Today, Dan and I are feeling a bit deflated. We have walked a little over 650 miles and have encountered a bit of an unexpected speed bump in the road. About 20 miles after leaving Tehachapi, Dans shoulder strap broke on his bag while we were crawling on the trail trying not to get blown off the mountain from 60 mph winds. Of course it happens the first day going into seven day stretch where civilization is non existent so stopping somewhere to try to fix it was not an option. I had just tossed my duct tape in the trash before we hiked out that afternoon so we didn't have any way to McGuiver it before Kennedy Meadows. That same night I reached into my pack to dig out my sleeping bag and noticed the wired frame of my bag broke and had begun to dig a hole through the bottom of my pack. After discussion, we decided we would try to call REI along the way to see if we could ship new bags to ourselves in the high Sierras. I searched around in my bag to find my phone and wouldn't you know, I forgot to turn my phone off so the battery was completely dead. Then our tent broke. Tired, sore, and emotionally drained, we sat in our tent contemplating our next move. The only option was to hike on.

The following days were just as rough. We were faced with 30 mile stretches in shadeless desert with no certainty of water up ahead. For the past 40 miles we had come across piles and piles of cow dung...they HAD to have been getting water somewhere, right? Where were these cows going??? Where in the heck were they coming from??? There was NOTHING around!!! And then we stumbled across a cow skull. Looks like he didn't find water either. We finally hit a water source and no one would drink from it (and we've all drank pretty questionable water at times). We were stuck with a liter of water each with about 10 more miles to go.

We finally reached a road just as soon as our water ran out. Completely exhausted we decided to catch a hitch to any town nearby to try to get our gear situated. We ended up in a town next to the Kern River. There isn't anything near here and we don't know how we are going to get to Kennedy Meadows. We may call it quits or we may try to rent a car so we can drive to the next big town near a trail head somewhere. We don't know what we will do but our spirits have hit a low point :(


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