ever mention that I like long sentences and used to like the HP calculators that used "Reverse-Polish" algebraic notation?
Anyway, to unwind some of that...
Yeah, so I was in Inyokern worried I might miss the "next" bus after having missed the 8am bus which I had made sure I was there in time to catch by bicycling from Inyokern from Walker Pass by moonlight the night before and getting up at 5am to walk 20 minutes to the - oops - wrong busstop for a different bus company! So, I did manage to catch the other company's bus at 11am, get to Mojave with an hr layover (enough time to have a Carl's Jr burger) before catching the bus towards Bakersfield that dropped me off at the Tehachapi Pass trailhead on HWy 58 around 3pm, enough time to make it to the top of the first ridge where I camped with a nice view of windmills going full bore on the ridge to the west, because it happened to be still blowing fiercely from the ongoing strong wind event (60+mph winds) which continued for the duration of my hike back to my car at Walker Pass, from where I drove back to Inyokern to fetch my bike and plan my next steps.
(If I seem to be focused on logistics here, yeah, guess so - I think details of the hike itself will have to wait till I get around to my picts...)
So, my next steps involved a timing issue, wanting to be in several places at once: SRosa to fetch mail, Big Pine to camp out with a few other CNPSers for the conference, and check out some of the potential next places I could leave my car and via bicycle and/or bus or hitch or road-walk, make it back to my starting trailhead. Or visa versa. Also, I was expecting to change my mode of travel to a more traditional PCT hiker mode, mailing myself re-supplies at the handfull of designated places. Checking my email around 6pm in Inyokern I saw that Sandy was "leaving for Alaska tomorrow" and so I just figured I would act now and decide later, and drove all night to arrive in SRosa at 4am the next morning. Unable to sleep I checked my email, got some breakfast, rechecked my email, and fetched my laptop etc at my storage, then returned to Sandy's place (actually Bud's place...) where I learned she had gone to take Mike to the Dr's and would then meet with Bud and the Parkinson's group at Sonoma Bagels. So I chased them down there, finally settling down for the rest of the day copying all 4x64gb+3x6gb+16gb of the CF cards I'd filled, and my GPS track logs from 3 different devices, and troubleshooting the tech problems that made my track logs incomplete. Also visited Tom at the EC and learned people had been asking about the books & maps & otehr stuff I'd left there, so I took some old pc's that others had "donated", to the Recycling Ctr, returned some of my "computer books" to my storage, and emailed the board explaining why I thought the CNPS books should remain there, and "donated" some money for my continued access and to leave my desktop cptr which I had available to share, there. Also returned my "new" boots to REI. (I've been hiking the Teva sandals which seem to be "good for my feet" after nearly 200miles now.)
Then I decided to give Rebecca a call, and ended up overnighting at her new place in Davis "on my way back to the trail", walked to the nearby park with little Kaylee the next morning, went for a Subways for lunch, then off via hwy 50 & 89 to 395 to try to catch up with the CNPS folk in Big Pine, arriving there just as dinner was served (after having "dinner" at various McDonald's to use internet to try to contact some of them - another story of technical issues: missing phone#s in my contact list, probably because some were only on my AT&T SIM card when I currently was using my TMobile SIM card - and neither of these SIM's lists transferred to my Google contact list that I mostly depend on.)
Learned at the conference in Big Pine that Ben's car had radiator problems that would be repaired Monday, and I asked him whether I could get a ride back to Walker Pass thereafter, after figuring out to-where exactly I would be hiking, which I spent all of Sunday investigating, driving all the way down to Kennedy Meadows cheecking out all the potential trailheads on the way down. In kennedy Meadows I leqarned that my bear canister had not yet arrived (my screwup - I stated I'd be there later than I would actually be...) so on the way back to Big Pine I checked about possibly renting a canister until it arrived, and decided to hike only to Olancha Pass which was before the area that a canister was required. Olancha Pass is only about 25 trail miles from Kennedy Meadows (plus the spur-trail over the pass to the road.)
So, at 3pm Monday, Ben's car was done, we caravanned to the Olancha Pass trailhead where I left my car (left my bike in the car this time...) he drove me with my pack to Walker Pass where I spent the night while I think he drove all night back to the bay area like I had done (though I lent him some maps of the area so maybe he did some "exploring" & overnighted on the way...?)
Hiking from Walker Pass was in pleasantly warm weather in pleasantly wooded terrain for the most part for the first few days, then got really hot these last two days in burned terrain. Yesterday I quit, exhaused, about 5pm at the S Fork Kern River even after taking hr-long breaks frequently during mid-day - otherwise I would have been here yesterday evening. I did get washed up in the river etc and asleep before dark.
Will probably leave KM Sunday late-afternoon or early Monday and should be back at my car in two more days. (Hope to update this once mere before I leave.
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