Day 55

Trail miles: 17

Total: 719.2

I have no doubt that I have the heaviest pack on the trail. That’s probably why my should strap is ripping. But I can’t complain! I have my camera and a warm sleeping bag and I won’t get rid of either. 

Last night I came back to my food to a hole in the bag. I heard there was a mischievous squirrel stealing food and my fig newtons were it’s next victim. At least that’s all it stole and I didn’t have to wait around to do another resupply. It didn’t even finish the package so it must have gotten full. Brad helped me sort through the food to see if anything else was broken into. I woke up early today because I wanted to use the Wi-Fi one last time and work out the bear canister. Turns out it did not close because the thing is too big so I found some shoelace in the hiker box and tied it to the top. It isn’t perfect, but it’ll work for now. Maybe I can figure something else out in the next town. We took another group picture and took the shuttle at 7:00am. There was a lot of us starting this morning and we all hope to meet at the bottom of Whitney on Thursday in hopes for a sunrise climb Friday. The climb today was very gradual and I would have enjoyed it except my pack probably weighs like 50 pounds right now with everything. A nightmare. I was very slow and had to stop every few miles. I fell way behind. When I got to the lunch spot, I barely had time to eat before the crew was packing up and leaving. And they decided without me where they planned on camping, so that was sad no to be involved in that decision. A few miles after lunch we hit the Kern River again (which was more the size of a creek) and got to wade around a little. It was so beautiful and warm. Our campsite is in the pines, so it definitely feels like a change in the elevation. We are rising above 10,000 tomorrow morning so we may run into our first snow. Dinner was Spanish rice and spam. I will not be buying spam again. The good part about a weird dinner is the dessert is always good so I can at least wash it away. Welp, time to go brush my teeth, because hiker diets are cavity creators.