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…