June 27th, 2021
Mile Marker: 1002
Miles Hiked Today: 28
What a day.
I don’t even know where to start it was such a full day.
I woke up in the middle of the night hearing something rummaging around our tent site. I had it in my head that it was a bear but knew that it wasn’t loud enough. Turns out it was a deer and this deer was known to like our pee spots. 🤦🏽♀️
I woke up groggy when the birds started chirping and made sure I packed up my bag fully before stepping out in my rain pants and shirt. It was mosquito heaven.
We had 3 decent climbs to do today and we had to keep moving at each water source because the mosquitos so bad. There is only so much zen I can handle before I start to go a little mad. The mosquitos really are our masters. They tell us when we can stop and for how long we can stop.
The climbs were difficult and rocky but surprisingly there are a ton of wildflowers. These light purple and yellow ones are my favorite.
We had some big log crossings today as well. Planner doesn’t like them as much as I do. I get excited every time as it makes my adrenaline pump. Adrenaline junkie at its finest.
We crossed multiple lakes today however we crossed our first one that was actually swimable. Joe, Goldilocks, Chopper, and Lightning joined us for our lunch break and we swam around.
It felt so good to be able to stay in the water instead of rushing out because it was too cold. I enjoyed it so much that I went in after lunch as well for a second dip.
We finally dried off and had 9 more miles to hike to make the day a total of 22. As Planner and I hiked on for .2 miles we realized we were at another river crossing with no clear path and had to take off our shoes to ford it.
Such an unpredictable trail.
Planner and I walked slow this afternoon as we weren’t as motivated and walked across this beautiful meadow and lake side.
We originally decided to camp at Dorothy Lake. Planner and I started making dinner and looking at our plan for the next day. We realized that we still had 20 miles to go for Kennedy Meadows North Resort and there was a 10 mile water carry. It was only 6:30 so we started thinking about hiking more miles. With the obnoxious mosquitos buzzing in our ear, we all decided to hike on after dinner.
We set for 4 more miles into the night. Most the trail was downhill so Planner and I flew and were ecstatic once we hit the 1000 mile marker! I can’t believe we have come so far so quickly. It feels like this took me forever on the AT.
The trail slowly became darker and I started to get jazzed. There is just something about hiking into the night that is exciting and slightly scary all at the same time.
We made it to our tent site right before we needed to really turn on our head lamps and set up camp fast. Bottleneck and Tide stayed a couple miles back and eventually Conrad showed up where we were.
We were all exhausted and set up our tents fast and are now laying down. Last day of our bear canisters tomorrow!
Iz and Oz
Izzy + Ozzy 