Double zero

Day 42

Second zero day

Kennedy Meadows

Because of Kevin’s foot and my blisters we had decided to take two zeros here. Sleeping in til 8 am felt so great this morning. We have tried to make this double zero not super expensive so we are eating from our resupply box and some cheap meals at TCO and I scored some good stuff from the hiker box too. Hiker boxes have been gold so far, lots of stuff other hikers don’t want that have been super great for me!

It has been really fun to be here for two days and see almost everyone that we have met on the trail that was behind us. We have seen a few groups that started with us but had taken longer breaks in towns and such and now they have caught up. We are starting again tomorrow with one group that we have really enjoyed hiking with.

It has been awesome hearing how everyone is doing and learning more about people’s backgrounds. I talked with one woman from Switzerland today for awhile. She is a social worker and was telling me about what that is like in her practice and we were comparing notes to what counseling and social work was like here.

Then I talked with a marine botanist who studied frogs and whales. I learned so much about whales in the North Atlantic Ocean and what she has been working on with her team of protecting the whales and helping to change legislation and fishing practices to not harm the whales. It was so neat to hear how these measures are working and things are getting better. I think I don’t always get to hear about these types of hopeful situations. Also I love whales and loved learning about her work.

Then we spent some time repairing our gear. I sewed our gaiters again and put some patches on Kevin’s. Then we patched our tent. I don’t think our tent will last for this thruhike which is disappointing. It has gone over 3,100 miles so it isn’t like it is just breaking on day one but tents are so expensive so we were hoping it would make it. The DCF fabric is weather worn.

Tomorrow we set out into the Sierras! I am very excited to be up in the mountains again! We have done some hiking around this section and we have been in mountains a lot so I’m not too nervous about that aspect but there is always the cautious thought in the back of my head that the mountains can whop your hinny in a matter of seconds and be life threatening. Mother Nature doesn’t give a crap about your experience and knowledge but always has the upper hand. I like to call this cautious part of me a healthy respect for the mountains because there is also the bold and strong part of me that still like to go out and climb these suckers.