Independence - Kearsarge Trail 6/27/10 9 miles

Got up and had a good breakfast at the Courthouse Hotel. I think I could live there, haha! Simply a simple clean place. Got packed up and made our final phone calls. Hitching was terrible. We sat in town for two hours, and nothing. Gave up and went and got some ice cream and a local offered to give us a ride up to the trail head for gas money. Bryan/Marmot had hiked from Campo to Kennedy Meadows and stuck around the area when he finished. He had a cool truck. Stopped by to say goodbye to Peanut Eater. Got our rediculously heavy resupplies packs on and started up the mountain. I could feel that we had taken a day off. Took a breart and ate our leftover Pizza and did some testing before we lost signal. Hiked on to the top of Kearsarge pass, not as bad as we thought, but a long process, 52 switchbakcs. Met some hikers at teh top and informed them of Peanut Eater. They were excited and needed the motivation because they had done the 23 mile day that we had hoped to do over Forrester and Kearsarge. Tristan and two guys from Corvalis, OR. We talked for a while and then went our separate ways. Took it easy down the backside of the pass and set up camp just short of the trail intersection. Ate our 90 second rice and it was delicious! Talked and researched our future town stops. Twenty miles tomorrow to catch up for our late start today. hope we can pull it off. CM