Waking up in a real bed is euphoric… with AC blasting and the blinds all closed, we slept in a bit this morning and lounged around on the couch while finishing up laundry and other chores. We left the Air Bnb around noon and headed to our next stop - Big 5 sporting goods.

We had high hopes. New trail gaiters, new shoes for mackenzie, water bladders, and more. We were surely disappointed. No shoes, no trail gaiters, and no water bladders. After making our rounds to Marshall’s, Famous Footwear, and a grocery store, we managed to get what we needed. We then headed to a nearby Dennys to wait out the heat and consume our body weight in breakfast food.

We stayed at the Dennys until 4:30 PM. Rick, a local veteran that flew A4s and A6s for the Navy’s air to ground operations testing facility picked us up and drove us the 30 minutes out to the trailhead from Ridgecrest. Truly a wonderful person to meet that had great stories and abundant gratitude for his job, family, and experiences. The people we’ve met on the trail that haven’t even hiked the PCT have provided so much without asking for a single thing in return. Closing in on 40 days on the trail I’ve learned one thing for sure - there are so many wonderfully kind and generous people on this earth.

After getting to the trailhead, we had a 14 mile night hike. The temperature was hot but the sun was setting and thus the weather cooling. We were all so thankful to be on the trail. The views were incredible and the hike itself was very manageable… until about 1:30 AM. Our dogs were barking.

We made camp around 2:30. The two marked spots were already taken when we arrived so we all had to get a little creative. Spoons and Tumble set up their tent on a slope while Mackenzie and I are cowboy camped on a shoulder of the trail. I have a sense the mosquitoes will be our unfortunate alarm clock far too soon… it’s officially Mackenzie’s 25th birthday as well as I’m writing this now on the 25th in June. I’m sure this wasn’t what she expected for her 25th birthday.

Tired souls…

That mosquito alarm clock came true… around 4 in the morning, the buzzing began. Mackenzie and I were cowboy camped outside. Given it was so warm, we were just using our sleeping bag liners to sleep. Well, that was a mistake. We started to get bitten and grabbed our sleeping bags. Hiding in the excessive warmth, we slept another hour or so until the tent site next to us cleared out. I woke up and set up the tent as quick as I could and ushered Mackenzie in the tent to avoid any more mosquito bites. This was successful until around 7:45 AM when the sun poked up and created a greenhouse in our tent so we got up, I sang happy birthday to Mackenzie and we enjoyed a slow, goofy morning.

As we got started, Mackenzie’s blistered feet started giving her enormous problems so I employed the little tape jobs I knew and seemed to help ease her pain. What a birthday…

Progress was excruciatingly slow today. Miles did not come easy as there was intense elevation coupled with debilitating heat. The views always seem to snap us out of the struggle bus though. We’re entering the Sierra Nevadas in a day and can start to see the scenery changing. Luckily, the weather will change with it as well. We enter Kennedy Meadows South tomorrow evening officially marking the end of the desert section.

We’re camped next to a abundant stream surrounded by mining trash and an awesome abandoned old truck. Spoons, Tumble, Flora, Fauna, Mackenzie and I enjoyed an awesome camp fire as we made our meals. It was all fun and games until a black bear rolled up on our tent site. We’ve heard rumors of a very acclimated bear in the area with a yellow collar. This bear matched the description. It’s just used to getting easy meals at camp sites. Our group all charged the bear and began throwing old tin cans and rocks at it to scare it off. This led the bear to climbing to the top of an 60 foot tree. We kept at it with small rocks and finally realized we needed to let the bear get down from the tree before we all charged it again. After some time, the bear finally came down and we did just that. I threw a large gallon tin drum at the bear along with a couple rocks. The rest did something similar and the bear ran off.

We’re all exhausted and looking forward to some sleep. Fingers crossed we get no visitors tonight.

Happy campers…