Kscaffidi - Pacific Crest Trail Journal - 2019

The drive home

We are up early and head downstairs for breakfast. Then back to the room to pack. Kevin runs out to find a cooler and fills it with ice from the hotel. We buy some drinks and are off to Kennedy Meadows to pick up the resupply Nikki sent there. We drive up 395 past wind turbines and the miles and miles of solar panels. The road up to Kennedy Meadows is steep and full of beautiful views of the desert valley below. We stop at Grumpy Bear's Retreat to pick up our bear barrels, ice axes and crampons and have a shake and a sundae. I run into one of the hikers that was camped with us at the rainbow bridge in deep creek. Kevin is talking with a hiker from France, Braveheart, who is off trail because of knee issues. She has a 6 month visa and plans to visit a few places before heading home. We give her a ride over to the Kennedy Meadows General store where she is staying, then head to the campground. We pick a site next to the Kern river and set up the tent. 2 women and their kids come walking by and stop to chat. They are section hiking the PCT and have many stories about their adventures. They live in Victorville, the city I could see on our way up to Wrightwood, near Cajon Junction. They were in deep creek on February 14th when the storm of the century came through, the one that destroyed Mission Creek. The small stream they crossed to get there had become a raging river so they had to take an alternate trail to get out. It was quite a harrowing experience for them. It's a clear night, the stars should be spectacular up here.
Day 2. It was colder than I thought it would be last night, but the sun hit the tent around 8 and we start to warm up. We have breakfast at the pic-a-nic table then break camp. Back down the winding, steep road to 395. We are heading up the Owens Valley and pass by Owens Lake which has been nearly dry since 1923. In Bishop we search out the Burger Barn that the women we were talking with yesterday told us about. I'd call it eclectic and the burgers were really good. We continue on to Mono Lake and stop at the visitor's center and ask the ranger behind the info desk if there is a place to see some tufas without having to walk too far. He sends us on an 11 mile wild goose chase to a parking lot where there is a quarter mile walk down to the lake and the tufas. We just turn around and head out to find a place to camp and end up at a county run campground near Lundy Lake.
Day 3 and we're headed to Sacramento. We take hwy 89 across to hwy 50. The first section of this highway is steep with beautiful views. At first there is just a wall of mountain in front of us and I can't see how the road could possibly get up and over, but it does. There is road construction along hwy 50, but we finally get into town. We stop at the BelAir market, my old go to grocery store when we lived in South Natomas, and buy some wine and other drinks before heading over to visit our friends, Marla and Dennis. It's hot today, 101 degrees. We have a lovely visit and head out late the next morning.
Day 4. We head up the valley on I-5. At Weed we leave the freeway and head towards Crater Lake. We arrive about 5:30. We can get up to the rim, but most of the drive is closed due to snow and the campgrounds are not open yet. We spend some time enjoying the beautiful lake then head to a usfs campground along the Rogue River.
Day 5. We drive all the way home today. I called my doctor yesterday and set up an appointment for Thursday morning. I'm hoping I won't need surgery to fix my foot.

Entry 43 of 44
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