Day 15, 18.94 miles

Well, I beat yesterday’s wake up record today!! Haha. Today I woke up at 4:15am to get past those bees while they snoozed. Yup, you heard that right: David Teehee woke up at 4:15am. Like I was hoping yesterday, I was the first one out of camp :) Julian and Joseph were feet behind. We camped about 1.5 miles before the bees, so we bundled up in our leggings and jacket and rain gear before we left camp so we had less chance of getting stung. We were on the trail by 4:30.

We stopped just before the bees to regroup , put on our headlamps, and turn off our headlamps. We held our breath as to not attract them and quietly charged through.... Nothing! Not one buzz! They were all still sleeping! 

Alright, REWIND back two years...

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Long long ago, in a galaxy far away... there was a fair maiden and a knight in shining ar... nah, jk

In 2016, just after Idyllwild, Claire and I had just stayed way up high in the Mt. San Jacinto Summit shelter at 10,800 feet. It was 19°. The next day, we started our 20 mile descent. We had four liters of water and were 100% prepared. Except for the descent, haha. Neither Claire or myself had trekking poles, and the below freezing cold night followed by the rough downhill took its toll on Claire’s knees. We stopped around 12 miles down.

The next morning we continued down the hill, already running low-ish on water. Claire’s knees were hurting even worse today with the weight of her pack jamming down with each step. About 5 miles from the bottom (4.8 to be exact :)), I decided that I’d give her my remaining water, put her pack on the front of mine, and run down to the water faucet in Snow Canyon. 

With her pack semi-obstructing my view, I couldn’t see about 10 feet directly in front of me, and had to memorize the terrain in front and blindly hop and skirt the slick, rocky grade. I was running so fast that I evidently blew right by the hive of wild killer bees at mile 202.

From 2016. Two-pack origin.

After awhile, Claire came hobbling through mile 202 and got attacked by an angry swarm of bees. She was going as fast as she could on her poor knees but they were relentless! After what seemed like an eternity but was probably a couple minutes, a large gust of wind swept them away, and Claire came out unscathed. 

Shortly after, our friend Big Spoon officially named us Two-Pack and Bee’s Knees!!

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Coming through this section brought back memories of that time. I actually got to take my time coming down instead of flying down and jumping over obstacles! The sun was starting to peak over the mountainside. Photos don’t do it justice, but here’s one anyway.

We got to the bottom and the water faucet and took about 15 minutes there, eating some breakfast and stripping down from our protective-bee-outerwear into our blazing-hot-sun clothes.. it’s hot!! Crazy how we went from snow and being stuck in a mountain town waiting out bad weather to 84° by 10am!

And only gonna get hotter...

At the water faucet we saw 3 people hiking in a group. Or member, Click, is hiking with a 1.5 year old husky named either Terra, Sarah, Or Sierra.. we didn’t quite hear, haha

Terra

Sarah?

Sierra :)

We then started the 4 mile not so pleasant, long, hard slog in a deep sandy wash to get to Interstae 10. It Sam tarts with almost a mile of road walk, which was actually quite picturesque:

Looking back at Jacinto

There was some great trail magic there when we arrived! We chilled under the shade of the overpass for about 1/2 an hour, enjoying sodas and some fresh fruit! There was a solar charger external battery pack which I used to get a little extra juice. I had a little bit of service there and my mom sent me a text that the Kilauea volcano has erupted back home and has started destroying some homes in the Leilani Estates area, about 20 miles south of Puna. Crazy!!! (My family back home is not in any immediate danger)

Trap magic under the I-10

Julian and our Cactus Coolers

Reluctantly, we headed back into the heat. At least there was a pretty nice breeze! Saw this cool sign a couple miles later:

Section C!!

The sun was getting so hot that I was super relieved to see a sign with an arrow that said “Shade and Water”. Just off trail is the Mesa Windfarm maintenance building. These great people have built a giant wooden umbrella of sorts around a telephone pole base to provide shade for hikers. They also have a huge cooler with water and ice!

In there we met Harry and Fran. They’re a great couple from London, and we hung out for about two hours. Harry on the left in the yellow in the photo above. At one point, Fran was lying down relaxing and a lizard crawled up on her stomach. He started doing his push-up mating routine!!! Hahaha

Fran covering her mouth just in case he decided to run!

After about two hours, Julian and I, again, reluctantly, headed back into the heat of the day! We would soon be approaching a big climb out of Box (or Boxer?) Canyon that I distinctly remember climbing during the heat of the day with Claire in 2016. We passed some huge windmills along the way.

Julian (center of pic) halfway up the big climb

Pano from the top (windmills way in distance far left middle)

Same picture, zoomed in on the windmills

After the long climb, we could see what last time we’re rolling green hills and fields that reminded us of the Sound of Music. It looked a liiiiiittle different this time..

The hills aren’t as alive, with the sound of music..

We had a nice long traverse along the beautiful dry ridge. Dropping down and climbing up, about 4 times over ~5 miles. Finally we turned a corner and could see Whitewater Creek and wash waaaaay down below!

See the creek?

We dropped down down down and farther down still, finally hitting the valley floor. We then started very gradually climbing through some sand wash north towards the first creek crossing. By this time Julian and I were both soooooo tired, but we kept slogging on towards the water, and managed to take a couple pictures along the way looking down the beautiful canyon.

Julian

Tall weird guy. (Jk, that’s me!)

I didn’t tell Julian this, but I knew that in about a mile from this point, we would pop out on the MOST BEAUTIFUL scene! The Whitewater Creek was my guarantee favorite spot in the first 720 miles on the PCT in 2016. At the time Rafiki (Josh), Claire and I sdeliriously stumbled into what we could only describe as a paradise oasis in the desert. And, lucky for Julian and I, it was the same time of day as the last time :)

Have you ever seen anything as beautiful?!? Most likely you have, but after walking through 220 miles of desert, this was quite the sight for sore eyes! I absolutely love this place, and it did not disappoint on my second visit two years after the first. Beautiful white sand and the clearest, coldest water, flowing through a valley surrounded by big cliffs and majestic mountains in the background! Ahhhhhhh...

Julian and I claimed our campsites about a hundred yards away, and then headed straight for the water. We both soaked our feet in the nice cold stream, and ate and ate and ate! Julian said this was the first day that his hiker hunger kicked in, as he ate almost double his “normal amount”. I think mine started a few days ago, because dang did we both eat!!

Almost 19 miles is a pretty impressive day, especially in this heat and with a half hour break under the bridge and an almost 3 hour break under the giant wooden umbrella at the wind farm. We are tired and happy! Less than 50 miles to Big Bear! There’s a huge climb tomorow. If we are thinking of doing about 18-20 miles it means climbing up close to 7,000ft! So, we’ll just see what happens and not push it harder than we need to. 

I’m excited for tomorrow because I’ll be hiking through another section that I haven’t seen because of a fire closure back when we did the trail two years ago. Yay new trail!

Thanks for reading!