Jammin' with Jameson

15 miles. I knew that my chances of waking up for coffee were slim to none and ended up sleeping in until 9 am. The sleep was incredible and felt well rested. I hiked the 6 miles at a steady low grade downhill with Threads right behind me. A horse fly was following me forever and I must’ve killed 15 at the next water source. I met up with Glowstick and Payless at the next water source and took Glowstick’s newly acquired sun umbrella from him for the final stretch. The next few miles was filled with extremely loud cicadas flying by my face and providing a constant buzz in the atmosphere. I wasn’t feeling great for some reason and used the sun umbrella to provide some much needed shade. It wasn’t great like Glowstick had said but I think it provided me just what I needed on a difficult day, even if just mentally. I got to the beautiful Kern River but had to withhold from jumping in and only soaking my shirt because I was dying to get to Kennedy Meadows. The view of the wide open valley that served as the entrance to the Sierras presented itself about 3 miles before the entrance to the town. It was a beautiful sight and felt so great to pass the 700 mile marker. After what felt like forever, I made it to the Kennedy Meadows General Store and got a round of applause from everyone as I walked up. I quickly signed up to pick up my packages and get a beer, Gatorade, and salmon burger. The supposed 6 pm shuttle never showed up so we got a ride from some hikers dad and made it to Grumpys. I had been looking forward to a night of booze, hanging out, and karaoke. When I asked if we could set up karaoke, the owner said we had to have asked hours earlier. After a few drinks and sadness, we decided to just do karaoke off my phone. I kicked it off with my karaoke classic, Knock You Down, Rogue Wave got the whole gang involved with lots of shanties, Vogue stole the show with a beautifully sung Dreams by Fleetwood Mac, and the German speakers did 99 Red Balloons. It was an incredible night until we had to set up camp on a very windy night. Kidneys and Slays tents had blown away and mine was making a fuss while setting it up. I picked a very shitty spot and was sleeping horribly all night.