Thursday September 4, 4.0mi/6.4km

Kernville (303.8/2650ft) to Kern River Valley (307.8/2870ft) (CA)

I was awake at 6am, as I had a bunch of errands to do before dropping off the rental car. I bought some groceries for my resupply, picked up a new water filter (I killed the old one in cow water), and mailed away some gear I didn’t want to carry anymore.

After dropping off the rental car, I had breakfast at a local diner, and then caught a local bus that took me from Bakersfield to Kernville. My first stop there was the post office, to get my bear canister.

I had bought 9 days worth of food, but only 7 days of it fit in the bear can. Close enough. Usually I wouldn’t need so much food, but the resupply option that is 6 days into this section might be closed by wildfire. Then I walked over to the ranger station to get my permit for the Wilderness, both people working there were brand new (2 weeks) and had no idea how to issue a permit across multiple National Forests and National Parks (Sierra NF, Inyo NF, Sequoia NP, Kings Canyon NP). The employees were super friendly, they even tried to call different ranger stations to find a more seasoned employee, but most of the knowledgeable employees had been fired back in January. Stupid government. So I wrote whatever I wanted on the permit, they signed it, and I was on my way. As I walked back across the little village of Kernville, I noticed how much lower the river was now compared to in May when I was here.

I grabbed one last civilization meal at Cheryl’s diner, I figured if I could load up on calories now, I would eat one less dinner tonight.

At 4pm I finally started hiking, the first two miles were on a paved road through some very ritzy neighborhoods.

It was a dead-end road so there was no traffic, but I was still glad to be on a real trail again.

I hiked for another hour on the trail, and saw a nice spot to set up my tent.

I hadn’t made it very far today, but I’m in the Sierra mountains again!