Start point

Tentsite at 698.2

End point

Kennedy Meadows South, mile 703.4

Miles hiked

5.2

Wilderness area

Domeland Wilderness

Sequoia National Forest

People I met

Way too many to journal about

The day on trail

This is it. The official end of the desert. The landmark Kennedy Meadows South. The place where hikers congregate and formulate their groups and plans to survive the Sierra.

It’s one of the biggest moments for PCT hikers and there are two landmark institutions to camp and eat at: Kennedy Meadows General Store and Grumpy Bear’s. The offer competing free camping, $12 breakfasts with all you can eat pancakes, and laundry and showers.

The landscape continues to change.

And the miles continue to stack up.

We passed an abandoned house on some mysterious property.

The trail went from wide open to me needing to crouch under shrubs.

There were parts of the trail washed out by the swollen river.

We had to squeeze on the rocky banks between the river and barbed wire boundaries.

There was one last splash of flowers.

And then it was a road crossing. But not just any road crossing. It was Sherman Pass Road, the road to Kennedy Meadows.

We turned and excitedly walked along it. Normally road walks are the bane of a hiker’s existence, but this was just three quarters of a mile and the anticipation of KMS drove us along.

And we arrived. To applause and cheers. We cried from excitement and were beaming from ear to ear.

We had just missed breakfast. Dangit. I cooked up some hikertrash pad thai to hold me over and started talking to other hikers.

More and more people came in, with us hikers cheering each of them in. I cried from excitement so many times, so proud of my fellow hikers for this 700 mile achievement.

I love when people see what I’m doing. But to have it acknowledged by people who’ve done it too and know the struggles and successes is something else.

We hung out for a while and then caught the shuttle to Grumpy’s. We decided to rent a yurt there to have real beds and to get out of the weather for a night. We also grabbed dinner, and I had the legendary triple crown burger, hold the bacon.

Holy moly. I’m in Kennedy Meadows.