There weren’t any beds in the dorm last night, so we set up tents in the designated PCT hiker area. The biggest difference I’ve noticed between the PCT and AT trail communities is one of attitude and cliqueishness. From my perspective, the AT community is much more open and accepting of all people you meet on the trail. A day hiker or section hiker is not looked down upon (as much) as these lesser life forms are on the PCT. If we, as gods of the AT (we were thru-hiking) would have looked upon our lessers with the same attitude as a PCT hiker does to lesser hikers, we would have never become such good friends with Bear and Sassy.
Even though they were mere section hikers at the time, we befriended them and introduced them to all our friends on the trail. They eventually brought us down a notch in the pecking order to become the social pariahs we are today—LASHers (Long Ass Section Hikers). We still love them even though they have ruined our trail image.
In reality, they are much stronger hikers than we are. Even a sick Sassy is hard for us to keep up with. Bear is the strongest and most detail oriented of our group. The only differences between older hikers and younger hikers is money, time, and physical recovery time. They have all three on us (yes, we are the younger couple of which I am the youngest in our foursome—that’s why I get to ride in the back of pickup trucks by myself while they sit up front in AC. I understand they need the extra space to “spread out.” It just hurts a little when the driver stops to pick up another hitchhiker and they make room up front. They will, on occasion, open up the rear slider to allow me to hear their joyful conversation while I’m sitting on a spare tire. It takes me back to my “dungeon days” in the Whites. My point in all of this? I forgot.) Now I remember, it wasn’t Bear and Sassy that ruined our trail lives. We did it ourselves by choosing not to risk our lives in deep snow. Bear and Sassy saved our trail images by agreeing to hike with “fallen” thru-hikers.
North Kennedy Meadows has no connection to Kennedy Meadows South (other than the Kennedy name and being a meadow). This Kennedy Meadows was once owned by an asshole Irish immigrant who killed 2 men for fishing on one of his lakes. They didn’t know they were trespassing. Ignorance of the fact was no excuse. He shot one, made the other carry him back to his cabin, dig a grave big enough for two, and then hung the guy that did all the work because he wasn’t worth the cost of a bullet. Nice guy.
We took the zero day here to allow Sassy recovery time and to eat. The restaurant here has very good food with reasonably priced steaks since they raise their own cattle. This is, more or less, a horse camp. People come here to ride the trails rather than do the manly thing and hike. (Yes, Bear and I have manly wives. It’s why we are both so meek.)
Bunny and I resupplied here. The prices and supplies are pretty geared towards hikers. I felt a bit bad spending a little over $100 for six days of food until a nobo behind us in line spent $160 for his 5 days of food to get him to Lake Tahoe. I guess our hiker appetites haven’t kicked in yet.
Once the “royalty” of the trail packed up and left this morning, Bunny and I moved our tent into the shade closer to the water. We also cleaned up all the crap the spoiled, self entitled, brats left behind. They deemed us not worth talking to last night because by the time we showed up to set up our tents, we had already done laundry and showered. They had been here a couple of days and hadn’t bothered to do either (even though it’s included in the $30 price to camp here).
It wasn’t until evening that we started running into other lesser trail types who were also LASHing. We met a few couples that had also started in 2019 and had to skip large portions of the trail because of the snow. It’s really funny that the group of Nobo’s who left today were still so arrogant. Of the 2 van loads who went out, I would guess only one or two hikers actually have a chance of completing their thru-hike this year. Any hiker who is only to this point after more than 2 1/2 months of hiking, will have to flip north to have any chance of finishing. By their own definition, they are mere section hikers that haven’t done the math yet. I spit on them. The only nice thing I have to say about any of them is that they liked my Yoda pajama bottoms.
All in all, this was a restful day of overindulgence. We were able to make up our calorie deficit we had created since South Lake Tahoe. We had showers and laundry. The only thing missing was an actual bed to sleep in. The dorm rooms above the restaurant were full last night. We could have moved into a bed tonight, but we heard from several people that the rooms were hot and noisy. It was much better sleeping next to a River that drowned out most of the camp noise.
EFG
Which direction do you go from here?
4 1/4 inches of rain yesterday. 3 1/2″ a week ago Saturday.