Day 16, 19.84 miles

Woke up today in paradise! Man do I love that campsite.. unfortunately there wasn’t much time to dilly dally in the morning (there never is on a thru-hike), because the high in Whitewater was supposed to get up to 97°!!

We knew that most of the day would be up, and we were aiming for ~20 miles (as is becoming usual), but we didn’t know just how UP things would be! Also, by we you guys can assume I’m talking about Julian, unless otherwise noted. It just sort of happened naturally but we’ve become hiking buddies. We both like to wake up early and go for pretty long but not completely wreck our bodies. Match made in heaven!

We left camp at around 5:30am, and within a few miles came across this sign:

In 2016, Claire and I hung a right here and began our 45 mile fire closure road alternate! (Bruuuutal dude...)

Excitement came over me as I was entering new territory!! Most of the morning I was hiking alone, with Julian close behind. We find that whiever is ready first leaves camp first, and we normally end up leap-frogging, but hiking together about 1/2 of the day, as well as taking our “siesta” (long middle of the day break) together. I zigzagged up a biiiiig hill and then of course back down again!

It’s a rat, It’s a bear! It’s the PCT

Little did I know that coming down from there would be the last down. ALL DAY..

I could still see San Jacinto peak for most of the morning!

Great ridge walk

Walked up out of Whitewater Creek and down into Mission Creek!

One great thing about today is that the trail followed Mission Creek all day. This meant that we didn’t have to carry 3 or 4 liters at a time and instead carried about half a liter on average, crossing the creek again every 1-3 miles. This was great because there was nice shade (at least on the lower 1/3 of the trail up), to protect us and give us frequent options to rest from the blazing sun!

4th snake I’ve seen, still no rattlesnakes

Mission Creek

Lush and green

Julian

There’s not much to say about the actual hiking today except that it was long, hot, and ALL up!! Just up for hours, up for daaaaaaaaaaays! (Ok, not really days) we soon found the shade not appearing as often as the first few morning miles of the trail, and it was about high noon. We knew we had to find some shade and fast! We climbed up a few more ridges and finally dropped back down to the creek, where we found the tiniest patch of shade under some small trees. We also found Joseph!

A hiker lunch/pack explosion.

Joseph had woken up waaaaay too early and had started hiking by 4am! Passing us in the early morning without us knowing! (He had camped about 1/2 mile back from us last night)

Chunky monkey burrito: chocolate, peanut butter, and banana! Yum!

We spent about 1.5 hours there, and decided to push on. It was still pretty hit but not as hot as high noon, plus the winds were picking up. We left the San Gorgonio (sp?) range and entered the San Bernardino range.

 It wasn’t until a few miles past this point that we saw our first sign of the damage from the Mission Creek fire which tore through this area some years ago and had caused the trail to still be closed in 2016.

It was a pretty neat burn area, and the PCT trail people did a great job at cutting and burning all the Poodle Dog Bush, and re-building the steep steep trail.

Now, I’ve mentioned a few times that we went way up today, but how much did we really climb? 

6,520 feet, that’s how much! I don’t always put elevation stats, but this is definitely the latest climb day we’ve had yet, and to push through and do nearly 20 miles! (I’m stoked)

There’s a cool old campground that Julian and I, along with about 8 other hikers, are staying at tonight. There is a great (ice cold) spring about 2/10ths of a mile away from the campground. It’s a really neat cave that had water dripping very quickly through the roots and into a collection bucket. Sorry no picture as I didn’t take my phone and I don’t want to go back! 

I’m cowboy camping tonight amongst (but not directly underneath) LIVE pine trees. And it’s beautiful. I plan on getting an early start tomorow as Big Bear is only 26 miles from here! We won’t do it all in one stretch, maybe ~20 tomorow for an easy 6 into town on Monday. 

Thanks for reading!!