Made it to the Sierra!

The time has come!  I made it to Kennedy Meadows (Mile 702.2) yesterday and am finally in the Sierra Nevada!  The last six days from Tehachapi to here have been tough.  First, it is really windy in Tehachapi so going up the hills out of it was tough.  The wind howled and I felt as if I was going to be blown over a couple of times.  The wind did die down at night but it was still windy.  The hills around Tehachapi and for the first two days on the trail are covered with wind mills so that tells you something.

After I was about two days back on the trail, it turned hot and the water sources started to be few and far in between, about 15 to 20 miles between sources.  This made it tough because you had to carry so much water with you and that means a lot more weight.  The heat also meant that you couldn't hike all day and had to take a long break in the middle of the day.  One day, I had to been hiking in at least 100+ degree heat but I didn't know it until later.  I couldn't drink enough water, was sweating like a pig, and just felt horrible. 

The next day I arrived at Walker Pass near Lake Isabella and had a great day because there was Trail Magic.  Some former PCTers were cooking and giving water to the hikers that came though the pass.  I decided to take the day off because it was suppose to be 105 in the middle of the day.  Instead of hiking I went to the town of Lake Isabella, got ice cream, called home, and helped refill the water containers that were used to keep the hikers filled with water.   Once it cooled down that night, I night hiked the miles I wanted to do during the day.  It was my first time night hiking and it was interesting.  I'm not sure I would do it again because you miss all the scenery, some weird animal sounds creeped me out for a while, and it's sort of hard to hike.

The next day I got up early and after about 5 hours of sleep tried to make some miles into the Sierra before it got hot.  This was Sunday and the scenery, weather, and general feel made me start to believe that I was in the Sierra.  It didn't get hot this day, so I knew I had finally gotten close.

Once in Kennedy Meadows, I did my normal chores of resupplying myself, eating ice cream, and getting my stuff ready for the Sierra.  I will be off later today or tomorrow and hope to be on the summit of Mt. Whitney over the weekend.