Made it out of camp before 6am as we were trying to do a 25 mile day plus resupply. Caught the sunrise over the mountains as a result. The first 11 miles or so were walking on a scree like surface (small stones that completely cover the ground). We came across quite a few day hikers and weekenders as well in this section.
At about the 11 mile point, we arrived at Sonora Pass. Quite notable, as Grizzly Adams passed through this point in the mid 1800’s. From here we hitched down to the Kennedy Meadows Pack Station (aka Kennedy Meadows North – KMN). The hitch was easy. We got a ride with the second car that passed, a PCT hiker that walked the trail in 2009, named Tom. He took us a right to Kennedy Meadows.
KMN is essentially resort that has cabins and camping and a place for horse lovers to set out on trail rides. We picked up our packages and had breakfast, then waited a half hour and ordered lunch at the resort’s restaurant.
We ended up getting a hitch back to the trail from another hiker, John, that did a big section in 08, and was up doing another section this week. He had given a few other hikers a ride down to KMN, and we all rode back to the trail.
When we got back up to the trailhead, there was a trail angel with soda, cake, cookies, and other goodies. Such luck with trail magic and hitches. Thanks John, Tom and the Owl!
Hiked pretty straight for the next 5 hours, without any real breaks. Getting the 25 miles in with a town stop was going to be somewhat hard, but we were all in camp by 7:30. Weather was great all day long. No mosquitoes until camp, and then they came out with vengeance.
Daily Distance: 25
Trip Distance: 1,015.4
Questions or thoughts on this article? Please leave them below: