PCT 2024 Section G Day 6 – Salvation comes in many forms on the PCT

Goal for the day: Kennedy Meadows, a Diet Coke, a shower, and real food. Not necessarily in that order.

After a rough day, a peaceful night was a great reward. Some great star gazing helped during those late night visits to the bushes.

While the sunrise would not be directly in sight, the light from the sun did dance across the clear skies as I had breakfast, packed my gear, and decided what to do the next day.

Yes, the next day.

Why was I more concerned about the next day than the day ahead of me?

There was no mystery about the next 10 miles I had to cover. For example:

I had less than 10 miles to go until I hit Sherman Pass Road and civilization. With a very light backpack, that shouldn’t be a problem to cover in a single day.
The trail was mostly downhill.
After making breakfast I had a liter of water left, more than enough to reach the creak a mile an a half in front of me.
The light cast from the sunrise was very invigorating.
The South Fork of the Kern River lay ahead of me. That meant ample water supplies as I neared Kennedy Meadows and even a chance to cool down more than my head and feet in cool mountain water.
I was a day ahead of my schedule.

All that had me wondering what to do with an extra day. Sure, I could just get that Diet Coke that I had been yearning for for the past 5 days, get a shower, wash my clothes, and get some real food. Then just jump back on the PCT after a night’s sleep and a real breakfast.

BUT my Inyo Forest permit from Kennedy Meadows to Yosemite’s Happy Isles started on the day after the next.

I could probably get a new permit and print it out at the General Store for the next day, but even if I was ahead of schedule I was very tired, hot, sweaty, caked with dirt, and my clothes stunk. The later of those were only because of the lack of time and water (and energy) to both clean my clothes or myself at the end of my days on the trail. Otherwise, I usually cleaned both myself and and my clothes every 3 days or so on the trail on long distance hikes.

So, I figured why not give myself a Zero Day.

For the non-long distance hikers out there, a Zero Day is a day when you do not hike at all and give your body, legs, and feet a very much needed holiday.

And boy did I need that holiday.

I even reached out with my Inreach to Grumpy’s Resort in Kennedy Meadows to inquire about availability of the only rental cabin I knew of in KM.

A couple nights on a real mattress would do my body a great deal of help at that point.

But before that dream came true, I had to get to Kennedy Meadows. Onward and downwards!

The creek came into view (or at least the green bushes surrounding it) remarkably quickly. I even heard it not too long after leaving my camp behind. Tracing it’s path, it wasn’t that far from the trail and camp, but there would be a lot of bushwhacking to do to try to go down the slope to it and climb back up. No, reason to do that today.

The creek presented itself under my boots quickly enough. That was when I knew I had to do the Zero Day for sure. Over the last day I had noticed the sole of my left boot separating slowly from the upper part of the boot. Some super glue and duct tape helped keep the gap from spreading, but I’d need something stronger and more long term to continue my hike beyond Kennedy Meadows.

Too bad I had saved 5 ounces in my backpack by not bringing Shoe Goo or a strong repair adhesive that I usually carried in my repair kit.

It’s always what you don’t bring that you end up needing the most.

After the creek, it was a hot, long 5 mile hike down the valley before the next water on the trail…

But what water it was!!

The pictures cannot do the sight, sounds, and feeling of a rushing river in the middle of a mountain desert justice.

Imagine yourself having hiked over 40 miles in a hot desert with only the occasional shade and trickle of water to keep you going.

Then imagine coming across a river, filled with precious cold water deep enough to jump into and soak your entire body in.

Sorry, you can’t possibly know how good that felt without experiencing it first hand…

It didn’t take me long to find a good spot, drop my backpack, my socks, shoes, hat, glasses, and my pants and jump into the cool water.

Heaven on earth.

Also, a chance to wash at least my shorts and t-shirt.

I spent at least an hour enjoying that pool formed by the river. Even had a nice lunch as my feet continued to soak in the cool water as my clothes dried a little.

I might have spent the night there if it had been later in the day, but with it only being noon and only 3 miles of mostly level trail to go before my feet could hit the paved road I had to get dressed and haul my backpack onto my very sore back.

Only a little rest for the weary…

Besides, this would be an embarrassing place to die on the trail.

Then I passed a high tech mileage sign.

Not as exciting to a section G hiker like me, but thru hikers were no doubt elated to reach the 700 mile mark indicated by those simple stones on the ground. Wind and rain may upset those stones, but any thru or section hiker were sure to leave them alone or repair the three character signpost as they celebrated.

It marked the first quarter of the PCT to those who had started from the Mexico border and had managed to hike all of those 700 miles with their own two feet.

For me it was the first 48 miles of the 115 mile long PCT Section G. Not a bad start for this old guy.

2 miles to go until that Diet Coke!!

Those two miles were scattered with signs of human life. Some long abandoned…

Some more recent in the form of RVs, trailers, and tiny cabins in some of the private property lining the PCT corridor…

And then just as I was feet from the end of my day’s hiking along the dirt trail, Mother Nature just had to flip me off with a cloud that blocked the sun first the first time in six days.

I’d have killed to get even a brief shade cloud like that for any of the past 50 miles. The skies had been almost completely free of clouds during that time and the few sparse clouds I had seen, never cast a shadow over me.

Yeah, that seemed like a big insult to my sore body, legs, and feet.

But the hot pavement didn’t when I finally touched the road.

Wasn’t going to bend down and kiss the hot pavement, of course. My lips were already chapped and sun burnt.

Ahhhhh….

That was more than the feeling caused by the application of lip balm, it was the sign of a job well done and a difficult section of trail completed.

Two thirds of a mile to walk to the Kennedy Meadows General Store and the first item in my list of things to enjoy: A Diet coke.

Or I could stick out my thumb at the passing cars and trucks.

Sherman Pass Road had enough traffic that it was only a few minutes of me silently swearing at people who didn’t stop for me before a truck stopped and told me to hop in the pickup bed.

The pickup bed again (see my PCT Section K completion report from 2023 for another example). Granted, I probably wasn’t Irish Spring^TM fresh, but I had just had a chance to swim and soak me and my dirtiest clothing in the South Fork of the Kern River so I couldn’t be that bad (Note: I probably still smelt pretty bad).

Thanking him immensely as he dropped me at the store, I went in side and got that Diet Coke… Ah… and a couple more for good measure for later.

I also looked for some Shoe Goo and asked to pickup my resupply package. I couldn’t find the former in the brief time I was there, but did get the resupply package. Unfortunately, I couldn’t look for the Shoe Goo or adhesive further at that time since I had to catch a shuttle to Grumpy’s Resort.

It was already in the parking lot and I was in no condition to walk the 3 miles down the road to the ‘resort’.

The glue could wait. I still needed that shower, real food, and real mattress.

It was rustic, had basic amenities, but it was a very good place to wind down from the trail and prepare myself for the next part of my trek.

I did get to enjoy the sunset from the porch of the resort and down near the campground and my cabin.

But first Mother Nature had one last chance to taunt me: There was a 15 minute downpour a short while after I reached the resort. Like the shade cloud that had taunted me before I had reached Sherman Pass Road, this was another event that I would have gleefully danced around in on the dry, dusty trail. Now, it was a humorous end to my sixth day on the trail and start of a much needed Zero Day.