[pct-l] Kernville Resupply

[Christine Kudija" <cmkudija@earthlink.net (Christine Kudija)]

It was a real treat to meet up with John (Sassafras) at Walker Pass on
Saturday June 2 & give him a ride to Kernville!  Husband Chuck & I were
returning from a week in the Eastern Sierras, including an aborted attempt
of Mt. Bolton-Brown in the Palisades (fwiw, snow is well-consolidated over
11,000' but melting fast; Finger Lake at 11,000 +/- was just breaking out of
ice on Friday).

We had decided to take a couple of side trips from Hwy 395 into Kennedy
Meadows on our way south (the store reports lots of boxes in storage) to see
the fire damage & re-acquaint ourselves with the place.  The firefighters
were able to save considerable area around the resort & neighboring
ranches - considering the extent of the fire I was amazed.  Various
fire-following wildflowers (lupines & a lavendar phlox-like annual
especially) are sprouting on the forest floor - don't know how much is due
to re-seeding from the post-fire revegetation efforts vs. revegetation from
seeds pre-existing in the soil.

Our second side trip was the Kelso Valley -Jawbone Canyon loop starting from
the Onyx vicinity on the west side of Walker Pass (I wanted to see the
cow-slop spring).  As we drove past the WP trailhead we saw an obvious
thru-hiker with his thumb out - after some maneuvering we got him into the
vehicle & learned that he was Sassafras, hoping to resupply in Kernville.
We shared a pleasant drive to Kernville, complete with great conversation &
stories shared.  John had waited some 3-4 hours for a ride...aarrggh.   I'm
glad we were able to help out - and I hope he's now safely back on the
trail.

The Kelso Valley spring remains a cow-slop-infested waste.  If the various
bacteria don't get you the nettles will.  Yuck.  However, apparently a kind
soul is caching water on the trail itself, so the fortunate hiker won't have
to descend the 2 miles to the "spring."

Wishing everyone well -

Christine