Miles hiked: 6
Today was more of the same as yesterday, except that around 7:30 a little blue pick-up pulled up driven by the owner of Grumpy Bear's Restaurant a few miles away. I and Unicorn and Easy climbed in back for the ride there to have the hiker special with eggs, bacon, potatoes, and all you can eat pancakes (but they're so big that no one had more than 1). We hung out talking with the couple who own and run ha place and their couple kids who help out and their little Chihuahua and the one other customer who was a local old timer. There was great small town diner stuff in the walls like mounted Jackalope heads and a rattlesnake skin with a kite alligator head in place of the snake head and old riffles and rusted bits of metal and paintings of cowboys and Indians.
Back at the general store I finally got around to doing my laundry and having a shower, and eventually at lunch had another burger and a pint of ice cream. I guess the hiker hunger has finally found me, which makes me a little nervous for this next long section.
More of the hikers I've been getting to know over the last couple weeks arrived today, with more clapping of course, and it was good to hang out with them a bit. Perhaps the biggest cheer from the porch came when the tanker truck came to pump out the full outhouses.
Finally around 6 I said my goodbyes and did my final packing and set out again heading up the sage-bottomed Kern River Valley. Pinyon and a few J. Pines coated the valley slopes. After a few miles the valley narrowed to a canyon and the trail climbed up and down one side never far from the little river (big stream?). Easy caught up with me and we walked together a while and talked about our lives. Shortly before dark he stopped to camp, and just a half mile later I decided to do the same, stepping 10 or so yards off the trail to a little flat spot just big enough to lay down.
Birds:
Bushtit
Rock Wren
Black-headed Grosbeak
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Stellar's Jay
Western Wood-pewee
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