Day 16

(Stud) After our not-so-great trip to Cabazon yesterday, I knew today would be a better day, and so far it has been. Maybe it is just bad attitude yesteday.

I just have a few highlights for today: 1) I saw 2 road runners fairly close up. Dwight had just rounded a corner of the trail about 15 ft in front of me, and out form under a lw bush came aone road runner folowed closely by another. They were simlar in size to a cow egrit, but blue-gray in color, shorter legs,and that characteristic thingy on the top of their head. Sorry to report that there was no "beep, beep, zoom". 2) When we got down to Mission Creek today, D and I just plopped down in the middle of it fully clothed. It was a beautiful thing!

(Dr Bug) We ate breakfast at the
river, pumped drinking water and cleaned clothes. It is so hot here we cleaned our clothes by lying in the river, with clothes on. Later we removed them and finished the wash cycle by hand. They dry so fast you just put them back on wet. We left this spot at 8:10. This was one of the more refreshing moments on the trail. We then followed the trail and climbed a mt. ridge in a westerly direction. After walking for two hours - with some great views of white water river to the north, San Jacinto Peak south and West Palm Springs to the west - we decended to a creek. The trail the followed this creek and is where the confusion started. The maps and guide books indicate that we should have crossed a wider section of the White Water river again, but we did not. We were in a canyon where mission creek was flowing. This was creek we were not to reach for another 4 miles up the trail. We were still on the PCT, but all our documentation had gotten it wrong. Our location became a topi!
c of debate for the remainder of the day. The good was, we were walking up a valley with a flowing creek, water was never far away. We hiked till 1pm, found a big shady tree and slept, read and ate till 4:50. We decided to night hike at least 10 miles. The night hike was slow. A young hiker named April joined us. I enjoyed talking to her. I am amazed when a hiker can talk non stop when hiking up hill at a strong pace. This was the longest night hike I was ever on. Slower than normal, as would be expected. We were spooked when we flushed some bats from a tree. April was freaked when she saw reflections in the distance. "Is that a pair of eyes". It was later uncovered as a sign announcing we had crossed from the San Gorgonio Wilderness into the San Bernadino National Forest.