Saturday, May 13 — day 48

PCT miles 702.23 to 704.66
Today is a Nero day (Near-Zero miles)- Piyush from work is driving out to camp with me! I tried to sleep in but my badder had other ideas so I got up and found a seat in the rising sun. I caught a ride to the local restaurant called Grumpy Bear’s, known for their unlimited, huge pancakes and weak internet signal.

I could not finish my meal. I returned to the Market, packed up my camp site and moved to the deck area to sort my resupply. I really have no idea how many days it will take me to get to Cottonwood Pass. I know I will hit snow and that will slow me down, also the weather could go bad. I’m guessing I’ll need 5 days. I stared down every food item and came up with five days and created a return box for Piyush to take back.

Piyush arrived at 11ish and we drove to the official Kennedy Meadows Campground and selected a spot near the Kern River. The water flow is strong here too so there was no place to wade. We decided to hike up and back to where I left the PCT to get to the Market to log those 2 and 1/2 miles, and possibly see a rattlesnake and/or a Horned Lizard. All we came up with was a Leopard lizard.  Sorry, no photo of the lizard, but here is Piyush

Piyush wanted to be my personal Trail Angel and he cooked me Kal Dosa’s for lunch and Nan with two different Curries for dinner. I was stuffed! 

We started a campfire once we were certain the wind had calmed and chatted about events in the office over the last few months.  

There were no clouds and the moon was not yet up so we were able to see lots of stars and four satellites. I fell asleep as soon as I crawled into my sleeping bag.  A great Nero!

Thanks for reading!