DAY 3: BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA TO KINGS CANYON NATIONAL PARK

Matt wakes up feeling fine, but Jae and Jim do not. The previous day had exacted a high price on them both – especially Jim. Jim’s got a splitting sinus headache and is fighting a wave of persistent nausea - he cannot even down a strawberry at Denny’s that morning. Jim decides to be a man and make the trip up to King’s Canyon National Park despite his illness. Bakersfield is a city situated in the vast, sunny expanse of the San Joaquin Valley, at the southern tip of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the highest mountain range in the continental US. Driving north into the town of Visalia, Jim seems to be doing OK. However, Jae the navigator insists that we take a right turn and take highway 254 straight into Kings Canyon from the south. Matt agrees and they begin a long journey up the western slopes of the Sierra Mountains. The road winds back and forth, quickly climbing over 5,000 feet above the valley floor. Matt remarks on the remote isolation of this road, and comments on the huge thunderclouds rising up over the trees. Jim is not doing well and he asks Matt to stop the car. Matt is a little skeptical and is determined to find out how sick Jim really is. Jim gives him a good idea by remarking that if you can rate your intensity of nausea on a scale from 1 to 5, 5 being the knowledge that you will puke in 10 seconds, he is a solid 4. Matt tries to go another 10 miles, but is stopped by both Jim and Jae. Jae is carsick and he pukes on the side of the road. Jim goes into the bushes, sticks his finger down his throat and kicks up his gut big time. Matt is slightly concerned, being on a road at high elevation out in the middle of a huge forest. To top it off there are no other cars on this road and the weather situation is grim. Matt floors it the rest of the way into King’s Canyon. Finally, the exhausted trio arrives, two without the contents of their stomachs. Matt proceeds to single handedly assemble camp, assembling the tent, starting the stove, and unpacking the car. It turns out that Matt is the only one interested in any dinner. Jim and Jae go into their sleeping bags to recover from the hellacious drive up. The weather worsens as large cumulonimbus clouds skirt the edge of the park and rain falls sporadically. Matt decides to eat 2 bratwurst sausages that Jae prepared by boiling them in a vat of Red Dog beer. Matt will pay for this high-fat meal the next day in the restroom. All three boys go to bed exhausted and overwhelmed at a long day.