We spent a couple of days in Palmdale, hiding from the heat, and prepping for the Sierra's. Then we were off to Kennedy Meadows Campground. We stopped at the store to pick up our bear cannisters. Damn big and heavy beasts. But we didn't need them until Cottonwood Pass. And our plan was to go from Kennedy Meadows and meet Mrs. Weasley at Horseshoe Meadows and resupply for a big push over the Sierra passes to get to VVR (Vermillion Valley Ranch). So we could go for a couple more days without the big guns of the bear canisters.

Hiking out of the Kern Valley from Kennedy Meadows. Looking forward to the Sierras. Look how enthusiastic Maddie is!

The flower show was still amazing.

The amount and stunning beauty of the flowers delights me. Hard to capture in a photo but this one comes closest.

One of our favorite spots was lunchtime that day. At the bridge over the Kern. Very nice spot on a warm day. Lots of good company. We have run into a bigger crowd of PCT hikers.

South Fork of the Kern River was a lunchtime magnet.

We camped along Cow Creek, which lived up to it's name. We passed a cowboy and a cowgirl who had driven a herd of cattle up Cow Creek in front of us. I thought horses tore up a trail. Thankfully the cowfolk had done a pretty good job herding and kept the cows off of the trail when they could. We met some nice Dutch hikers at camp. I had a lovely surprise dropping my pack at camp. The backplate of my pack had cracked, where the shoulder straps connect to structural support. Luckily I could just move the straps down to the next notch, which didn't fit as well, but carried just fine.

Granite Gear replaced the part instantly when I emailed them. Great pack and great company!

We were serenaded to sleep by the lowing of the cattle herd that night. I imagined the moo's turned into English:

"I'm done eating now, where are you"? "I'm done eating. I'm here". "Where are you"? "Here". "Where"?

I was asleep before they stopped.

Getting some elevation into the Sierra's.

I think this was an extremely pretty section and very relaxing hiking. Though we had a 21 mile day on the 26th and were pretty tired when we rolled into camp. Also, we saw smoke to the South and after a bit of an afternoon break from the heat we got up and the smoke was much worse. We didn't know it at the time, but it was the Erskine fire.