Day 53: Kennedy Meadows zero

I didn't write much for yesterday's entry, as I was too overcome with emotion (and R&R) to be bothered to write. In a nutshell, getting to Kennedy Meadows required an early wakeup from Chimney Creek to climb up and out of the drainage before the heat (typical). We attained the top of the climb and were rewarded with a panorama that included the high Sierras off to the north. We were ecstatic, then began the long descent to the south fork Kern River floor. The whole area had burned massively, and we were in the full sun for quite some time. Somehow time just seemed to drag on, thanks in no part to my botched lunch operation, where I decided it would be a great idea to cook mashed potatoes with tomato bullion. The concoction was borderline inedible, and too hot to boot. For some reason, probably hypoglycemia, the lunch failure put me into a big funk. We pressed on, passed the Kern River, and reached the much-anticipated 700 mile mark. We stopped for longer than normal, took it all in - the sage meadow, the river valley, the mountains -  took our photos, then walked the longest two and a half miles on the trail to Kennedy Meadows. Once there, we made ourselves comfortable at the Kennedy Meadows General Store, the only establishment of any kind in town. Tom's Place, a trail angel establishment just down the road, was full of trailers, had the town 'cyber-cafe,' had a disc golf course, and was generally full of hiker trash. We had a great night of sitting on the patio, conversing with hikers and locals alike. All the Wolfpack was there, along with Viking, King Street, the Pacific Rest Trail team, and approximately four dozen other hikers. It was a complete madhouse, but luckily the Kennedy Meadows locals seemed to handle the invasion of their solitude as well as could be expected. A local even provided us with some beer, which we drank while listening to John, a different local who used to be a CIA field operative as far as I could tell, confusingly pass on his wisdom and ask the gentle Sour Cream whether he was "a fighter."

Our zero day at Kennedy Meadows was spent mostly lounging in the shade, as the shade was still 95 degrees. We hung out with hikers, for the most part, as the locals were becoming more and more restless with our presence.