Hello everyone. Tonight I am safe at a hotel in Independence. Sorry about the delay in posting but apparently there is no service between Tehachapi and here. I really want to do a nice post about each day, for you and as a record for me to look back on, but I just can’t keep up when I’m hiking 12 hours a day and have no service.

I’ve thought about it a lot and I have decided to do a bunch of really short posts, dump the photos, and I will come back and fill them out when I have time (probably after I get home). I want to keep the blog as current as I can so y’all can follow me in real time. I don’t think you get a notification when I edit a post, but I will let you know when the edits are done so you can go back, if you wish.

I will do a more complete entry on today in the appropriate spot, but I would like to say that I left camp around 0640, climbed the dreaded Forester Pass by 0930,

Then down down down through the snow fields to Vidette Meadows then up up up over Kearsarge Pass

And then down down down down to Onion Valley where I happened to run into a day hiker just in time to give me a ride to town. A great end to a great day. This was probably my hardest day on the trail so far, which is saying something, but I’m proud of my accomplishment and very glad to be clean and sleeping in a bed after such a long day. Did I mention I hiked 20 miles today, 20 yesterday, and 23 miles the day before? Yeah, I’m tired. Anyway, I’ll try to catch you up before I hit the trail again on Sunday.

Here’s the short posts to catch you up…