We have survived so far!  We have now made it over 25% of the way and we just passed 700 miles a few days ago.  We are now in Kennedy Meadows, CA which is basically the gateway to the Sierras.  There is absolutely no cell phone coverage here and only an internet cafe that is run out of a trailer in the mountains, so please understand if we do not respond to many messages.  It has been quite a hike to get here, but we are now almost completely through the desert.  Our 8 day hike here went pretty smoothly compared to our last hike but as soon as we arrived I had to speak with the Sheriffs from 3 different counties.  This was after eating 2 double Rambler cheeseburgers.  You must have your priorities in order.

The beginning of that story goes a little like this, Snow Turtle and I made it to Walker Pass which was about 5 days into our current hike and at the bottom of the pass we saw the most amazing thing waiting on us, a blue tent full of fresh food and the most wonderful people in the world, Jackelope and Okie, cooking for us hikers as we made it off of the trail.  We downed a healthy amount of eggs and oreos and then headed out to the trail. 

We left around 10am and it was a sweltering day for us.  The temp was supposed to climb over 100 and as soon as we hit the trail, we were greeted with a climb over well over 1500 feet and the majority of the climb took place on a tightrope trail that was made out of fallen slate and granite.  We had to stop several times as it took us well over 5 hours to climb the slope.  I went around one of the turns watching my footing as the trail was made completely out of fallen rock to my left was the mountain side and to my right was a fall into the desert of over 1000 feet.  When you are walking on trail like that your eyes stay continuously glued to the trail so that you don't wander off.  In the distance the mountain looked as if it was bleeding some sort of white powder.  I assumed it was some mineral and headed up the trail to investigate.  Once I reached a small cutout in the trail I followed the powder into the bushes and there it was staring at me.  It was brown and looking down as if it was ashamed.  What was it?  I looked harder into the bushes only to realize that it was a bear cub that had busted open a bag of someone's food.  Where was the mother?  The trail was so narrow.  The mountainside was so steep.  She could only be in the bushes or below us.  We had to get out of here.  Kristi was roughly 1-3 minutes behind me.  I passed the cub and surveyed the area.  I could not see the mother anywhere.  I started yelling to Kristi.  No response.  Where was she? She rounded the corner. 

I yelled out, "Kristi there's a bear !"

Kristi responded, "What?"  "Where?"

"Bear....next to you...come on!"


She peered into the bushes and saw the bear and started moving my way.  That is when I noticed the rest of the scene.  There was a pile of clothes and someones shoes.  What the hell happened here?  No one leaves their shoes for any reason in this country.  We often take them off for breaks but who would run off without their shoes, clothes, or pack?  This was no good.  We moved up the trail as fast as we could.  The mother had to be around somewhere.  There was no way that she would leave a cub that young for too long.  We made it up the trail in record time clocking over 3 miles an hour with a heavy ascent.  No signs of the bear though we did not get the best sleep that night.

We just met a hiker named Sprinkles before leaving the tent with the food.  Where was Sprinkles?  We haven't seen him in days?

We made it into Kennedy Meadows a few day later only to meet up with another hiker who had come upon the same scene and came away with the eeriest of photographs of the cub and the clothes and the food.  The police were called and a search and rescue team has been sent.  We haven't heard anything yet and probably won't for some time as we have no cell coverage whatsoever and probably won't for the next few weeks, but it is a reality check for where we are. The good news is we found Sprinkles and he is ok.  There is no telling what happened on that mountain, but we obviously went through at the right time.

We now have our bear canisters and will be heading out into the Sierras either tomorrow or the next day.  The reality of where we are is now hitting.  The desert section is now over.  There are no more concerns for water or at least for the lack of it.  Now all we have to do is worry about too much of it.  It is bittersweet leaving the desert, because it was a new land something that neither of us have ever explored much less lived in for days, but we both have so much excitement about where we are headed.  We are going to be climbing mountains almost double the size of anything we have done so far and will be attempting an ascent of  Mt. Whitney in a few days which is the highest mountain in the lower 48.

We are both in good spirits as we move on as I think we both feel like children on the most beautiful playground on earth and it is open to us.  At the moment there is a non stop feast and hospitality abounds.  The locals here just put together an amazing table of food from chili dogs to shrimp to Mexican.  We are going to try to pull ourselves away from this place tomorrow, but I already told Kristi I want to buy a house here and purchase the general store which would bring the population to 202, but first we have to finish this trail, so onward we go. 

I will try to post some pictures and answer some emails tomorrow.  If we are unable to get to anyone, please understand the connection time for the internet is limited.  Thank you all for your thoughts, we will talk to you soon.

"The mountains are calling and I must go." John Muir