Pacific Crest Trail - Days 74-78 - Kearsarge Pass to Bishop and back
No dogs, guns, or cars. No wonder this place feels magical. Let’s extrapolate to the rest of America.
Kings Canyon flipping off Southern California.
Incredible tracks down (up?!) an impossibly steep slope. Maybe big horn sheep? Yeti?
I had no idea Onion Valley existed above Independence, CA. It’s like a Whitney Portal you can hang out at without navigating a permit process. There are beautiful lakes ~2 miles up the trail and waterfalls in every direction. Highly recommend!
Unfortunately, in the excitement of finding a ride at the Onion Valley trailhead down to resupply we both left our trekking poles at the trailhead which turned what should have been a relaxing day or two in Bishop an exhausting saga of renting a car to drive back up there the next day with follow up detours to multiple understaffed public land offices which weren’t answering their phones.
A large power transformer on the largest trailer I’ve ever seen which also had a second semi-truck pushing from behind. Trains? Never heard of them. We’ll use two semi-trucks, six highway patrolmen, and shut down traffic on an interstate highway instead.
Make scenic trails straight again!
We’d be well into Oregon in a straight line.
A new pickup is much bigger than an old Semi-truck. I don’t understand. Someone please explain to me why massive trucks are default daily drivers - I‘m sincerely asking for a crayon on a napkin sketch depth here.
Whose idea was it to put 4-6 lanes of traffic directly through the heart of every American town? Americans love walkable cities … in places they pay to go on their generous two weeks of vacation (Europe, Mexico, Disneyland).
We’re in the midst of a mobility crisis with approximately 73 million baby boomers who both voted their entire lives like they were starring in American Graffiti and who can marginally safely operate the requisite multi-ton piece of machinery. Anyway, nevermind, apparently putting an 18” touchscreen in every new model solves it - no need for further consideration - Carry on, drive everywhere, walking is dumb and slow and walkable cities are for Europeans.
New kicks with insoles with high arch and metatarsal support.
LOL.
In the search for our lost trekking poles we checked out the hiker box at the climber/hiker hostel. Party house basement vibes.
Johnny Cash’s early life growing up dirt poor in Dyess, Arkansas, a Great Depression Era agricultural community established by FDR’s Federal Emergency Relief Administration is pretty damned interesting. An embodiment of G. Michael Hopf’s quote:
“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”
Ken Burns’ excellent series on Country Music details Cash’s rollercoaster of a life as a thread in the progression of the genre.
Finally, it‘s worth mentioning that Johnny Cash effectively usurped Hurt from Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails covering it in his final days. Both versions are visceral human expressions of pain by people with access to anything they materially desire in the world.
On a lighter (and more Canadian, same thing?) note, Justin Bieber’s Sorry is an all time banger. Sorry, not sorry.
So long, Bishop. Not upset to be heading up 7000’ in elevation. 🥵