Rincon Trail to Forks of the Kern
It was a scorching, sweaty, exhausting, sans shady 12.5 mile hike complete with way too many PUDS (Pointless Ups and Downs) to the Forks of the Kern. The trail is actually a multi use hiking, biking and motorcycle trail which may explain some of the PUDS. The road to the Forks of the Kern trailhead is still closed for the season so our only choice was to go on the Rincon Trail. We started the Rincon trail where it intersects Sherman Pass Road.
Along the sandy trail I saw both mountain lion and bear prints.....They were BIG!
- Hiking along the Rincon trail.
Forks of the Kern to 3.8 miles below Jordan Hot Springs.
The first order of business this morning was to cross the mighty Kern. The Kern is always cold, in March it is even colder and at 8 am it is numbing cold. The current was just strong enough to make the crossing challenging. We spent the day walking up the Kern and following the bear and cat tracks....there were a lot of them!
- Kern River
Jordan Hot Springs to Kern Flat.
The trail to Jordon Hot Springs made its way up through miles and miles of burned forest that reminded me of the game pick-up-sticks. Several times F-15 jets blew past us intruding on the solitude and sending our hands flying to our ears. We enjoyed exploring around the hot springs looking at all the detritus and imagining what it must have been like here back in the day. Interesting side note....all the maps that I've seen spell Jordan hot springs, but the brand new sign at HS spells it JORDON.
- Jordan Hot Springs.
- Climbed over a lot of these!
Kern Flat to Forks of the Kern
It was COLD last night and we woke to ice on our tents. We took our time hiking back to the Forks of the Kern and putzed around in the afternoon playing cribbage and exploring the banks of the Kern.
