June 6:Into the High Sierras

We knew we wanted to head out of KM sometime today, but we weren't sure what time exactly. We got up close to our usual time, but took our time getting organized. We debated about staying around for a cheeseburger @ 11am (they were incredible the day before!), but decided against it and were on the trail a little before 11am.

It was a long, hot climb out of KM. The first few miles were very much similar to the desert, and as we were walking we had our 5th encounter with a rattlesnake. We were just walking along, minding our own business, when we got rattled at from the side of the trail. He was about two feet off the side of the trail in the shadows of a tree. We wouldn't even have noticed him if he hadn't rattled, but for some reason he was all jazzed up; we took a picture and kept on going, leaving him to his lazy day in the shade.

We knew that there had been a fire just north of KM, and there had been a lot of rumors as to what that meant for thru-hikers. We'd heard at KM that the trail was open, the fire was contained, and if we saw any fire-fighters wrapping things up to just wave at them so that they knew you were around. When we got to that section of trail, it was crazy! I've never been in a recently burned area, but it was nuts! Everything was scorched, and we could even see some smoke rising from an area that was still smoldering. We really had the feeling lke we weren't supposed to be there, but when we waved at fire-fighters, they waved back and kept on doing their thing. Later we ran into some fire-fighters along the trail and found out it was a lightning fire, and since it's natural causes, they just let it do it's thing. If it were to spark up again, they'd let it run it's course, provided it didn't head toward people. We thanked him for letting us walk through and not have to skip a secti!
on of trail, and his reply was, "Oh this is the one trail we'd never close. Even if we had to fairy hikers through, we'd do it." What a cool attitude to have! It's always neat to see people excited about the trail and care about the journey we're on.

We headed on and up, through meadows and over rivers, finally ending our day around 9000 ft.

Total Miles:721.3
Miles Today:18.5
Camp 40:Tarp Next to a Pine Tree

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