We woke up this morning a little earlier than expected due to the early morning rush of hikers packing up. It was a bummer since we had been so careful to be quiet when we came in the previous night and to put ourselves off in an isolated corner, but there’s no real way to broach the subject without people thinking you’re a grump. I threw in the towel pretty quickly and got up but Keith tried to get back to sleep.
Breakfast from the trail angels was wonderful! Oatmeal, cereal, and best of all, coffee and fresh fruit! I sat around and chatted with other hikers as we all ate. After breakfast I showered and stretched out my leg. It felt much better than yesterday. Given our late night we took a leisurely morning, finishing up a few other chores, reading, and relaxing in the wonderful hospitality. Ziggy and the Bear are two of the nicest, kindest people you will ever meet. It still blows my mind that people are willing to open their lives and hearts to many stinky weirdos every year. We do tend to be good-natured and appreciative of the most minor luxuries (like brand-name tissues!) but it’s such a huge undertaking. They have already hosted over 260 hikers this season – Keith and I were 250 and 251. It’s a busy year out here!
Eventually, though, we felt the urge to be moving on and we packed up and hit the trail. The first stretch was through flat desert scrub towards a nearby wind farm. This was a good place for it, seeing as we had been blown around all last night and today as we hiked. After making our way up to a saddle in a narrow canyon, we crossed over into the San Gorgonio wilderness.
Here the wind was even stronger. We are the hiker equivalent of high-profile vehicles, and sometimes a gust would catch us mid-step and nearly throw us down a cliff. Once or twice we had to just stop, brace ourselves, and wait for it to end. It was funny to see ants get blown end over end up the trail (probably not so funny for them though).
As we entered the wilderness the entire landscape changed. Suddenly we were walking through rolling hills, with long beautiful views across the wide canyon to rocks that were striped and colored like the badlands. We eventually dropped down to the canyon floor, which was an enormous rock and sand bed for Whitewater Creek.
This was our stop for the day and we decided to camp out on one of the sandy stretches. We planned to set up the tent since we had been hearing about rain tonight ever since Idyllwild. We thought it would be a picturesque campsite with lovely background noise from the creek, just like in an REI catalog! Well, we discovered there are two problems with this idea: one, without sand stakes and with strong winds, your tent won’t stay up. We solved this issue somewhat by putting big rocks over each stake. The other problem is that when the wind gusts as it did, sand comes in under the edges of your tent and gets in everything. Every last nook and cranny. We took all this pretty much in stride because it was easier than relocating over the creek and all the rocks. I didn’t get much sleep, though, listening to the tent and wondering if it would blow over. One thing was true – it did turn out to be a picturesque site!
– Posted from the PCT
Location:PCT mile 220