Into Uncertainty

Today is the third and final day of staying in Kennedy Meadows and our first day of hiking into the Sierras!

Before we head out to the unknown we, of course, took a trip to the restaurant and loitered for a bit and ate. And ate. And ate. I had two veggie burgers and a banana and two more oranges that I acquired from Saunter.

After we had filled our bellies with all the food we could, we hopped in the back of a truck that took us back to the general store and our tents where we would pack up our stuff and head back onto the trail.

I was able to somehow fit all of my new and improved gear into my pack AND get it onto my shoulders without any outside help. I was pretty impressed with myself. 10 days of food is way more than I have ever carried before and it is extremely heavy. A little over 20 pounds heavy. Phew. After my intense game of Tetris our group waddled our way to say goodbye to the other hikers and head towards the trail. DB, P, and AH decided they wanted to take a quick dip in the river before continuing to hike so I waited, slightly anxiously on the side, drawing in the sand until they were ready to go.

The going was extremely slow because of the additional pounds we were carrying and we made it just four miles before we decided to have dinner and “lighten” our packs. Continuing on we made it another about four miles and decided to make camp because it was getting dark. We also wanted to be rested for our first real “alpine start” aka getting up and leaving by five o’clock. Ha Ha Ha. That will be fun.