Good morning, everyone. This is Joy. Today (Saturday) the hikers start day 35 — hard to believe they’ve been gone over a month. I’ve got to say how proud I am of both of them. This takes some grits to do — sleeping on the ground, eating dirt daily in the desert, eating mostly cold meals, being away from friends/families/boyfriend and pets, being hot, stinky, exhausted, but also being flexible enough to adjust and accommodate whatever the first 700 miles of desert is throwing at them. Oh, I forgot to mention hungry — Kendra mentioned the other day is hungry all of the time! So, at day 35, I haven’t received any texts from either, asking for an exit route to the nearest airport!
I’ve already received a message from the Garmin indicating they have started their hiking today, which came in at 9:30am our time, so they got an early start again at 6:30am Pacific time. Today they will cross the 500 mile marker and tomorrow they will get into a small community where they may be able to get a bunkhouse and a package is waiting for them.
I did receive a few texts last night, and they mentioned that they are being blessed with some cooler temperatures. Kendra said not too cold, but cooler. The Sierra is bracing for a snow storm, and even though this is about 200 miles ahead of them, they are getting the colder air flow, which they’ll gladly take. Unfortunately, for the hikers in the Sierra, they are scrambling down the mountain to exit roads and trying to find shelter. I’m seeing posts on FB where hotels and hostels are filling up. Hikers hope to be able to get back out on the trail Monday. This is not unusual to have a late snow storm in the Sierra. Hopefully by the time Ron and Kendra get to this point, the snow will be mostly gone.
I forgot to mention that they had their ‘first’ experience with ‘cowboy’ camping. This is where you sleep without a tent. Ron said they walked into a campground, and it was getting dark and they were tired and hungry and didn’t want to try to put their tents up in the dark, so they decided to cowboy camp. Both of them said it wasn’t bad at all. After hearing of how many rattlesnacks they have seen, I’m not sure I could do that!!
That’s all I can think of to share right now — Happy weekend, everyone!!
The Gonnella’s here. Jerry and I sure are enjoying following you along your awesome adventure! Thanks for sharing your days with us. The pictures are beautiful. We can only imagine what it must be like to experience these sights in person. We so admire you guys! Joy, you are doing a great job filling in back here at Command Central. You got their backs every step of the way. We can’t thank you enough for letting us kind of taking this journey with you. It is so exciting. Stay safe ya’ll. 😊👍
Jerry and Mary – Bucket here – thank you so much for following our hike and commenting. We really appreciate it!