PCT - Day 42: 5/30/2018 - Preparing for the Sierra

Trail miles: 0
Miles walked: 2.8

Hiking the PCT in a Lotus

We had a second zero day in Kennedy Meadows to rest and this allowed me to go through the painful exercise of packing my pack with a bear canister in it. It took several attempts before I successfully fit it in my pack with all my other crap.

After breakfast, Chilly Bin, Ziploc, and I were waiting for a hourly shuttle to take us to Grumpy Bears so we could go try to convince the others in our group to hike out today amongst other things. I’m not a patient person, so when I saw a yellow Lotus pull up in front of the general store, I told the others I was going to score a ride with this guy. They laughed and sarcastically wished me luck, and someone from the porch said “Dream on Circus Act.” Two minutes later I was having the last laugh as Bob raced me over to Grumpy Bears in the passenger seat of his Lotus. For the record, Bob knows how to drive this car too. When we pulled up and other hikers saw me hop out, my hitchhiking legend status increased a bit more.

Hitching a ride in a Lotus

Eventually the others arrived in the back of a dirty pickup truck. We ate, relaxed, shot some pool, and sent packages. Later we would discover that I inadvertently sent home a half empty fuel canister in my Ursack that I had intended for a hiker box. Chilly Bin also inadvertently sent her toiletries to a friend in Seattle. We had a good laugh about this later when she realized her mistake. Guess it’s better to realize this mistake now before you are in the Sierra looking for toilet paper in your pack and finding none.

shooting pool with Tapeworm

Socks and Misfit arrived in Kennedy Meadows today too! It was great to see them both and it appears like they’ve been enjoying hiking together.

By mid afternoon, Ziploc, Chilly Bin, and I were longing for the more comfortable surroundings of the general store so we headed back. When we came back, we sat with Rocket, Stockings, Ramen King, Slippy, Misfit, Socks, and a few others. Rocket treated us to a beer, and Ramen King shared a box of Girl Scout cookies which makes him a up and coming legend in my book.

The kitchen here closes at 4 pm, and the general store shortly thereafter, so we mostly ate junk food for dinner and then retreated to our camping spot around 7 pm to sort out our resupply, eat some Ramen noodles and just hang out together.

Circus Actg

Ziploc was sporting her brand new backpack, and trying to discover a new method of packing it since every backpack seems to have it’s own method.

I believe my friendship with Ziploc and Chilly Bin grew a bit closer tonight. We all piled into Ziploc’s nightclub and just talked for an hour or so. Sometimes we were sharing humorous stories and other times just openly talking about deeper topics. We smiled & laughed a lot. We also discovered that each of us is incredibly ticklish on our feet. The PCT is one of the only things I know of that can bring together three people from three different backgrounds from three different corners of the planet.

The three of us ended our short slumber party early though since we all really needed to get some sleep. We hike out tomorrow morning heading into the Sierra. The snow is still very prevalent and temperatures are on the rise which could complicate creek crossings in the upcoming days.

Note: Cell service will be spotty or nonexistent in the Sierra, I’ll post daily posts as soon as I can.