Agua Dulce to Kennedy Meadows

     There lie two trail angels within 24 miles of each other.  One in Agua Dulce, the well run, organized and functional Hiker Haven.  There L Rod Saufley cranks out laundry in a way that no normal human experience can relate to. The rotten, funky smells of hiker laundry get channeled through the Saufley machine and arrive with name tags on the porch of the hiker hangout.  It is amazing the kind of organization and work that goes into keeping that place running smoothly.  Twenty four miles down the trail is the Anderson's.  A wild, dishevealed party that has no end.  Drunk Doug gives you the tour, shows you where the hawaiian shirts and the beers are kept, and sets you loose.  Terri and Joe Anderson hold it down with huge dinners and breakfasts, hooking up hikers like no reasonable person should.
     In between are 24 miles, and therein lies the challenge.  24 miles in between hostels, 24 beers in a case.  Smokey the Beard and I took on the challenge, picking up a case each of Coors lite in Agua Dulce and setting out through the desert at 130pm, hottest time of the day.  About two hours later we were too drunk to be held responsible for our actions.  I airplaned a dip into Smokey's lip, causing him to puke.  Then, falling behind I fell off the trail and bloodied up my knee pretty good.  By the time we arrived at the Andersons, we were in good form and ready to keep the good times rolling.  Managing to squeek by with only one zero day we set out on a few hundred miles of serious desert hiking.
     Basically we crossed the whole mojave section without battin an eye.  The weather was nice.  The hiking was great.  The scenery was beautiful.  We ran into Patchwork, accosted first by his dog; a huge pit.  Turns out it wasn't his dog.  It had followed a few hikers previously, then latched on to ol' Patchwork.  We talked to him about how he'd found an awesome dog then kept walking, not thinking anything of it.  20 minutes later we hear the jingling of his collar in the bushes and knew we'd picked up a straggler.  We named him Rocket after his defining attribute and hiked with him for the rest of the night and through the next day.  The humane society came and picked him up at  a road crossing and hopefully took good care of him.  Smokey wanted to keep him but he was in too poor of shape to make the miles that we're hikin'.

     We dropped off Rocket then went into Mojave.  At the grocery store we did our resupply then headed over to KFC to get some food.  I plugged my phone into an outlet to charge up for the coming weeks on the trail and alas, some tweaker broad stole it right out of the wall.  Goodbye world.  I have no phone.  I am alone in the wilderness.  (i'm writing this in a trailor, hooked up to a genertor with satellite phone. basically off the grid.)  In the distance we've seen the snow covered sierras drawing closer and closer... it's like watching an oncoming army come over the horizon.  From here, we can see where the battle will happen, it's just a matter of time before we get there.  Right now, we're in Kennedy Meadows at the foot of the southern Sierras.  From here we have about 200 miles of trail that sits about 9000-13000 feet including a climb of mt Whitney.  This is the roughest section of the trail and we are excited to get at it!  Everything we have been doing so far as been leading up to this: from Mojave, we pulled a 25, 26, then 3 back to back 28 mile days.  Basically we've been flying.  Time to slow it down, be careful, and make it through these crazy mountains.

Updates to come on how it all goes.

Be goodness!

Clay