Woke at the break of dawn.  Jared, Samson, and I were planning to hike together, so we all broke camp at about the same time.   Saw a couple hikers go by while we were packing up.   Everyone at our camp site was still snug in their bags when we left. 

We were starting at mile 201.6 heading toward the faucet at 205.7.   All of us were low/out of water.   I had maybe .5 liter when we started.     

We arrived at the 205.7’s faucet completely dry.  There was quite the party there.    Found Quark and Towanda there filling up, some British gal named Hot Diggity, and a couple of other gals turned up while we were there.    Turns out that I passed Quark/Towanda last night.   

Folks were milling around filtering, but I just loaded up and left on my own.   The sun was rising and I was pretty sure crossing the wash before/after I-10 was going to be harsh.      Quark said we had to cross hell to get to heaven (San Bernardino Mountains).   Better get this over with. 

As I was coming down a short paved road to the gate at mile 206.8, some gal in a Land Rover saw me coming and stopped.   She waited there for a few minutes while I walked up, jumped out, and handed me an Odwalla smoothie!   Don’t know what it was, just green and cold.   I downed it in 15 seconds.    She was headed into work, so this must have been her breakfast.   I was super grateful.  

Followed the road, then was at the palm desert floor.   The trail was solid for a bit so I was making good progress.    Here is a picture from around 208 looking back toward San Jacinto Peak (around 10k feet I think).   I was hiking just below that peak yesterday.   

The suck really began when the trail dropped into a wash (as I expected).    For those unfamiliar with the desert, a wash is a dry desert riverbed that sees occasionally big floods.   When it floods, it becomes a nasty brown churning mess.   Then it quickly dries into deep sand misery.   While I was walking I calculated that I lost 1.5 inches on each step sliding backward.   Sorry no pics of this segment.   Go look at your kid’s sandbox to get an image.  

Got to the I-10 overpass (209.5) and found a guy named Quarters sitting amongst some trail magic.   Quark and Towanda showed up around the same time.   The big find was some cold cans of Natural Light and bananas.    Turns out that even hell has a beer ! 

Quark, Towanda, and I left together.  Fun hiking with them, but the fun could only last so long.   Towanda was in the lead again as usual, which means I lose.  

Gradual climb started.   Goal was to get to the Mesa wind farm maintenance shop where there would hopefully be some water.  It was getting super hot.   Must have been low 90’s by then.

Ran into Q and T sitting under a tiny bush about .5 miles from the shop.   They looked so sad with their 3 feet of shade, poor things.  Convinced them to carry on for a bit more.   Turned out to be the right call….when I got to the crossing there was a sign that said “Tacos” !!!  Was so psyched I practically ran there arriving around 12.     

Folks in the shop opened up their kitchen room to us and were making carnitas with all the fixins in air conditioned awesomeness.   Gatorade and bottled water was flowing as well as sodas.   I dropped a $20 in the donation jar.   This was heaven. 

Bunch of hikers were already there and others came streaming in.   We all congregated outside in a little grassy area under a tree napping.   I was too comfortable to get up, but I did take a blind picture over my head.   Expand this image by 3x and you’ll get the idea.

Left around 3 with the goal of the hitting the Whitewater Preserve at 218.5.   Only 5 miles, how hard could that be?   Well it turns out to be some really hard miles.   The first segment was a 1k foot climb in 90 F heat.   Going was unusually slow for me.   Here is a pic looking back.   You can see a gal named Sam climbing slowly up.     

Rest of the hike had some nice high-desert type scenery, but I didn’t take many pics.  

Arrived at Whitewater Preserve around 6.  Crossed this bridge

Then got lost and wondered amongst the rocks for a while

Finally made it to camp and setup with a bunch of folks I hadn’t met before.   There is this German dude here named “Bottom” who is just funny as hell.  Some of his funniest stores are finding stuff on the trail and trying to get it back to people.  Also met a nice young Swiss couple that I *think* were last seen at Warner springs (109).  

Did a respectable 17 miles today.