Kennedy Meadows and the Beginning of the high Sierras!

From Vince:

The last 150 miles have been a blast. Had another stretch of desert mountains, then climbed up into the foothills of the Sierras via the Tehachapi Mountains. It was the rainshadow of the southern sierras, so very dry. I had to carry water for my longest dry stretch yet - 35 miles. I carried 10 liters of water - 22 pounds, plus this was near the beginning of a 6 day stretch, so I also had a lot of food. At Walker Pass (mile 650), my great buddy Joey B. from high school (who also just got his ph.d.) drove out from Flagstaff, AZ for a few days. I got to swim in the Kern River - my first real river of the entire trip! Joey then accompanied me for 8 miles on the PCT. The following day I hiked 32 miles, which incorporated 3 climbs over 1500'. Hitting 30 miles in one day is a goal for all hikers, so I'm very excited to have made it.

I'm now in Kennedy Meadows, which is the starting point of the High Sierras! This is what we've all been working towards for the last 700 miles, so it feels great to be here. No more worrying about water! I'll only need to carry 1-2 liters. There were just a series of big late season snowstorms that deposited 2-3 feet of snow. I know a lot of hikers got stranded, and many had to turn around, so I'm glad I made it here a bit late. I'm at 6,000' now, but will soon be hiking for the most part at over 10,000' for a few hundred miles. Over the next 90 miles I'll get to climb Mt. Whitney (weather dependent) and climb over Forester Pass, the highest point of the trail at over 13,000'. I was lucky enough to find a ride a few hours away to stash food at a trailhead 90 miles from here to avoid a very tough hitch hike into town to resupply in a week. Thus, I won't be in civilization for 230 miles (until Mammoth Mountain), then from there it'll be another 200 miles off the grid (until South Lake Tahoe)! Bring it on!

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There are also new pictures up on the Photobucket page (as of last week), so check those out! Also, just to alert you, Vince will be out of contact for about 2 weeks, so I probably won't get updates for you til July. But, I'll keep you posted if I hear anything. Thanks for reading!