Into Kings Canyon National Park

Big Warm Hot Tub
 Another gorgeous morning, we get up bright and early and head to the hot springs for an early morning, pre-brekkie dip to get us refreshed and hungry. We start off nice and hot, then to mid-temp pool, and then the lake to get that lovely tingly feeling before eating. I feel so warmed up after the cool lake that a 2nd hot spring not needed to warm up, it's the best feeling yet.

We have brekkie on the rocks and cross the field to the river, this time crossing with the aid of the rope, much easier and the river is easier here to, shallower and not as fast.
We pick up our "Homers Bucket" at MTR and sort through it, I've packed more than we need of some items like Toilet Paper so we give it away to other hikers while munching on some of the bars in the MTR hiker boxes, there are lotsa these, sorted by the kind of food inside.

Then it's back inside the outfitter shack to check email and F1 results. A hiker who calls himself AWOL is around, I gotta ask him if he's David Miller, the other AWOL who writes on the AT guides on the East Coast, I didn't think it was him and it's not, bit cheeky gobbling up such a famous hiker trail name.
Little Hot Pool 

Repacking at MTR in the Shade
We pack up and lumber up the steep and rocky MTR connector trail, some random hiker tries to convince us to take the short cut, no we wanna do the JMT, thanks very much anyway. We do pretty well up the connector, feeling great after a bit of a break at MTR, and then bounce along the trail without a problem.

Stream Gushing Down Kings Canyon
We plan to stop by the bridge that crosses the San Joaquin into Kings Canyon National Park for lunch, we come upon some hikers who say it's about a mile, no way it's closer to three and by that time I'm feeling tired and shoulders are aching with a heavy pack, tummy empty and it's a very late lunch around 2:30pm, tea and bars.

Across the bridge and into Kings Canyon and hiking up beside a spectacular gorge of the San Joaquin, it has steep rocky gorge walls in places, and then rushing water over rocks and water slides in others, the most beautiful stream we've seen yet, it's slow going cause I keep stopping for photo ops. We pass a couple going North and they look familiar, is it George and Onna? I seem to remember they were hiking the PCT.

We push on across another bridge and then come to a third, this stream is too wild to rock hop so they've built nice bridges for hikers to cross. The third crossing has nice tent sites, we're well ahead of schedule now as we planned to stay at MTR for the night, so call it a day and set up the tent by the now smaller but still raging San Joaquin. We depart from our usual dinner of Backpackers Pantry and decide to give Alpine Aire smoked beans a try, it didn't turn out too well.
Pretty Rock Pool in the Canyon

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