Day 21- May 10th

Today was such a great day! We woke up nice and early at the water source at the bottom of Mt. Jacinto. We had descended down into the valley floor. We packed up and headed it with a clear mission: get across the floor to Ziggy and the Bear's. If these trail angels sound unfamiliar to you, check out yesterday's blog for some detailed info.

We walked in the wind through a washout for 5 miles, leading us under Interstate 10, and finally to their backyard!

The place was awesome! There were probably 20 other hikers there. We signed in and then "The Bear" took our photo. They gave us each a Gatorade and there were fresh oranges and bananas for us. 

"Ziggy" checked our names on the list and returned with 3 boxes! One from my mom with delicious dried apple-bananas, yum yum yum!! Let's just say they didn't last long enough for a picture! 

Our roommate Emily back in Portland had sent me a birthday card as well as some gauze and tape we had requested from home. Thanks Magoo!!

Claire's friend (and mine too!) Heather sent us such a box of Trader Joe's goodies! Chocolate covered pretzels, chili spiced mango, peanut butter oat bars, trek mix, and honey roasted peanuts!

We charged our phones up to 100%, stretched out muscles a bunch, and bought a few more items from their little store. 

A typical hiker feast!

We were full. We stretched and stretched and relaxed and tried to sit still, but we were antsy to get going again! Claire's knee was feeling way better today, and we were filled with a sort of rush from finally conquering Mt. Jacinto after 3 days, and we were ready for what was next! 

Josh had strolled in shortly after us, and we decided to head out together!  The three of us filled up our water bottles, thanked Ziggy and The Bear, gave some love to the tip jar, and then we got outta there! 

At first we were faced with a long hot climb, but we were so energized by the food that we plowed through. We went by some big windmill farms, and then had one final crazy climb! 

When we got to the top we loved what we saw! We were about to descend into the San Gorgonio wilderness! Out of Jacinto, straight into Gorgonio!

Think of the scene from the Sound of Music where she's singing and twirling in the open hillside:

Around the area were dizzying sheer drops, beautiful views and canyons all about. We strolled through many tumbleweeds stuck in the trail gullies, and weaved in and out of many canyons.

Eventually we made a big descent into a valley and saw a pct hiker friendly campground was .5 miles to the right. We all felt pretty good so continued on. I'm sure glad we did because what we eventually came upon is the most beautiful place I've seen on this trail yet..

A beautiful little river, twisting through a white sandy wash, with white and silver rocks glistening and resting their cool masses on the rivers' flanks. It was almost sunset; we knew we were home for the night! 

Rock-stack artist: Claire

I'm telling you guys, picture just do not do this place justice!! Whitewater Creek near sunset is one of the most beautiful places I've seen, definitely the best campsite so far in our trip!

We took in all the awesome views, sat with our toes in the sand, set-up camp, cooked some yummy food, and just had an awesome afternoon in the best setting imaginable! 

The stars are popping up as I type this, the rain fly is off and the temperature is perfect! A crescent moon shines clearly above in the cloudless night sky.

Ahhhhhh.....

Tomorrow we have just under 2 miles until we start our 45 mile Lake Fire Closure Alternate Detour. It is something that I researched a lot at Idyllwild, printed out 7 pages, and made a detailed set of maps that will get us through to Big Bear. 

I'd say 80% of hikers were arranging transportation at Ziggy and The Bear's to skip about 60 miles of trial and get dropped off up at Big Bear to continue their hikes. 

It seriously makes me sad to think that all these people aren't seeing this beautiful place we are in right now! I don't think our way is better, and I'm definitely not one to hate on other peoples decisions, because everyone feels differently and has different goals in mind when it comes to the trail.

Let me just say that I am SO happy that we walked around the Fire Mountain Closure into Idyllwild, SO glad that we  summited Jacinto after the storm instead of hitching or walking around it, and SUPER glad that we're walking around this Lake Fire Closure as well!

There are only 3 more closures after this, and all of them are considerably smaller. Continuous foot path from Mexico to Canada, here we come! And in the end, it will be over 2,700 trail miles that we've walked instead of the official 2,668!

Well enough of my ranting, we're about to get some sleep, wake up early, and try for a 17 mile day tomorrow! 

Oh by the way, we did 14.42 miles today! Woot woot!! Spirits are high and life is good!

-Thanks for reading!