Section 7 - Tehachapi to Kennedy Meadows View Photos May 27 20 miles. I'm back on the trail after a nice day off with Cynthia. The first 8 miles were easy as I was able to run/walk--without a pack--the section between where Cynthia picked me up and highway 58 at Tehachapi Pass. Cynthia was waiting at the other end and we went back into town for a shower and breakfast. Now that's hiking! My feet were really hurting when I got into town 2 days ago. Yesterday, after a trip to the doctor to get a blister drained, Cynthia drove me to Bakersfield to get some new shoes. My feet have expanded at least as much in width as they have in length so I'm now wearing a pair of New Balance running shoes, width "4E." So far, so much better. On the way out of town--before a wild goose chase to Mojave in search of shoes--we ran into Shirt, Packrat, and Homebrew just as they were packing up to leave. I probably wont see them again for several days. Cynthia dropped me off at the Tehachapi Pass trailhead at 2 p.m. There were two other hikers resting in the shade. It was their first day on the trail and they were headed for Oregon. I hiked on alone and up 2,000 feet out of the canyon. Soon the Joshua trees and sage gave way to pinyon pines and wildflowers. I looked down and could see Mojave and Edwards Air Force Base simmering in the desert heat. It was really hard to say good-bye to Cynthia. I don't think I realized quite how much I missed her until the last day and a half. There's a lot of truth to "absence makes the heart grow fonder" and I choked back a few tears as I shouldered my pack and walked away. I'm camped tonight at the edge of another windpower farm. The turbines are churning in the evening breeze about a hundred yards away. It's another 130 miles to my next food pickup in Kennedy Meadows and somehow tonight's mashed potatoes and gravy don't make me yearn for more. May 28 22 Miles. This was one of the nicest hiking days since I left Big Bear. The desert is behind me. I'm in the Piute Mountains, a named ridge in the Southern Sierra. Most of the day I walked cool, pine and oak-covered ridges at 5-6,000 feet There were open, green meadows and vistas of deserts and the Southern Sierra peaks. Lupine, paintbrush, and other wildflowers were everywhere. The air is clear and the sky a deep blue. I can sense the closeness to the high peaks ahead. This afternoon a military jet banked over a nearby ridge, its sweeping triangular wings glistening in the sun. It roared off to points unknown and I was alone again. Packrat, Shirt, and Homebrew are almost a day ahead of me and yesterday's hikers from Oregon are somewhere behind me. I'm camped tonight by Robin Bird Spring--the first water in 18 miles. The wind is blowing through the pine branches and the full moon is ascending over the eastern ridge. May 29 23 miles. I was wrong about having left the desert behind. The trail took an abrupt right turn and dropped into the high desert this afternoon. I can still see the this morning's pine-covered ridge from tonight's sandy campsite under a Joshua tree. Walker Pass is 27 miles ahead and I could see the canyon in the distance today. It marks the real beginning of the unbroken Sierra that stretches for hundreds of miles to the north. From here there are two ridges running north, in parallel, up to Walker Pass. I think the trail builders must have decided to route us onto this lower, more easterly ridge to drop us right into Walker Pass. But what do I know, I'm just a hiker. Water is scarce in these parts. I had to detour nearly 2 miles off the trail today to a muddy cowpond to get water. The cows ambled off as I dug a little channel in the mud and scooped up the precious liquid. I poured it into my water bag and dropped in some iodine tablets for good measure even though it gets filtered before it gets to my mouth. It's the last water for 20 miles. There were again no other hikers today. I did see plenty of obnoxious motorcyclists gunning their machines through the scrub. Two of them apparently couldn't read the NO VEHICLES signs posted at every PCT road crossing and ripped up the trail anyway. Sadly, they weren't the first nor will they be the last. This is off-road vehicle heaven. The hills are scared with dozens of roads and trails for all manner of ATVs, 4WDs, and motorcycles. I don't understand the mentality but its flourishes here. May 30 27 long miles-- 1/100 of the PCT. I pushed hard and made it to Walker Pass today. Oh, the agony of da feet. The new shoes are great for blister control but they're a little short on padding. Where's my masseuse, dammit! I walked through scrub and Joshua tree-covered hills this morning. Another trail angel is at work here and I partook of much needed water from some 5 gallon jugs left just off the trail. Other hikers had written their thanks and I added mine before moving on. Soon I climbed back up into the pinyon pine-covered Scodie Mountains and had a nice walk for a while. As I came up over a ridge I glimpsed the High Sierra for the first time. I raised my arms in triumph and screamed "YES!" I'd been waiting for that moment since I left the border. There was a large--thousands of acres-- fire in the Scodie Mountains a year or two ago and I hiked through miles of charred timber. Eventually, the trail intersected and followed a dirt road which, unfortunately, is a favorite throughway for 2, 3, and 4 wheel off-road vehicles. It's Memorial Day weekend and I had to "share the trail", i.e. get out of the way, as several dozen loud and dusty machines careened through the bumps and turns. One driver stopped and asked me "is the way to the cabin?" I assured him it was--OK, I had no idea really--and he said "Good, I thought I was lost." Then he sped off in a cloud of dust. When the air cleared I continued walking and soon the trail left the road for good. I descended off the ridge right into Walker Pass and ran into Homebrew. Shirt and Packrat moved on earlier in the day but Homebrew and I will head out in the morning. May 31 23 miles. I hiked from desert to mountain to desert to mountain to desert to, finally, mountain. I really have left the desert for good now. After so many fits and starts, the Sierras have at last pulled themselves up from the sand and are headed for the sky. I'm really in the Sierras now--I can hardly believe it. On my way up the trail from Walker Pass this morning, I passed up Erica--a young woman from Vermont--who is solo hiking the length of the Sierra. She asked if I'd seen her purple sports bra. Actually I had seen it the day before, lying in the dirt on Scodie Mountain. I didn't think to pick it up as it could have been there for an hour or a year. Homebrew had also seen it and had passed on it as well. I have a feeling that she will become known as "Sports Bra" as that story spreads up the trail. I had lunch with Homebrew at Joshua Tree Spring, a long drop off this morning's high ridge. The trail is purposely routed on and off ridges from here all the way back to Mexico to get the hiker to water. There's rarely water on ridges. Rather it percolates down canyons and through layers of rock to exit in springs at the mountains' feet. It makes for some tough hiking but otherwise this trail might be called the Pacific Valley Trail. I'm spending tonight on a saddle at 6,900 feet under a pinyon pine. The air is cool and vistas foretell the days to come. June 1 22 Miles. I dropped off the ridge this morning down to a nice meadow and a refreshing coke with "Grizzly Chuck." Chuck runs a backcountry campsite and he--illegally--posted a sign on the PCT to come visit 1/4 mile up the road crossing. I obliged as did Homebrew and "Sports Bra." We spent an hour drinking coke and listening to Chuck's show-and-tell about different species of rattlesnakes. He showed us skins from several specimens including the highly venomous green and brown Mojave rattlesnakes. "Different color, same species," he says. THAT'S good to know. I had a beautiful walk today across high ridges with tantalizing views of the distant High Sierra peaks. Late this afternoon I dropped down to a large meadow in the Kern River drainage and an area of the Southern Sierra called "Domeland." It was my first view of the massive granite intrusion that is the Sierra. I walked on another few miles and am now camped on the South Fork of the Kern River. It's a short hike from here to Kennedy Meadows and my next resupply. The weather changed today. A front blew through this morning and I awoke to thick fog and cooler temperatures. The clouds are building again and I'm pretty sure that we are going to get some precipitation. June 2 8 miles today. I had a short 5-mile hike to the Kennedy Meadows store and then, late this afternoon, another 3-mile walk to the campground at the far end of the meadow. There's not much to Kennedy Meadows: a gas pump with no gas and a general store. The store has no phone, no restaurant, and has just been cleaned out by the Memorial Day camping crowd. I managed to snag the last 3 frozen burritos but it's 140 miles round-trip on narrow mountain roads to wherever the store owners go to get their supplies. The cashier thought that they might be back tomorrow but I wont stick around to find out. I was counting on a serious calorie injection and a day off here but it wasn't meant to be. It's 175 miles to my next food pickup at Vermilion Valley Resort on the shore of Lake Edison. I have 9 days of food, extra shoes and clothing, and an ice ax. I'm the only PCTer in this group who's attempting to make it to Vermilion Valley without an additional resupply. It will be the longest, highest, possibly the toughest, and probably the most beautiful section of the PCT. Several PCTers gathered at the store this afternoon to pick up their packages and buy whatever they could. Homebrew, Erica, Al and his German friend Josef, Jim, Margaret, and I relaxed on the store deck, drank beer, and chatted. When it started to get cold and cloudy we all packed up and ambled off toward the campsite. I'm now huddled in my tent at 6,000 feet and it's snowing. I hope it stops soon or tomorrow's climb will be very unpleasant.