PCT Day 59
June 28 2021
Mile: 693.6 to 702.6
Start: The Scorpion King campsite aka Manter Creek tent site
Finish: Kennedy Meadows South, Grumpy Bear’s Retreat
After last night’s ordeal with the scorpion invasion (aka real life Whack-a-Mole but with pissed off scorpions instead of robotic plastic rodents) and all of the drama that we’d heard about overly curious bears in the tentsite area, we somehow woke up still in one piece. Our foodbags were still hanging 30 feet high above the sandy creek banks from a branch in the cottonwood trees and were completely untouched. Luckily we hadn’t had any more run-ins with scorpions or the local overly curious black bear population. We had survived the night! And as a bonus, we only had to hike a few easy miles to the legendary Kennedy Meadows so the day was going to be a breeze.
When the sun started baking us in our tent, we grudgingly woke up and started packing up our gear, our spirits high. Last night we had heard a few critters rustling in the brush by the creek but it’s to be expected since it’s the only reliable water source for miles around that’s not dried up. Shannon checked that our food bags were still there hanging in the tree and carefully untied the paracord, watching for any vengeful scorpions as he pulled down our food. Hikers only a week or two ago had said that the local black bears here had grabbed their food that was hung up in the trees and harassed them in their tents. We saw lots of old bear footprints in the sand now that it was light out but nothing looked fresh. We dodged that bullet!
Shannon and I made breakfast in the sandy campsite and packed up unhurriedly. Having camped several hundred feet from the creek so as to not get in the way of thirsty animals needing a drink of the water, it was kind of a pain refilling our water bladders but well worth not getting circled at night by overly comfortable black bears. None of our gear had scorpions in it either since we’d brought everything in the tent so the day was looking to shape up to be a good one! Not getting eaten by bears, not getting stung by scorpions and only a few miles to hike – what more could a PCT hiker ask for?
On the hike out, the trail was lovely and flat, following coyote and bear tracks in the sand. Lots of large tawny and gray desert hares hopped away from us, their huge ears like little beacons announcing their presence in the flat barren waste. The trail entered some gorgeous and wonderfully shaded pine forests and we did a little victory dance at these signs that we were soon to leave the awful desert and head up into the cooler and wetter mountains. Small black bear tracks followed the PCT in the woods for a while, maybe only a day or two old so we were vigilant in our lookout for the enterprising scavengers.
Soon we passed by a tributary of the “Killer Kern” River where the water was slow and calm and didn’t appear to be too murderous today. We splashed about at a swimming hole, dipping our dirty selves in the cool clear pools alongside 12 to 16 inch long golden trout. With the drought the river was super low and the trout had been trapped in this section of the river, hanging out in the deep pools to stay cool. Shannon almost touched a trout in the small pool he was swimming in but they proved to be too wily for us to catch barehanded like Bear Grylls. I think we definitely looked more like Gollum from Lord of the Rings chasing around the trout and shrieking, “My Precioussss!”
We also tried our hand at panning for gold in the creek with our cooking pots after seeing shiny flecks sparkling along the bottom. After swirling around dirt and rocks for a good long while in our cook pots to be left with only a couple microscopic flakes, we realized that it was a lot more work than we thought it would be. Taking a closer look at the “gold,” we saw that it was black on one side which we were pretty sure meant that we just found pieces of pyrite, or fool’s gold. All that work for the river to call us fools!! Regardless, we had a lot of fun cooling off and snacking in the reeds and the willows next to the river.
After a while, we realized the sun was getting pretty high up in the sky and we should probably get moving since we were still in the desert with no shade to speak of and the midday heat would be brutal. Reluctantly, we headed down the trail another 4 miles to the Kennedy Meadows access road, passing through more hot sand fields and confusing dirt road shortcuts that might have led to Grumpy Bear’s Resort or might not have. “Turn right at the busted up meth house” was not listed on the map or in the Guthook navigation app. So we skipped trespassing down Meth House Lane and hiked on until we found a paved road. The shortcut was supposed to take out a couple miles of walking but it was so confusing that we just decided getting chased or shot at by whoever lived in the shack with broken windows and doors was just not worth the risk.
We found out later that a local with a grudge on Grumpy Bear’s recently had ripped down the posted maps and signs on the trail to the resort. He had also prank called the guys at Grumpy Bear’s until the owner confronted him and he had stopped. Guess it’s not that hard to figure out who is messing with you when only 80 people live in the valley and more than half of them never leave their houses!
Shannon and I hiked past two different 700 mile markers which was doubly exciting to know that we’ve walked that far from Mexico! Unfortunately in our gold panning excitement earlier we had misjudged how much water we were going to drink and both ran out of water during the hottest part of the day about a mile or two from the local general store. Instead of cutting across the fields to the river to filter water, we were pretty close to the Kennedy Meadows General Store so we stupidly decided to keep hiking with a tiny portion of hot water left in the bottom of a Smartwater bottle. The water quickly ran out and the temperature of the liquid was so hot from the sun beating on it that it almost burned. I would try to hold each sip of hot water (essentially backwashed spit at this point) in my mouth to wet my tongue and be able to swallow. Shannon started to get a headache so I gave him more of a share of the nearly boiling water.
Down the hot road we walked, probably the longest .7 miles in my life and finally made it to the Kennedy Meadows General Store. Shannon sat in the shade under some picnic tables while I purchased us each two new ice cold Smartwater bottles and some other cold drinks. Under the shaded stick roof we enjoyed our new fancy plastic Smartwater bottles like we were fancy hikers. Talk about Bougie Hikers – that was us with our brand new shiny water bottles and my “Gucci purse” (aka a plastic bag to hold my credit cards and money with the hand drawn words “Gucci” labeled on it). It was time to retire our old water bottles that had seen 700 miles of use and were beat to shit but somehow still holding up. You can’t beat the Smartwater bottle – virtually indestructible and weighs a mere ounce or two compared to heavy Nalgene or plastic water bottles.
The General Store was dark inside, decorated with farm equipment and outside stylized in old cowboy western style with rough hewn wooden beams holding up the place. The place seemed to pretty much be unchanged from the 1800s, except now they had a generator for electricity for the refrigerators and a new electric cash register. It was pretty cool and it felt like we were cowboys living with the first settlers in the area. A small herd of dogs darted in and out of the General store, settling in cool shaded spots near the PCT hikers to get out of the heat.
We sat in the shade of the porch to rehydrate and regroup, where there were some other hikers hanging out. I ordered Shannon a turkey wrap and I got a burger from a sweet lady named Sue. We chatted with a hilarious older hiker named Draggin’ whose name was short for “Draggin’ Ass” since he had started hiking on April 9th and was averaging about 6 miles a day on the trail which would mean he’d be finished with the whole Pacific Crest Trail in about 15 months. Unfortunately this trail is too dangerous to hike the majority of the trail in the winter so he wasn’t sure what he was going to do but hey, he was having fun! A young guy carrying an entire tripod with a DSLR camera informed us he had a full-sized laptop and a drone with him to film and edit the whole trip. That was so much extra weight – probably like an extra 10lbs in filming equipment! Hike your own hike though.
A somewhat obnoxious woman kept talking about how Los Angeles was the best place ever and how cultured she was and had an opinion on the “best way” to do everything hiking related. She wouldn’t let anyone else get a word in and kept talking about cleanses and some stupid MultiLevel Marketing crap (aka pyramid scheme) she was involved in. We nicknamed her “Tofu B**ch” because she made it plain that she was one of the first to know about weird hipster stuff like dehydrated tofu because she lived in L.A. (aka the center of the universe). Later on, Tofu B**ch’s nickname would change but more on that eye-scarring event later.
While we were hanging out trying to be friendly to the other hikers, a cute ivory colored cat came over to us for pets. She was so sweet until I got her riled up and in trouble by one of the ladies who worked there when I had her play with my phone cord and she went nutso. We were trying to figure out a way to travel the 2+ miles to Grumpy Bear’s Resort in Kennedy Meadows without having to walk which proved to be more difficult than we thought. There was no cell service and the ladies at the General Store said we could pay for a 24 hour internet pass for $10. We didn’t want to spend money when we didn’t have to and were leaving soon and the guys at Grumpy Bear’s would come pick you up for free – you just had to contact them. There was a working pay phone but for 4 minutes of talking it cost 4 quarters so we’d have to hope that our convo would be quick. Also we had to remember how to use a pay phone since it probably had been 15 or 20 years since the last time either of us had used one! We’ve been seeing a lot of payphones lately, and way out here in the boonies it seems like they’re still very much needed where internet is sparse, city plumbing is none existent and electricity shuts off at night when the generator goes out.
We mulled it over and ended up “calling” for a ride to Grumpy Bear’s by using satellite service to text Scott at the resort via my Garmin inReach Personal Locator Beacon. And as that was free, since I’ve paid for the service regardless. Scott from Grumpy Bear’s Cafe came and picked us up mid afternoon and we headed out the two miles down the road to the cafe. We 100% could have walked it but we try to avoid doing extra miles whenever possible and it was way nicer that Scott came and picked us up. They do free shuttles, free camping, free showers and free laundry at Grumpy Bear’s Cafe, which is so sweet of them. It also helps hikers feel more comfortable and willing to stay an extra day to spend more money at their restaurant and bar. Sounds like a solid business model to me!
Once we arrived at Grumpy Bear’s Resort, we quickly stopped by the famous Triple Crown Outfitters to grab my new pair of shoes and a bit of resupply gear before they closed at 3pm. We met world famous PCT guidebook writer Yogi (aka Jackie), who had written the very guide that we had purchased for planning our Pacific Crest Trail trip. She was closing earlier than normal due to the “hiker bubble,” or number of hikers coming through daily, shrinking so we told her that we’d see her in the morning to finish resupplying.
Back at Grumpy Bear’s, we did our laundry for free, showered for free and tented out in the shade of the pine trees for free. It was so lovely and I almost felt guilty for their kindness. We line-dried our clothes and grabbed a dinner of burgers topped with chili and avocado and chased down with a couple of Moscow Mules for me and beers for Shannon. One of the bartenders, Penguin (aka Guino) who thru-hiked the PCT a few years ago bought us a round of drinks to celebrate us getting secretly married in a week or so!
After the bar closed at 6:30pm because of how dead it was, I went arrowhead hunting with Guino. On the grounds just outside the bar, we found tons of obsidian tool pieces just like Shannon and I had found yesterday up in the rocks. With drinks in hand, we stumbled around the desert and found a bunch of flakes and chips but no whole arrowheads or anything like that. Guino said that recently across the street at the stop sign, one of the locals found an entire Native American obsidian spear point completely intact about 8 inches long. That’s pretty amazing!!!
Shannon and I hung out for a bit on the porch after the bar closed and then headed off to bed early. We had eaten dinner with a guy named Ted pronounced “Tee-ED” who was super great. Over dinner we laughed, shared sad memories and reflected on why we were out here on trail. We also had received a bajillion packages sent to Grumpy Bear’s and went through them like it was a birthday party or Christmas, opening one package after another. It was kind of like Christmas when we open the packages and everyone laughed and we laughed with them during the night. We had sent ourselves some replacement gear but also wedding stuff like a tuxedo t-shirt for Shannon and a short white dress for me to wear atop Mt. Whitney. Woohoo!!
We ended up sending a bunch of stuff home that we didn’t end up needing for the Sierra Nevada Mountains like our ice spikes and ice axes. Yogi actually told us that Triple Crown Outfitters had stopped selling them in her store 6 weeks ago because there had been so little snow this year. At least that was encouraging that we’d have a clear route through the Sierra Nevadas with little to no snow.
When we were tenting during the night what sounded like a bear came snuffling by outside our tent, pushing some stuff over. We had just gotten our bear canisters but hadn’t unpacked our resupply boxes mailed to us so our food wasn’t all safe, especially in the vestibule of the tent we were sleeping in. Shannon woke up with me and together we moved our boxed up food into the bathroom temporarily. Turns out the noises were probably just Diamond who is a hiker who showed up around 10pm at night. Maybe he makes snuffling noises? Who knows!
During the night the local coyotes seem to be making fun of the dog owned by Triple Crown Outfitter’s boyfriend. The dog was going crazy barking at the coyotes in a certain pattern and the coyote seemed to mimic it, making the dog go even more crazy. It was definitely an interesting night but I was grateful for the dog across the street and hoped that he’d keep away any overly curious black bears!
