A RESTLESS DAY

PCT DAY 38: Kennedy Meadows – Rest Day # 3
Saturday May 21, 2016: Zero Mile Day

A stunning full moon woke me up several times through the night.  It feels like someone has left the lights on in the tent. Kennedy Meadows is so not what I thought it would be.  It is not a meadow at all. The campground is up a sandhill behind the general store. We are camped in a lovely quite spot up the hill from the noise of party goers at the Store verandah and the generator (which does go off at 9 pm).

After 7 days without washing or a reliable phone service we were looking forward to a shower, laundry and an email and a blog update. It turns out each of these is proving to be difficult.  Shower is a timber enclosed outdoor cubicle on a first come first served basis.  For $3 they provide a towel, hot water and shampoo. That was OK but yesterday the wind was so strong and cold and hot water had slowed to a trickle. So we decided to wait until this morning.  Shower ticked. Laundry was a bit more problematic. We were scheduled to do our wash at 4pm today and had to dry our clothes on a line.  Little chance they would be dry in time. So we had washed our clothes in the shower this morning. It would have to do.   The Internet was only available at Grumpys Bar about 3 miles from the General Store. We got the shuttle at lunchtime. Lunch was great but the WiFi connection at Grumpys was more frustrating than nothing. It was soooo slow.. it was not worth the bother. So we have another 10 days in the Sierra mountains or more,  assuming it is passable, before we will have further phone contact.

It is the first time on the trail so far I am thinking of getting off just so we can catch up on news from home, the weather report, snow cover updates etc. We feel like we are inside a rumour mill at Kennedy Meadows  with lots of other hikers with no better information than we already have. So we have decided to hike on into the Sierra range tomorrow. We will assess the snow situation against our own preparadness and comfort level. If we are not confident of getting through the first pass, Forrester Pass which is at just over 13, 000 feet and is the highest point on the PCT, then we would turn around and head out at Cottonwood Pass and onto Lone Pine.