Up to the snow 5/24

We originally were going to spend two nights at Kennedy Meadows but the funk of the place was a bit over the top; besides which, the grill only sold burgers and was not open for breakfast. If you were in your twenties or liked drinking beer this was perfect. Beer and young people equal noise and late nights. There was an interesting event that will put everything into perspective for you. DG, on arrival had gone searching for a campsite away from the fray. She assumed that all the land behind the general store was up for grabs. She found a quiet spot amongst rusting machine parts and an  old discarded satellite dish. After setting up camp she invited the Princess and Mr. Sandals, two youngish Germans they had met way back in San Diego, to share this area. The Princess on arriving at KM was a tad upset, expecting some kind of privacy and a private shower. She had no idea this would be a haven for hiker "trash" as well as other kinds of trash. She was in tears when DG and TC arrived but after having viewed DG's quiet find she felt better. There were other people around us but we all had space. The evening progressed. TC was paying Tom, a guy down the road who had about 15 trailers on his property and had been "closed" down by the county, to use his internet. He used to, by donation basis, let PCT hikers sleep in the trailers. As we were all milling about, looking at the incredible amount of interesting junk on every surface he owned we heard gun shots. No big deal, we hear gun shots all the time right? DG and TC walk back up the road and see the Princess coming toward them. She was looking for Mr. Sandals and was in tears yet again. From what we could gather through her sobs, someone in a very small ATV had been driving close to her tent and shooting off a gun. She stuck her head out of her tent and asked the person to please not drive so closely to her tent. It was then she learned that she was camped on private property. Who knew? No one had told us to camp only on one side of the road. There were no signs. WTF!! There was a mass exodus. At least 7 people had to pick and find a new place in an already crowded area. DG and TC found a not-level spot but it was not far from a circle of young drunken men sitting around a fire guffawing way past hiker bedtime. They needed their fathers to come out from somewhere and tell them to go to bed or they would be smacked. There were plenty of fathers there but they were probably all deaf or something. So the Princess was shaken and said things like, "I thought America was civilized". She said this would not happen in Germany. DG definitely felt embarrassed and tried to explain the American fascination with guns. She said the kid on the ATV had on combat boots and desert army fatigues. DG sighed deeply inside. Ones first encounter with a redneck is never easy.

       One more example of the kind of place this is also involves the Princess. Princess is a highly educated oncologist and when once again talking about the craziness of this place mentioned an old guy with long hair and a long beard who had a small bandaid covering the cancer on his lip. The cancer was eating away his lip and he just put a tiny bandaid on it. Princess couldn't understand this. She might not know about the sad state of health care in this country. Once again DG sighed deeply and remained quiet. Sometimes words cannot do anything for you.

       The good news is that KM is  5 miles behind our tired hikers and after 707 miles they are finally camped by a river, by themselves with no one shooting at them.