After my failure from Walker Pass, I considered restarting from there with additional water and pre-dawn to avoid the heat, but came to the conclusion that I had made a tactical error. It was too late in the summer to attempt the part of the trail from Walker Pass and even without the leak, I had not started with enough water to make it those first 12 miles.

So, I could either go home or try to restart from the middle of section G: Kennedy Meadows

I chose to try to continue. I had to get a new permit from Kennedy Meadows since the permit I had gotten was for my estimated arrival date if I had hiked from Walker Pass as planned. Fortunately, permits from Kennedy Meadows were non-quota, so I was able to get a new permit easily before getting a hotel for the night.

Goal for the day: Drive to Kennedy Meadows and get 5-8 miles up the trail.

I got an early start to drive to Kennedy Meadows. I enjoyed some early morning light from the sunrise. The ride up the road that wound up through Ninemile Canyon was nice, although I did get some sprinkles of rain as I went. I would have LOVED some of that when I started from Walker Pass.

While I did ship a resupply package to the Kennedy Meadows General Store, I was able to put together the food and gear I needed from what I had left over from my Walker Pass food and extra food I had in my Jeep. So, I would leave the resupply package at the store for now.

The trailhead was up at the Kennedy Meadows Campground and was remote enough that I didn’t fear for my Jeep if I left it there for an extended time. So, after tucking it in for the long haul, I hit the trail with my loaded backpack. To reach Mt Whitney and descend from the east side, I’d need at around 8 nights of food. I could extend the food I had by splitting some of the meals in two, if needed. I only started with a litter and a half of water, since this part of the trail had some frequent water sources. But either way, I had a very heavy pack to start, so it was slow going.

Too slow.

By the time I hit 3 miles, I was practically crawling along the trail and it had taken my almost 6 hours to get that far. I resisted the urge to stop or even turn around and continued forward with my target set on a campsite with water nearby about 2 miles ahead.

I only made it a mile further before my body made me stop. I took some time to rest and refill my water, trying to at least make that last mile.

But I couldn’t keep going. There were some spots nearby for tents, so I setup my tent, had dinner, then enjoyed some indirect lighting from the sunset.

After waking up, I had a little light from the sunrise to enjoy as I had breakfast and tried to get motivated to continue northward towards Mt Whitney.

I’m still not sure why, but I could just not get motivated to continue that morning. The upcoming part of the trail was pretty steep, but I knew that going in. Maybe I was still depressed about my failure at Walker Pass (or maybe still too dehydrated). Maybe I should have started with a smaller hike before attempting section G.

Whatever the reason, I ended up heading back south towards where I started the day before.

I picked up my resupply pail from the store on my way out of the area. I ran through my options, but these two failures left me completely unmotivated to try any of the smaller hikes I had in my list of hikes in the Sierra.

So, unfortunately, I headed home in disappointment.

Total miles hiked: 8
Miles hiked one-way on PCT section G: 4

Goal: Failed 🙁

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