Tehachapi to Kennedy Meadows
5/16-5/27
We got vortexed at Barbara’s hiker hut in Tehachapi for three nights. It’s a common thing on trail to talk about getting vortexed (or stuck) in a town if it has good amenities for hikers. Barbara made it very easy to linger and postpone getting back on trial.
It just took one suggestion of “what about another night?” and we would all fold.
Thankfully, we were still waiting for some snow to melt further up trail so relaxing in town would make our future miles a bit easier – win win situation!
When we finally left, Barbara took the picture above to print out and put it in her hiker book that we signed. She keeps a book for each year she has been a trail angel and I really enjoyed flipping back to see which other hikers have stayed there before me. There were some that I met months before on trail.
Back on trail out from Tehachapi, we climbed quickly in elevation through the stretches of desert which eventually mixed in with sections of pine forest. It felt good to be back on trail and returning to the forest made it even better.
This water source was the only one for the next 21 miles! I carried 3.5 liters but probably should have brought a little more since we would be dry camping that night and would not get to the next water source until the morning.
I am grateful that I haven’t encountered too many long water carries because I started so early in the season. Hikers that start in late April or all of May have to be prepared for far less water and much hotter days.
The windmills still crept around the mountains and their whooshing blades made great white noise for a midday siesta under the trees. It was warm and Manon convinced me that I needed to take a nap with the rest of the crew to wait out the sun. It was a great call.
One highlight of Tehachapi was that I finally got to see Whitney on trail! Last September, I went on a solo-trip to Alabama Hills. There is free dispersed camping there but only in designated spaces that are spread out around big rock formations. I had spent a couple hours driving my little car around the dirt roads to find a spot but there was nothing available.
When I ran out of options, I built up the nerve to approach somebody and ask to share an area so I could sleep off to the side in my car. That’s where I met Whitney who gladly let me set up camp near her. After some conversation, we realized we were both planning to attempt the PCT six months later and we talked for hours. At this point, I had only talked to immediate family and friends about this dream and it was so exciting to create my first trail connection.
She was the only hiker I knew before getting on trail and we finally overlapped and got to hike together and compare notes on our experiences so far.
The warm weather brought out some snakes which I was hyped about! I had just had a conversation (and consequentially a nap dream) with Lachy and Clare about gopher snakes before our lunchtime nap. Seeing one right after was really exciting.
Within the hour, I also got to hold a fesity little racer. I’m used to them instantly zipping over the trail or up into trees so it was really cool getting to look at it up close.
At least with the common snakes on trail, I find that their appearances match their temperaments. The gophers snakes have small rounded heads and I’ve never held one that tried to move quickly or strike at me. The racer had more slender and angry looking eyes and it bit my finger while trying to wrestle free. The legless lizard that I found the next day had small non-threatening eyes and had less energy than an earth worm. It didn’t even bother moving off trail when I first found it and one was accidentally stepped on by another hiker.
After catching some snakes and a few horny toads, I was given the trail name Critter. It didn’t take long for my actual name to retire.
Hikers use their trail names in almost every capacity – even most times when ordering coffee or food town. It sometimes feels odd or too official to use your real name when you’re around each other.
Anybody I have met on trail since that day knows me as Critter and we don’t usually know each other’s real names until we follow each other on social media. Weird!
I started to cowboy camp this week and from then I went two weeks without setting up my tent. I really enjoy the simplicity of taking fewer items out of my pack and my tent doesn’t provide much warmth anyways. If there are not too many bugs or the potential for rain, then sleeping out on the ground is much more enjoyable for me.
I used to have some worry of scorpions and rattlesnakes and rats coming up to me while sleeping but I really don’t think about it anymore. I’m too tired at the end of the day and have found that I sleep soundly for 9-10 hours whether I use my tent or not.
I still saw all of the people that I hiked the aqueduct with throughout the week, but I mostly started camping at night with Free Bird and Vibes because we had a similar idea of how many miles we wanted to do each day. We’d meet up at random spots when one person takes a break and usually coordinate a place to camp together by the end of the day.
While hiking alone, I found a creek and decided to wash off and do some laundry. I don’t mind going a while on trail without showering but its really nice to find spots like these and to feel refreshed after.
I cleared out some of the creek and stacked rocks on the left to dam up some of the water. It was pretty cold and I was able to get it over a foot deep to bathe in.
I tried laying on a log above the creek to dry off but ants kept biting me so I moved up to a rock. After about 15 minutes of resting on my back with my eyes closed, I heard the slightest noise to my right and tilted my head over.
It was a rattlesnake slithering quietly along a few feet from my head. My sight was blurred from the sunlight and I went from “oh, snake” to “OH SNAKE!” I’m always stoked to see rattlesnakes but normally I’m the one approaching them and not barefoot in my underwear.
I popped up off of the rock and decided it was time to get dressed and back on trail. It rattled furiously for a couple minutes until it receded back around the rock.
A little ways off trail, there was a campground with a water source and it was packed for the weekend with hikers, their trailers, and their big off-roading toys.
Some of us hikers started to filter in to the camp to refill our water and we created a scheme to get some free food from the campers.
The forest had the biggest trees we had seen in weeks on trail and it got us all excited for what was to come in the Sierra Nevada range. Free Bird knows lots about forests in California from her fire ecology job which has led to some really cool conversations and I loved directing all of my random tree questions towards her.
Jeffrey and Ponderosa pines have the most incredible butterscotch smell with sap that smells like lemon. I tried really hard to identify the two but they can look very similar. I learned online that Ponderosas tend to be larger with more orange plates of bark and their pine cones are bit more prickly while Jeffrey pines have points that fold inward and do not feel as spiky. Both have groups of three needles around a similar length too. Conifers are very hard for me to memorize.
After a bit, we started to socialize with the people at the campground. Lachy, the Australian, went in first and started to play frisbee. A few more hikers joined in and we made connections that led to a delicious dinner.
Toasty was unsuccessful when she joked that she would take any free beer off of them too. That’s how we learned that they were an AA group that has been making trips annually there for 35 years. They’ve been feeding PCT hikers each year and it was a huge treat getting to meet them and spend dinner at their camp.
Later that night, we heard rounds of their clapping as they shared their stories and victories around a massive campfire. It was a sweet sound knowing they were fighting their addictions and building relationships.
We hung out and watched the stars from our beds. Aside from some very loud coyotes in the early morning, it was a peaceful night.
The food scrounging was a massive success.
Cinnabon, a trail angel, caught us as we were leaving in the morning and gave us cinnamon pastries, fresh orange juice, and a burrito for Free Bird!
She has also been managing some water caches on trail since 2002 and now has the boy scouts refill them for her. She gave us insight on cell service, weather, and other trail info and went on her way!
I got a hole in my air mattress that I presume was from all of the pine needles. Thankfully, the water source at the campground was deep enough to find the leak. The hole was so small that I almost gave up on finding it with the assumption that the valve was broken. After drowning the think for a while in the numbing water, I was so relieved to see the tiny trail of bubbles escaping.
This is a very common problem on trail and hikers usually choose to submerge their mattress in water or cover it in soap to see where bubbles form from the leak.
Vibes had been dealing with a deflating pad for weeks and we were able to fix his too!
The wildflowers were beautiful for the next many days on trail. I thought we would be spending a while in the forests after seeing the snowy peaks ahead and my first on trial deer.
Instead, we quickly descended back into the sandy terrain with endless lizards and occasional Joshua Trees. Some were not excited about this but I don’t expect to get these views in Oregon or Washington so I enjoyed them while we had them.
This was a massive water cache. Without these sources of water, I probably would have had to hike at night for these sections to survive the long water carries. This is one of the caches that is managed by the same trail angel (Cinnabon) who gave us food at that camp.
After having substantial meals at the campground, I felt hyper and full of energy for hours. When Vibes and I met up later, we were both feeling the same way and we joked that Cinnabon had laced the food with something because we were absolutely wired. I had delusional ideas of catching rattlesnakes and found myself running down trail instead of walking.
It was comically windy the entire day. I had to eat with a firm grasp on each item I pulled out of my pack and could hardly set anything down without it tumbling away.
At a later water cache, I found some of my first trail friends in a register! I left them behind when I got off trail for my older brother’s wedding and I wasn’t sure who had stuck together. It looks like Ivy was still with the Germans at that point which made me happy.
I loved Lili’s crossword puzzle full of inside jokes. I wasn’t expecting to follow along after being away for so long but could figure out a few of the words:) One of the hints mentions Nick and I because we talked about the movie Spirit on trail.
I love big open deserts🗣
Around this part on trail was the first time we could see Mount Whitney. It was very far away but seeing it in person made it feel like an imminent challenge.
Mount Whitney is not on the official PCT but is only a 16 mile round trip detour that doesn’t require an additional permit which makes it a tempting bonus peak.
We stopped at a cabin that was a little ways off trail because we wanted to celebrate Vibes’ birthday there. We tried arranging all of our sleeping pads to fit in the cabin but there were a few that ended up sleeping outside.
We saw a baby rattlesnake against a rock near the cabin. Only my 5th rattlesnake seen on trail and Ii was not in the best hiding spot.
I have since listened to a really great podcast about snakes by Golden State Naturalist and learned that rattlesnakes are very territorial and get attached to locations that they’ll visit year after year. Younger rattlesnakes have not staked out their spaces yet so they’re commonly found in odd places.
It was a really nice time at the cabin and I was there with One Shot, Shotgun, Chip, Bin Chicken, Pony Boy, Toasty, Snickers, Clumsy, Free Bird, Agent 37, Vibes, and Daisy Chains. This was the last stretch of trail before the Sierras where it would be easy to congregate with so many people. We took a group photo on film so I’ll have to update this if I ever see it.
This group also had a big game of tag going that would end at Kennedy Meadows. Whoever was it when we got there would have to buy a round of beers for everybody. You were only safe when you touched the street sign at the boundary to Kennedy Meadows.
We had a fire outside and lit up the furnace inside which was welcomed after the cold windy nights. Pony Boy and I also found some sun faded canned corn in the cabin and broke it open with a small knife and a rock.
The next day, it was time to go into town to resupply. It would be our last stop before Kennedy Meadows South (the official endpoint of Southern California on trail). From this road intersection, most pick between going east to Ridgecrest/Inyokern or west to Lake Isabella. I would have loved to see the lake but prioritized cheap groceries so we hitched to Ridgecrest.
It was not an easy hitch and I saw Traffic Cone and Knots on the other side of the road trying to hitch to Lake Isabella. I think it took them an hour to get a ride. At least there was free beer left on the side of the road!
After our waiting, a beautiful renovated bus named Lucille pulled over for us. The driver was the wife of a guy hiking the PCT and she was working remotely while hopping around on trial to meet up with him!
The bus was really well decorated inside and she travelled with her dog and a couple cats.
She had to get up to Kennedy Meadows in time for a virtual meeting so she brought us as far as she could. It was pretty hot but we eventually were able to hitch into town in two groups.
To increase our odds of getting a ride, Mona (the dog) and I hid behind a bush so cars wouldn’t be overwhelmed by our group size. Vibes and I caught a second car but he couldn’t leave his work route without being tracked so we walked another 2 miles into town.
Ridgecrest isn’t the most charming location for a zero but I was grateful that it was not tempting to stay there for longer. Town days always involve quite a bit of eating to make up for the calorie deficit on trail. Just on the walk to our motel, Vibes and I stopped at Burger King, Dutch Bros, and Chipotle.
We took one zero mile day and then got back on trail.
Although it took two hitches and two miles to get to our motel, it only took one ride to get back to trail! There was a free bus operating three days a week that went all the way to Lake Isabella and made a stop for us at the trailhead.
It was kind of funny getting to multiple stops in town and watching more hikers pile into the bus. There were not any non-hikers on the bus.
This is looking back towards the section of trail I had done. I am grateful that the PCT is graded well and full of switchbacks. Even though it’s a steady grind uphill, it’s easy to get into a good pace without especially steep sections.
Here, I started to get samples of what I expected I would see a lot of in the coming weeks. The mountains went from dusty clay to more rocky terrain with scree fields. Scree is not especially fun to walk on but sometimes the slow parts of trail (like snow) help me not to burn out or get tired because they make me walk more slowly.
I knew that horny toads have a unique defense mechanism – shooting blood out of their eyes – but didn’t really think I would see it. I was wrong.
This one got blood on some of my clothes and I felt kind of bad for picking it up but I had held five other ones without them exploding. Oof.
The only places I had cell service on trail were the areas where I could see east into the desert. I took these opportunities to call my mom and to rest under a tree. AT&T was pretty useless for the surrounding weeks on trail compared to what other hikers used. Once I had enough service to call home and order a bear can online, I didn’t really care if I had service again.
There was some abandoned structure on trail which I loved poking around. I didn’t even see a road to access this area so I’m not sure what all of this junk used to be or what it was used for.
I wasn’t planning to stop here but then Vibes caught up to me and we saw Free Bird alone on the other side of the creek. I gave up my plans to night hike by myself and we enjoyed camp together for the last night in the SoCal section. I couldn’t believe that we would be getting to Kennedy Meadows the next day!
The high Sierras in the distance!
The forests outside of Kennedy Meadows were as sandy as the beach. It was interesting to see all of the desert plants and flowers that I had seen in southern California but also mixed in with full pine trees.
Right before mil 700, we came across the south fork of the San Joaquin river! I hadn’t seen a river this big on trail since Deep Creek after Big Bear.
To celebrate finishing the desert, the three of us got in the water at mile 699.9
It was only three miles from there to get into Kennedy Meadows. As usual, we start to get excited for town food and I saw a little note in the sand that somebody had left about burgers.
When we finally got to the approach and could see the Kennedy Meadows sign in the distance, we were really excited.
A couple hundred feet from the sign, Vibes said “you know what’s even better?” before tagging me and sprinting ahead. I impulsively tagged free bird and ran ahead to the sign. Running uphill with a backpack on is not very fun but neither is losing the game.
We had been ahead of the rest of the group and thought we were safe from the big game of tag but he was keeping it a secret for two days. I thought he had tagged somebody else at Walmart when we were in town (because he said he did). Free Bird lost.
We made it! Before we could even touch the sign, a guy named Worldwide wandered up to us and offered to take our picture. He turned out to be incredibly knowledgeable about gear and the trail and is one of those hiker types who could do 40 miles a day and pretend its normal.
He helped adjust Free Bird’s pack when he saw how it was sitting and she said it felt significantly lighter.
The general store is such an exciting place to arrive to on trail. It’s a tradition to clap for hikers as they arrive so you get used to the patio erupting with applause whenever a new set of hikers wander up the street. We got a big applause when we arrived and hugs from plenty of people we knew. From what I know, there aren’t any other places where we do this.
The desert section can be really challenging depending on when you start and especially for people who aren’t from dry or warm climates. I have felt lucky that its where I fell in love with hiking and that I knew what to expect up until this point on trail.
Getting to mile 703 signified the end of that challenge and the beginning of a brand new one – big scary evil snowy mountains. Going into the Sierra Nevada mountain range is highly anticipated and easily the most discussed part on trail and there were some accompanied nerves in Kennedy Meadows as people gear up. I have the mindset that I’ll just do my best either way so I wasn’t too concerned about what would unfold or who I would hike with.
We camped in the back of the general store for free which happened to be a very beautiful place to stay.
During our few days there, we had campfires, watched movies, did trivia night, prepared for our next stretch of trail, called family and friends, and ate plenty of food.
For some reason, the two movies that were picked were horror films about hikers. I didn’t watch the first one but sat through The Blair Witch Project and was more entertained by Doink doing unimpressive shadow puppets during the commercial break.
The bottomless pancake breakfast was massive and exactly what I crave after trail. You can’t see the eggs, sausage, and hash browns but they were buried under the pancakes.
The breakfast was made by a hiker named Huckleberry who decided to take time off trail and work at the general store. I’ve heard that this is pretty common on the Appalachian Trail.
We were there during Memorial Day weekend so we saw some extra visitors coming through Kennedy Meadows.
There was also a Two Foot Adventures gear shop set up out front which was especially helpful for switching out gear before hitting the snow. Manon, who had been using a 37 degree bag, finally got a new one that was rated at 0 degrees.
After weeks of not using my tent, I set it up to have a place for my things and it got ambushed by some rat or squirrel. Tents made with Dyneema look flimsy and see through but they are not cheap by any means. I laughed thinking about my expensive tent getting damaged for a single bite of a tortilla.
I don’t want mosquitos feasting on me later on trail so I patched this up with some tenacious tape and learned to leave my tent open when I am not there as if it’s a car in San Francisco.
The gear additions I made before going into the mountains were some sexy beige zip-off pants, an ice axe leash, a dry bag for my quilt, and a bear can of course. I also picked up my ice axe and microspikes that I had shipped from home.
The dry bag would ensure that I had warmth if I got swept in a river and the pants were so I could slide down the snow since my rain pants got torn before.
For some reason, almost everybody paint their nails on trail. Somebody told me its so you can’t tell how dirty your nails get but I think it’s more of a boredom activity during town stays. There have been buckets of nail polish at a couple of places on trail and you I’ve been able to tell where hikers have visited if they have the same colors.
This is my BV500 bear can and its the biggest one offered by Bear Vault. It’s pretty tough cramming 7 days of food into this but that is what I had to do for the following set of weeks on trail. An approved bear food storage can is required in specified national parks and I would be using this for hundreds of miles ahead. I truthfully don’t know when I’ll be able to send it home but I’m sure somebody will tell me later.
It’s common to cover your bear can in stickers that you collect along the trail and I’ve already added plenty of new ones. The few at the bottom are my designs and I brought them with me and have been leaving them in trail registers. I have seen some of my friends with them on their bear cans and water bottles and they didn’t know for a while that I drew them!
My last full day in Kennedy Meadows was May 26th and the day before my 25th birthday. I wasn’t planning to tell the entire group but that didn’t work out. With some sneaky intel from my mom on Instagram, Vibes knew and they surprised me the night before. They got animal themed balloons (because I’m called Critter), and One Shot drew little ants on the birthday sign.
The following morning, we had some birthday cake with a misspelling of my trail name that an expert cake decorator at Walmart wrote as Crititer. They had already sang happy birthday to me so I insisted that they didn’t need to sing it again in front of everybody at breakfast. Instead, Clumsy joked that they should sing something random and then the patio was serenaded with Hollaback Girl before I blew out the flame of a lighter.
I felt very loved by the people I have gotten to know so far on the trail and it was so kind of them to pull this together and to even think of me when they did a Walmart run down to Ridgecrest.
It was time for some of us to go back to trail and everybody who was at the general store got together for a group picture before we parted ways.
For me, Kennedy Meadows was a last hurrah for the group I had gotten to know for weeks. The Sierras easily chop up big groups with the pressure of high mountain passes, deep snow, and river crossings. It is less feasible to stay on the same schedule so we formed a smaller group that we thought would keep the same pace. Free Bird, Vibes, Dream, Manon, and I left first and ventured off together.
The rest would press on together and regroup later in Bishop but I would be getting off trail two weeks later which would set me behind them all. I am so glad I got to spend that time in Kennedy Meadows and maybe I’ll catch some of them in Oregon or Washington!
Ahead of me were some of the most expansive, beautiful, and remote places I have ever experienced. I was excited that I got to spend my 25th birthday making these steps I had been dreaming about since I was 18, and the Sierra Nevada has been even better than I had hoped.
Bonus Critters:
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