PCT: Day 69

Today is the day we finally, officially finish the desert. We hike an easy 8 miles into Kennedy Meadows and pass a really rare site, a flowing river, weird, right? We pass the 700 mile mark along the way. We’re greeted with applause as we reach the General Store. We’ve been looking forward to this for so long that it’s hard to believe we’re finally here. After a few minutes at the store we hitch a ride with Mad Dog to Grumpy Bears to eat lunch, pick up packages, and setup camp for the night. We’re spending one night here before Blue Lizard’s parents pick us up to head south to Idyllwild to pickup miles we skipped there. It’s been a low snow year in the Sierra, but we still want to wait a bit longer for snow to melt before entering.

We all eat burgers for lunch, and Waterboy cruises nonstop through one of the largest burgers we’ve ever seen. Hiker hunger is real. We setup tents after lunch and realize we’ll be camping in a hot, dusty field of dirt. It’s been an hour since lunch so of course we go back for shakes.

While visiting with friends we see Mad Dog pull up next door. He mentioned he was heading into Ridgecrest and we realize that if we catch a ride with him we’ll be closer to Blue Lizard’s parents tomorrow and in a hotel tonight. Blue Lizard catches him, and he agrees to give us a ride. We hurry back to our tents, packup, and are in a hotel within a couple hours.