Fifteen miles downhill. And mostly flat terrain scheduled for today, sounded easy enough. When will I learn…? The early miles indeed we’re mellow enough. I was playing some deep-house sets on my mp3-player and was excited to get finally get into Kennedy Meadows. Pretty soon however a ‘new’ ache started playing up, I felt a strain in the bottom of my left heel. This is something haven’t felt yet, and there we’re no pains or aches yesterday either. Probably an overnight result from the heavy late-night push yesterday. The pain did not subside all day, and without deliberately trying to, I noticed I shifted my weight onto my right foot, to relieve the pressure on the sore heel. This would not be sustainable for the long run, so I’d have to make sure I’ll be giving my feet and legs some rest. Fortunately this was definitely the plan for Kennedy Meadows. The end of the 7 mile downhill gave a first glance of the meadows. It was still hot as a furnace out though.
I took a morning break in the shade, and was introduced to a vicious new foe. This yellow-grey winged bug, looked a lot like a bee, but I was pretty sure it was more the fly-type. When it landed on my leg, without me giving it any proper reason whatsoever, the little freak bit me. It stung like hell. I asked around later that day, and apparently these are gnarly flesh-eating horse-flies. I danced around in the scorching heat, trying to get the little freak and his buddies to buzz off, and decided that even though I was hardly sufficiently rested, this was probably a sign for me to just get going again.
It was still so very hot… and because this was the last day before arriving in Kennedy Meadows, for some reason this did not seem fair. The wild doesn’t really care however.
Upside to the day was that during the afternoon I reached the Kern-river. It was an actual river! Oh sweet, and refreshing body of flowing water! Maybe we were truly getting out of the desert after all… I hopped down to the waterside and scrubbed all the dirt of my legs, splashed some cool water on my heated body and soaked my feet. This way I got to make up for the botched up break at the spot where I was attacked by horse-flies earlier.
The trail followed the riverside for some time, cut back into the hills again, but rejoined the river again some miles up ahead. I went to the waterside once more, because earlier I didn’t rinse out my socks. I guess in my mind I thought myself closer to the end-point for today than I actually was, because I did not fill anymore water bottles, not wanting to carry the extra pounds. About a mile in, I realised my mistake. The the trail had now long weaved away from the water-source, and I found myself without water; I’d finished all of it. There I was, in the sizzling heat with about 5 more miles to go. Well done. Being so close to the promised land, I simply could not put myself to hike back. And so began yet another suffer-fest. I passed the 700-mile marker (tiny hurray, ’cause I was not really in the mood to celebrate), and finally got off the PCT, when I hiked towards the Grumpy Bears Retreat. A local place that’s hiker friendly and has a bar, restaurant, showers, laundry, wifi and camping.
Those last 5 miles were pretty brutal, but the idea of an ice-cold milkshake was what kept me putting one foot in front of the other. The last 2 miles were along a road. To my great delight I was picked up by a truck already filled with hikers, that was headed to the Grumpy Bear. Yihaaah! I walked into the bar a bit dazed (and possibly somewhat dehydrated), sat down with some of my familiar hiker buddies and started to recover a bit. After ordering a chocolate milkshake and a large glass of water with ice, which I finished both in record-time, I leaned back and felt human again.
The rest of the evening I hung out, ate the most ridiculously large and delicious Grumpy Bear Burger, and now I’m getting ready for a good nights sleep. Tomorrow I will hike a couple of miles towards the General Store, a little up ahead in Kennedy Meadows, where I will pick up some packages. I will do laundry, and start organising my gear, and prepare a package to send back home to the Netherlands with redundant items. Tomorrow Natalie, Thad, Jimmy and Jimmy’s dad (who will hike a section of the PCT with him) should arrive in Kennedy Meadows. Looking forward to seeing them again.
I can’t explain but I wanna try
Or is this image of you and I
And it goes dancing by
In the morning and in the night-time
Cause all these secrets that I can’t keep
Like in my heart there’s that hotel-suite
And you’ve lived there so long
It’s kinda strange now you’re gone
I’m not sure if I should
Show you what I’ve found
Has it gone for good?
Or is it coming back around?
Isn’t it hard to make up your mind?
When you’re losing,
And your fuse is
Fireside
Fireside – Arctic Monkeys
