A thru-hike attempt

Whitewater River appears out of nowhere and crosses the trail and what a pleasure it was to encounter it today.  Immediately took off my shoes & stood in the water for a long time. Aaaahhh!  😆.  And then, came across Mission Creek (below) at lunchtime. Though this creek looks small, it was a big deal as it was continuously flowing with a good flow rate and it went on for a long distance. In fact, had to go back & forth across the Creek at least 20 times today. Even the campsite that I finally ended up in the evening was next to the Creek - literally 20 steps away.  This is common in the Seirra Nevada mountains, but I didn't think it would happen in the desert.  Took advantage of the nearby water to hand wash some of my clothes in the Creek (of course, without any soap so as not to pollute the water) to remove some of the grime.  I was not going to dry them inside the tent this time (remember D-4). So, while I was trying to figure out how to hang the

Today was yet another day of hiking 🙂. A few highlights, in no particular order: Crossed the 200-mile-marker Saw a rainbow in the clouds above Mt. San Jacinto (look closely and you will see it) Most of the day was spent walking towards I-10 highway - mostly downhill. You might see the highway in the far-off distance. But more interestingly, saw this patch of green in the middle of all the brown. A small community called Snow Creek…ironical since I doubt there ever see snow 😀 These were the group of hikers who were all taking their break in the small area of shade under the rock. I was also there where the guy in the blue is sitting. Everybody squeezed in as close to the rock as possible to escape the heart. To the extreme right is a water faucet provided by the local water company, as a service to the hikers when natural water sources are far apart. Below was trail magic under the railway bridge, next to I-10. Normally this

Guess I had to leave the comfort of the lodge in Idyllwild and head back to the wilderness. Yeah…it was a bit difficult to leave the luxuries of civilization, but not that bad 🙂. As you can imagine, one starts really appreciating the basic things of life like running water, flush toilets, a bed, electricity, good food & drink options and of course, WiFi/4G service when you don't have them for days. Before heading out, I picked up the resupply box from the PO that I had mailed to myself long ago. Supposedly there was 4-days of food in that, but looking at it, I think I grossly overestimated how hungry I would be on the trail. Anyway, put everything in the pack and alas, the pack weight went back to 35 lbs (17-28 kg) or so. The lodge offered ride service to the trailhead and headed back up 2.6 miles (and it was only up & up all of those 2.6) to Saddle Junction where I was back on PCT.  The plan was for a short hike today - only about 11 miles and I

Took my first NERO day i.e. a day with less mileage than usual where one goes into a nearby town for food resupply or some other reason. I had to go into Idyllwild, CA to pick up my first resupply box. So, hiked about 10 miles to Saddle Junction and then took a 2.6 mile detour on Devil's Slide trail to a trailhead near the town. Luckily, as soon as reached the trailhead parking lot, there was a kind lady who offered me a ride into town. This is very common for thru-hikers to hitch a ride into town. The lady, who went by her trail name, Mrs Bubbles, had a very interesting life. She was a true-blue van-lifer (see Nomadland movie). For the past 3+ years, she had been living in a van (now a car) and went around visiting different places in the country. She also hiked an average of 50 miles a week in various parks. What an interesting life! And, yes, the Mayor of Idyllwild is an actual dog 😀. That's one heck of a weirdly fun town! Stayed at a hotel today. And funn

Yes, indeed it is. The white stuff on the mountain far ahead, if you look closely, is snow. That's what I saw this morning. And then, by lunch time, I saw actual snow below some trees beside the trail. See below... And, by the end of the day, this is what I was trudging through - patches of wet, slushy snow. More sections of unmelted snow will be coming! Below is a water supply along the trail today. A small pipe of water from a nearby stream, perhaps.  Obviously, one filters it and drinks the water 🙂. A few photos from today: And since this is after all California, check out the sticker on the top right of this board. Expanded image below too: There was a lot of elevation gain today and hence, it was slow. So much so that my preferred campsite was fully occupied by the time I reached it and I had to go another mile to get a site which had some spots left. Unf