I wake up at 4:45AM to pee. I get out of my tent and decide that well I’m up for the day so I might as well start packing up. I have 4 miles of vertical incline and then 10 miles of a little bit of up-and-down followed by 6 miles of downhill to get to Walker pass.
I start the climb well before the sun comes up. I sign the trail register which was a .3 mile from the start and I notice Long Legs signed it 44 minutes before me. He had the same idea. I power through the uphill climb which ends up being extremely windy and finally get cell service near the top. Time to upload to IG, my blog and backflush snap chat from 3 days ago. My Snapchat chops all the videos and mixes up the orders. Rubbish.
The suns poking over the ridge line and it’s a spectacular view. I feel like I’ve been getting sick of the same views over and over but I can’t see how. I cherish this view knowing I won’t see this kind of view anymore in the sierras. Deserts are over for a while.
Stealthy texts me, “hey Mouse it’s smooth sailing on the downhill to Walker Pass!” he’s leaving Mcgiven Cabin now which is 8 miles ahead of me. I joke with him “maybe I’ll catch you!” He also says he’ll have a pizza waiting for me at Walker Pass campground. Nice. He has a camper van parked in his commercial lot there. He’s getting off trail at Walker pass instead of Kennedy Meadows South to burn time (2-3 weeks) for the snowmelt.
I continue on up the trail through ups and downs and beautiful yellow and purple flowers. I finally get to the road walk section leading to McGivern cabin and spring. It was in my opinion a miserable 2 mile walk uphill on a destroyed ATV road. Luckily I saw zero ATVs but if I had I probably would’ve tossed my thumb out. FarOut comments said to be prepared to jump into the bushes
I get to the trail Junction and decide to skip the cabin, I don’t need the water and it’s another .5 up a hill. I see Long Legs 50’ up the trail eating lunch and applying sunblock. Smart UV index is 10
“What’s up Long Legs, how’s it going?”
“ Good” he says
He was just taking a quick break and is ready to get going again. I join him and we start up the last bit of incline for the day. I tell him the next shady spot I’m going to do the same and grab myself a bit of lunch. I’m not in a huge rush. I told Stealthy I would be at the campground by four. It’s currently 12:30PM.
After a mile and a half I tell long legs. “This is my stop.” I pull over open up my food. In reality he was walking too fast and I didn’t want to keep up with that pace. Legs of long length was correctly named. So I eat some snacks anyways and lay my tyvek out and force chill for a half an hour. 1 o’clock rolls around, I pack some pocket snacks and I’m moving again.
I get a text from Stealthy who says he’ll be back before 3. He’s already hitch hiked, showered, went to Vons and it’s now back in normal life mode. That’s lines up with my schedule. I tell him there’s two Germans behind me who said they’d love burgers at camp. He says “Merica to the rescue, I got them covered.”
I leisurely walk for the last bit on trail and walk into Walker pass campground. Long Legs is here chilling he says he is heading to the highway to hitch hike. There’s 3 different people parked camping here but no one else. I grab a seat at the bench in the shade and walk back up to fill my water from the water cache. Thanks Sergio.
After a half hour of chilling at the bench alone the Germans Fearless and Wigand show up, I say hi. Tell them they can pick a site before I do. So we walk around a bit and pick camp sites. I pitch my tent in the wind and set up my sleep stuff. I step out of my tent and see a white van driving up the road with Stealthy doing the truck drivers horn arm pull motion. Let’s go boys! Tonight’s dinners here.
Stealthy shows up with 3XL pizzas, burgers, beers, Gatorade and cokes. What a guy. An hour later Coffee break shows up, 30 minutes after him Reaper and Stumbles. An hour later Seven walks into the campground completely sunburnt and walked right passed us. I had to yell his name. Zombie mode, headphones in. I toss him a beer and a slice of pizza. “sit down buddy you earned it.” I give him the recliner seat in the back of the van too.
We all hang around and have a great night. Talk about last nights meteor shower which Coffee Break cowboy camped for and said was “AMAZING!”. We watch the sunset together and talk about plans to burn time for Kennedy Meadows. Some people are going elsewhere to keep hiking (Vegas, NorCal, Oregon) some are pushing through the Sierras and the snow. And some of us don’t know what they are going to do like my self. I Kindve want to go to Death Valley or the Grand Canyon but don’t want to drive there.
I say good night to everyone and head to bed. Again at 8:45. Past hiker midnight.
The Pacific Crest Trail 