June 5th
A Hot day, even at our elevation. Our destination, Kennedy Meadows, was only 21 miles away, but we wanted to get there before the store closes at 5pm, so we started early and hiked with few breaks.
Much of the day was through a large area that burned in 2000, shadeless and hot. Occasiona,l glimpses of Mt Whitney and nearby peaks provided a pull to keep moving on, the promise of cooler hiking ahead.
Our big climb, 2,500 feet was through the middle of the burn are, long, shadeless and hot.
Right On and Blue Moon as well as the horse people were on the same agenda and we saw them throughout the day. For lunch we took advantage of the meager shade offered by a large charred tree in Rockhouse basin. The creek was disappearing into the sand, literally, before our eyes. It was flowing as we watched it during or descent and the hikers before us had arrived to water. We found mud and walked upstream a couple hundred yards to a small pool of water. During lunch the creek receded even further with the mud baking dry.
We pushed the last 9 miles in about 3 hours to make the store before it closed, skipping a nice and inviting swimming hole in the Kern River only to find that since its Sat the store is open until 11pm, sighhhhhhh…wish that we had taken that swim, but we were glad to have soda, ice cream, snacks and beer on demand all night. There were many hikers hanging out on the deck, happy reunions and new acquaintances. Good to see Adam, Supertramp and Halftrack again a well as many others. The deck provided welcome relief from the 98F temp, very hot for our mountain meadow, normally a retreat from the heat.
Saturday night is the big night in Kennedy Meadows with free movies, tonigth’s was “Seabiscuit.” We crashed near the store, in the sand near the outdoor movie amphitheater to await the morning opening of the store.
