Day 67 – Sunday, July 30

PCT Mile 1005.9 to PCT Mile 1017.9
Day Total: 12 Miles

We had a big climb this morning, up and over a ridge and then down to the highway at Sonora Pass.

From camp, we crossed Kennedy Creek on a snow bridge. A snow bridge and it's almost August!
Then we traversed a number of long snow fields on the climb up to the ridge. We followed footsteps because the trail was nowhere to be found.

At the top we were treated to views of mountains in every direction. We also found cell service for the first time in a while, so we sat and ate a big breakfast while catching up on emails and texts.

Stephen downloaded a news podcast and we listened while enjoying instant coffee and pop tarts.

The descent to Sonora pass included some ridge walking, walking on scree and loose rock, and crossing snow fields. We got to glissade down a few slopes, which always makes me happy.

We met a few groups of day hikers and we hurried down to the road as dark clouds started to move in. We were racing the storm to Kennedy Meadows general store, where we planned to buy more food for the next four days to South Lake Tahoe.

At Sonora Pass, which has history back to wagon trains in the 1840s, we started trying to find a ride.

We walked down to a van where a group of California Conservation Corps workers were eating lunch and started chatting. It was a few minutes later when I realized I recognized one of the girls – she had worked in the Yellowstone YCC program two summers ago! She was surprised to see me, and told me the crew leader had also worked for YCC in Yellowstone. Small world.

They gave us a ride to Kennedy Meadows (different from the Kennedy Meadows at mile 702) and fortunately we got there just before the skies opened and thunder and lightning followed.

We ate a big lunch at the restaurant at Kennedy Meadows, washed our grimy clothes, and chatted with some flip-flop hikers who flipped to Ashland, Ore. to skip the snow. We bought some food, and ate ice cream, and mailed our bear canister off to a friend since we're no longer required to carry it.

We hitched back to the trail at 8 p.m. We walked in a mile to a campsite tucked in the trees and set up the tent as it got dark. We figured by camping there we would get a much earlier start than if we spent the night in the bunkhouse at Kennedy Meadows, ate breakfast and then hitched back to the trail.