Mile 210-241.5 Days 18&19

Day 18 Start 210 End 226 Total 16

I awoke around 5 in the morning, checked my watch and was thrilled to continue sleeping in such a comfy bed! I slept until around 7 when I heard footsteps above and I went out into the kitchen. I had a couple cups of coffee and made an omelet I had bought at Trader Joe’s. Sara took me to the gas station so I could buy gummy worms and get mayo packets before taking me back to the trail. It was such an amazing stay at her house and I was so grateful that she reached out. She is a true trail angel and I can’t wait to follow along with her future thru hikes!

I started off and it was still super windy, slowly making my way up near the wind farm. Steadily climbing away from it and over into the valley behind. After a good climb up, the trail went back down. Some of the desert flowers and trees were starting to bloom, it was so cool to see! 

I started to pass a few day hikers and then the trail really started going down, with steep switchbacks. More and more day hikers were making the trek up as I went down. I realized it was a popular loop and there was a visitor center nearby when I got to the bottom and saw the sign. The wind had died down but was replace by the heat. The trail emptied out into the whitewater river basin and follow along the old river bed. The sun was high in the sky and there wasn’t much shade but I found a tree with a little nook that would do. 

I stopped there for lunch and some groups passed by without noticing me but o frightened all the dogs that passed. There was a beautiful young Mexican couple that passed and their dog freaked out. The lady asked if I was doing the pct and I said yes, they went on. I enjoyed my lunch of gummy worms, dolmas (a trail luxury packed out from TJs) and dark chocolate. I was getting ready to head back out when the couple returned. The lady said she had forgot her trail manners and asked if I wanted a Mexican pastry! How could I refuse. She picked me out the largest one and they were on their way. I was so pleasantly surprise and scarfed it down, it was delicious. 

I was so grateful for the place to stay and laundry and shower and full food bag and now this! It was also just an incredibly beautiful day and section, I was ecstatic!

After lunch I crossed the whitewater river, which sounds much more intense than it was. Then did a much less long and steep version up than what I did down into the valley. I passed a woman and her dog who was planning on meeting her husband at the top of the pass. 

On the other side of the pass I saw a 50 year old, slightly over weight man in a tank top, beat red, carrying a tall boy of spiked Arnold Palmer in a coozy with a cooler slung over his shoulder, only holding beer I could imagine. It was a sight I’ll never forget. There was no roads or trails that direction and I wish I asked him where he started!

I kept going and the trail went up a little ways with breathtaking views of the mountains behind and the mountains to come, and the valleys in between! The trail then did another steep descent into the valley below, where the trail would follow mission creek for a while. 

The PCT is technically closed between miles 220-240 as a big rain year had washed out most of the trail. It was a bit tedious but it could easily be managed. I would hike down into the valley below and camp right at where the trail was lost and do the route finding mission in the morning. 

I made it down and ran into Mark, the guy who had started right behind me on March 12th and who I had leap frogged with that day and then saw in Lake Moreno. I hadn’t seen him since I hiked out of Lake Moreno into the winter storm. We chatted briefly and I went on a bit further and set up camp. I cowboy camped that night and for some reason it took me longer than usual to fall asleep.

Day 19

Start 226 End 241.5 Total 15.5

I had a late start to the day as I was so sleepy in the morning but eventually got in trail before the sun had come into the canyon. The trail had been washed out so the instructions were to follow the creek bed from 226-233, easy enough. 

The best bet was to stick close to the creek as there were huge boulders further out that made it more difficult to walk. However, if you were on one side of the stream it would soon meander into being impassable on that side so you’d have to cross over. For the first hour I was having a blast. Finding fun ways to cross the river , hopping from rock to rock. Making it a game to keep my feet dry as long as I could and get creative with crossing the river.

After an hour or two and only 3 miles, I started to get tired. Lost in thought, I put myself in not the best position to cross, but I saw a way. I went for the first rock and my foot slipped and bam it was now soaking wet, I grunted aloud as I swiftly crossed the rest of the creek, keeping my other foot dry. ARG, there goes my dry feet. Many more miles to go like this. 

After a couple more hours the river splits in two and you take the right canyon. I passed Mark and Red Bull, filtering water on the side. I went up a ways before filtering some of my own. They both passed me as I took a break in the shade. After this you must find a small canyon and scramble up the side of it to get back to trail. I picked the wrong one and added a sketchy ascent and descent before coming back to the creek bed and finding the right one. You’re then on the trail for shy of a mile before it hits a wash out. It was a four feet drop down into the canyon that you just have to slide down. The trail shoots you into the right canyon but you need to back track and go to the left canyon. I passed Red Bull at this point and I think Mark took a wrong turn because I hadn’t seen him. Once in the left canyon you can scramble up to the island in the middle at any point to rejoin the trail. I found a part that didn’t look too terrible and went up it and bushwhacked a bit until I found the trail. 

After a couple miles of this the trail crosses the stream again before heading up a set of steep switchbacks. There were a couple older guys filling up their water as there was 20 miles before the next water source. I was planning on going 3 more miles to fill up at that stream but they said they didn’t want to risk it. I was pretty sure there would be water up there so I parted ways not wanting to bog myself down with more weight while I gained another thousand or two feet in elevation. 

I started to second guess myself though, that would be awkward if they were right. I didn’t drink any of my water on the way up in the case that there wasn’t. But it was early season and it’s a generally reliable source so there’s gotta be something. There was a smaller stream about a mile up. And I saw plenty of snow in the crevices of the mountain so I eased my mind, assuring myself there would be water. 

There were a couple spots where the trail would wind around an opening but had been washed out by water. One of these I thought the trail went down the drainage, I scramble down a bit and realized that the trail went around the side. I thought I could go down the drainage though and meet up with the creek but as I scrambled down I saw a big drop off. I decided I should bushwack straight up the mountain to get back on trail. I grabbed a backpack size boulder to boost me up, testing it first, but as soon as I put any weight on it it came crashing down, missing my two feet by less than a foot. Terrified at my close call I went up a 70 degree slope, making my own switchback and hoping I would soon find the trail. Eventually I got back to it but it went on and on before finally making its way down to the creek. I was relieved to see plenty of flowing water but the whole area had been absolutely obliterated. 

I took a nice long rest there, relieved at having water and being pretty fed up with this day. I ate a bunch of gummy worms and drank some mío while I filtered enough water for the next 18 miles, 7ish liters just to be safe, an additional 13 lbs. after about a half or or so Red Bull came down into the basin. I watched him go up one valley ,  look around, go off, come back down, go up the creek then turn around and go up the left side of the bank. This was the supposed last of the wash outs. I remember reading to go up the creek a bit before scrambling up the steep right side of the river back. So when I set off that’s what I planned on doing. But I soon got trapped by downed trees and branches and had to fight my way back towards the creek before I could keep going. I eventually found a spot where I could scramble up and made it back to the trail. 

 I was relieved at finding the trail but bogged down by the weight of the day and extra water I was carrying. I went another couple miles and left that area behind me before deciding to call it a day in a forest with lots of pine trees and needles.

I did some writing and made dinner but soon got soo cold and was so windy I had to crawl into my tent. The wind was insane and I went out to try to fix my tent so it wouldn’t be so noisy and an immense fog had rolled in making the forest seem super scary and haunted. I had trouble falling asleep that night but eventually it came.