Goal for the day: Rest, recuperate, and fix my gear

Nothing much happened between trail days 6 and 7. I just had to organize my gear, wash my clothing, take several showers (one didn’t get all the trail dirt off 😀 ), have some great dinners and breakfasts, drink a bunch of Diet Cokes, chat with some of the PCT thru hikers, prep my food for the next part of the trail, and repair my shoes and other equipment. Very boring day.

The cabin I got had a nice bed with a decent mattress (it wasn’t the Hilton), a little seat to sit down on, a porch, and a heater. Didn’t need or use the heater, of course. An air conditioner would have been nice (but the cabin didn’t have electricity either). 😀 I do wish they had a extra window to create some air cross flow inside. At night it only had the one window that could open, so unless I left the door open I didn’t get much circulation inside the little cabin. Other than being a little warmer that I’d like, it was okay.

Ironically, a nice benefit that I found out about in my new two door tent was that by opening both vestibules I could create some nice air circulation to cool down inside. So, while I think the cabin was cooler most of time, it did sometimes seems like the tent would have been cooler.

On long hikes there are always little repairs to do, some can be done on the trail but some are better done off the trail. The separation of my boot sole and upper was the most important. Once I cleaned it out, I was able to glue it back together, but it dried with some cracks still visible. Added some more super glue after the first batch dried and hoped it held.

I’m still disappointed I couldn’t find any Shoe Goo at Kennedy Meadows. Maybe I could have gone back to the General store and looked again when I wasn’t in a hurry, but the resort and nearby gear shop didn’t have any either. None of the hikers I asked had any. Ah well, I should be able to keep it together.

I think it may have been the extreme heat that may have caused preexisting cracks in the sole to expand and the existing glue to weaken.

I did wash almost all my clothes that I used on the trail or at camp. I just wore my fleece pants and heavyweight shirt (neither of which I had used yet since it had been so dang hot) while I washed everything else needed.

I also took a swim in the resort’s small pool (it was a good way to beat the afternoon heat). Fortunately, they did have power at on the hiker’s porch, so I could recharge all my batteries and other electronic items.

My resupply had my solar panel to recharge items on the trail. I had skipped it for the first part of the hike to save weight. I wouldn’t have to carry as much water for the rest of the trek, so could ‘splurge’ on using the solar panel instead of relying a couple of large USB batteries to keep my gear charged (most importantly, my Inreach and iPhone). I had come pretty close to having them run out on day 5, so it’s a good thing I got out of the wilderness a day early.

I also had my bear canister in my resupply. Like my solar panel, I had not carried it for the first part of the hike to save weight, but it’s requited north of Kennedy Meadows. So, with less water to carry and only 5 days of food, I could handle a few extra pounds. And I wouldn’t have to be as cautious about keeping my food bag close to me.

Since you can’t ship gas canisters in the USPS Mail, I bought an extra one at the gear store to replace my almost empty one. I still had the second full one I started with. Otherwise, most of the things I needed to resupply with were in my resupply package. Including an extra tube of lip balm to replace the one that had MELTED on the trail. It was THAT hot.

As always, there were always extra items left over after I sorted through my resupply package and what I had left in my backpack. The resort had some hiker boxes I could put those items into so other hikers could use them if needed. No Shoe Goo in the hikers boxes unfortunately. Cross my fingers for the super glue. Well I would have crossed my fingers, but I super glued them together. 😀

Remember the woman who kept re-passing me on the trail? She was at the resort, of course. She had arrived a day earlier than me. Nothing unusual there. Most people on the trail are faster that me, it just really rare for me to get passed so many times by a single person on a long trek like this. 😀 Unfortunately, I’m horrible with names, so can’t really remember most of the other trail names of the other hikers I met, but having passed me so many times, it was hard to forget Double Take.

I also saw my second snake of the trip: I walked onto the patio once and saw someone carrying a rattlesnake in his hands. Ack! Turns out it was a Gopher Snake probably like the one I saw on the trail. It had been trying to climb the barbecue and wall to reach some baby birds in a nest near the roof overhang. Very ambitious attempt, I must say.

Besides ALL that, I enjoyed the real food and a day of rest. I really needed it. I didn’t even bother to take any pictures the entire day. Have to rest my shutter finger, after all. 😀

While I did sleep in that morning until 7am or so (I usually get up between 5am and 6am on the trail, mostly for the sunrises), I got to bed early since I was going to re-start my hike at 6am (which was the first shuttle trip from the resort).

Goal for the day: Success! (but I’m usually pretty good at being a couch potato at home, too) 😀

Kennedy Meadows Zero Day – 0 miles – 0 hours 0 minutes (hence why they call it a ‘0’ Day)
PCT section G – 50 trail miles out of 115 total miles (no change)