7/30/17: Kennedy Meadows North to Mile 991.7 Tentsite

Our goal today was to do a full day out of Kennedy Meadows. It is always hard to get to trail at an early hour but we really wanted to do at least 20 miles. We of course still needed to pig out before leaving so we got up in time to be at breakfast at the restaurant at 6am. We got to listen to some real country music while we ate and Cowboys milled about. We finished up quickly and by 730 or so we were ready to hitch back to trail. Kennedy Meadows is located a mile off the main road so we weren’t sure if we would be able to get a ride from the resort guests (not sure who’d be awake and leaving so early on a Sunday morning) or if we’d have to walk the mile to the road. As we debated what to do, a man sitting on the front porch of his cabin asked if we wanted a ride. We of course accepted and got in a truck with Rick and his dog Katie (who we later found out he got at a garage sale?!). We arrived at the trailhead around 830am. Not too bad!

We immediately had a climb over Sonora Pass. This was the pass that many nobos said was the sketchiest part of the Sierra for them so we were ready for a challenge. The actual trail does very long drawn out switchbacks but much of the mountain is still covered in snow so most hikers have opted to go straight up or straight down. Yote and 2.Toe fearlessly headed straight up. Wolf Bird and I were a bit behind and went straight up until we reached a rock outcropping. From there we were able to follow the last switchback of the trail–it was not even snow covered. I was glad we went this route as going straight up the steep snow scared me and Wolf Bird had to talk me through some parts. We made it to the top and it felt great to have conquered such a built up pass… It really was not bad at all!

From the top of the pass on it really felt like we were in the Sierra again! Finally! We had sweeping views of snow capped mountains for much of the next part of the day. We had some snow covered terrain but it was all very doable even without using microspikes on our shoes. We had many footprints and steps kicked in the snow that made our job even easier.

After a while we descended from the ridge and had an easy nearly flat walk through the valley. We noticed some dark clouds approaching. Next we heard thunder and soon enough it was raining… Followed by hail! This was only our second rain of our hike. It actually felt quite nice. It is so consistently sunny that any change feels refreshing. We simply put on our raincoats and kept hiking. We soon passed 1500 miles as well!! 

After an hour or so the rain stopped and we ascended Dorothy Lake Pass. We crossed a couple creeks where we had to get our feet wet (for the first time since we were last in the Sierra). The crossings were quite easy and soon enough we were at the top of the pass and then descending down to Dorothy Lake. We had planned to meet Yote and 2.Toe here so we plopped down by the lake to have a late lunch–it was already 430! The other two showed up only a short while later. Lunch was a bit miserable as there were some of the biggest swarms of mosquitoes I’ve ever seen by that lake! This is the new norm–after such a wet snowy winter the mosquitoes are now out in full vengeance. Luckily Deet really helps us avoid the worst of it. 

As we finished lunch and got hiking again, more dark clouds started rolling in along with thunder and some rain drops. We set off as a group of four and hiked together the last five or six miles of the day. We don’t usually hike as a group so this was a fun change and we had a good time walking quickly dodging mosquitoes and rain. 

We decided to make it to the 25 mile mark for the day and then look for a Tentsite. We found a flat-ish spot not long after and set up in a somewhat less buggy spot than the lake. What a great day!