Sunday May 25, 14.9mi/24.0km
Lake Isabella RV Park (289.5/2560ft) to Kern River Gateway Bridge (303.8/2650ft) (CA) +0.6mi to RV Park
I slept in and had a lazy morning, mostly reading my book and eating bagels. I packed up and left the RV park at 1pm and started hiking the last few miles to Kernville, which is the end of this section. It took me a couple of miles to get across the freeway, but once I was on top of the dam, I had good views of the lake.
It’s a man-made lake, as I could see when I was walking across the rubble-dam. There were plenty of boaters out this holiday weekend.
The lake had a ton of little coves, and even those were chock full of people enjoying the warm weather and holiday.
For the first couple miles along the lakeshore, I was able to utilize dirt roads and avoid the paved highway.
This worked pretty well and allowed me to look around and enjoy the views. Then there was a 3-mile section where I had to walk on a narrow highway, due to private property in the area. It definitely wasn’t ideal and had some blind curves, but 99% of drivers were doing the right thing and crossing the centerline as they passed me. I left the road walk in the little town of Wofford Heights, and entered the Tillie Creek Campground. The entrance had this somber little monument to the Kern Valley Indians, who had been massacred here by the US cavalry.
It was nice to see a monument to a local tribe, rather than a conquering military force. It appeared that the Tillie Creek Campground had recently been closed, as all of the campsites were empty and grass was growing up in the cracks in the road. Still had nice views along the lake though!
I wound through a couple miles of dirt roads and little paths, and then emerged onto the paved road again at a cemetery. There was a nice dirt road paralleling the main one so it was a pleasant walk. Also most of the traffic was gone, it seemed few people drove past Wofford Heights. The last couple of miles to Kernville were sandwiched between some steep hills and the Kern River, which made finding a stealth camping site difficult. There were some definite possibilities in the abandoned golf course, which I saved in my brain for later. I arrived in Kernville at 6pm, and saw plenty of families out enjoying the park by the river.
It was definitely a tourist town with lots of kitschy little wilderness decor, including many bears.
The Kern River was flowing pretty hard, the kayakers were loving it but there’s no way I would cross that river on foot!
Looks like I made the right call in skipping this section, with the river looking so completely uncrossable. And I’m sure the other streams in the Sierra are equally swift and deep. After getting a quick meal at the brewery, I started to walk back toward the abandoned golf course to stealth camp. I saw a bunch of cars drive by, and then I got an idea to try to hitch back to Lake Isabella and stay at the RV park again. That strategy worked wonderfully, as I got a ride within 2 minutes by the third car that passed. A guy named Andy picked me up, he had been out exploring the forest on his mountain bike this weekend, and is also a talented wilderness photographer. He dropped me off at the Lake Isabella shopping plaza, I picked up some groceries and pizza, and then enjoyed the company of some nice families around the campfire at the RV park.
Tomorrow is Memorial Day, and there is no public transit running on the holiday. So I will take a zero-day here at the RV park. On Tuesday I’ll ride a series of buses all day to get to Mammoth Lakes, where I will continue the Hot Springs Trail.