Day 50: Walker Pass CG - Owens Peak wilderness (mi 652-656)

A hitching post makes for a great impromptu sock-drying rack. Gotta keep the socks clean to keep the feet happy!

We were headed north of the Domelands Wilderness Area. Nice to see the 'carry water' recommendation.

Nice sunset colors over the southern Sierra Nevadas.

Near0 day, as it turned out. I woke up to turn off alarm and evaluate how we felt @ 5 AM, and promptly snoozed until 7. We arose to eat pancakes (a trail angel staple, we are coming to realise), and after that, it was going to be too hot to hike. We sat around listening to the standard hiker prattling on about typical things for most of the day, too lethargic from the heat to contribute much in the way of conversation. Lunchbox, whom arrived yesterday and wasn't thru-hiking to Canada, decided to skip the remaining 50 miles to Kennedy Meadows and 'yellow blazed' (=hitched/got a ride) with Aloha. The rest of  the Wolfpack trickled in around midday, exhausted and heat-weary. We swapped stories about how horrible the climb after the second cache was, etc. Busted had been hiking alongside the Wolfpack at this point, and Busted had a couple bug bites on her back that looked symptomatic for Lyme's disease. Accordingly, a trip to the medical clinic for Busted was tacked onto t-Rex, rocky, starfox, sour cream & pants on fire's post office run. They took off nearly immediately, and weren't seen for hours. It was a really hot day. Few ventures were made outside the sun protection afforded by the tarps. The Wolfpack made it back and they were pushed, with Rocky near-vomiting on the ride back. We all ate dinner from Yogi and Jackalope, with help from Okie Girl and Coppertone. Smiles and I packed up to leave the the magic around 7:30 as the situation had become slightly tense, plus we knew that we would have a better shot at making it to good water tomorrow before it became too hot if we knocked a few miles out. We climbed up into Owens Peak Wilderness about 1200 feet and jammed along a ridge for three miles before stumbling into camp in the dark around 9. The campsite was promisingly fringed by tall pines, but again we knew we weren't out of the desert yet.