This morning I had a ton of alarms set. I wanted to have as early a start as possible to get to Cabazon as early as I could. Though, I also didn’t want to start walking before the sun came up. Based off what I saw last night, it was a safe bet that I would be going through some snow this morning. Hopefully just not very much.
I got packed up pretty quickly and was walking just after 5:30 AM. And as I suspected, there was some snow. The first couple of miles weren’t too bad. The trail actually wound up going downhill briefly, then right back uphill. I caught a gorgeous sunrise, comparable to last night’s sunset. It was such an incredible way to start the day. There was some mist rolling in, so I had to get moving quickly. I figured the storm would be rolling through any minute.
It was a misty and cold start to the day, but the sky was beautiful.
Every mile that I traveled, I was getting further and further downhill. So it wouldn’t be long before I would be out of range of snow. The worst thing that could happen was that I would get rained on a little bit. But I didn’t mind the idea of rain when I knew I was heading to town. And the trail was also almost entirely downhill. Which meant I could just wear my rain gear if it did rain.
After walking for a mile or two I got to a section with pretty continuous snow. The fallout wasn’t terrible. But the snow itself was very slick with ice. I definitely wasn’t incredibly comfortable walking on it without spikes. That area wound up slowing me down a good bit. I just didn’t want to move too quickly and risk hurting myself.
Once the sun came fully up, the sky lit up in the most exceptional way. It almost didn’t feel real.
Eventually, I got to the next designated campsite. This one was actually really close to a road and there were at least 4-5 tents set up there. I was so glad that I didn’t make the decision to continue onto this campsite last night. It would’ve been a wildly late night if I had. The snow proceeding the tent site slowed me down a lot.
But once I got past that site, there was no more snow for the rest of the day. I had dropped below 8000 feet and the rest of the day was just rolling switchbacks heading down to Cabazon. The temperature was still nice and cool at this point in the day. I had my rain jacket and pants on, as well as my gloves. I wound up keeping all of that on for the first couple hours of my descent.
You can see a lot of snow up on this mountain in the distance.
Eventually, the sun came out and I was able to strip some layers off. It was looking like I would be getting to town right around 1 PM. That wasn’t too bad at all! Even doing a 22 mile day today, my average for the last six days will still be 35 miles a day. It just goes to show how many miles I’ve been doing every day before today. I averaged 38 miles a day the last five days previously. Which is a pretty solid start to the PCT.
As I made my way downhill, I listened to a couple podcasts. I also got service and wound up booking a room for the night in Banning, CA. The town of Cabazon just has one hotel, which is a casino on tribal land. It was pretty expensive for the night. And I would have to either hitch or Uber to Cabazon regardless. It just seemed to make more sense to go to the town next to it, Banning. That would give me more options for resupplying, eating, and a cheaper motel for the night.
Making my way down toward Cabazon.
I’m excited to have a whole afternoon to get video and blog editing done. I usually have to do this at least once a week to get caught up on things. Unless I’m being incredibly productive at the end of each day. I’ve just been doing some pretty big mileage recently. So I haven’t had of energy at the end of the day to write or edit.
The trail was pretty “round about” at times, but the views were stunning.
When I got further down the descent, I ran into a few hikers. It was nice to see some people! One of the girls actually recognized me from some form of social media. And it looks like they’re also going into Banning today! So maybe I’ll be seeing them again later today. When I had about two or three hours left for the day, I passed the PCT 200 mile marker. I can’t believe that I made it here in the last six days. More like 5.5 days honestly. I remember it taking me 13 days to get to Idyllwild in 2017. So it must’ve taken maybe 16 or so days to get here last time. The difference is stark.
200+ miles into the PCT on day 6!
As I was getting closer to the road, I wound up calling my dad and we talked on the phone for a while. That was nice and passed a ton of time by. Then I went by a large group of trail maintainers, which is always a beautiful site to see. I think it’s important to take time out of your day to thank each and every every one of them for their hard work. They are what keep the trails hike-able.
There were at least 3 stone markers made for the 200 mile marker.
By the time I got down to a paved road, the wind was crazy. So I had to get off the phone and just walk. I was only walking along the road for maybe 5 or 10 minutes when it started to rain! I felt pretty lucky that the weather held off until I was an hour out of town. It doesn’t get much better than that. The trail follows along a road for at least a mile or so. Then you get back onto some loose sand until you come to the I-10 underpass. It looked like I would be getting there right on time.
These are the first of this type of flower that I’ve seen in the desert so far.
Just before I got there, my mom called me and had some pretty sad news. She just had to put her cat down yesterday because suddenly. That was really tragic news because she loved him so much and has only had him for a few years. She rescued him from a really awful home life. It was just one of those freak things. It sounds like he had some kind of a tumor and was given about a month to live, uncomfortably. She was really upset and the worst part was it was very hard to hear because of the wind. So once I get to town, I’ll have to call her back and talk to her. I can only imagine that she’s very upset. Bodhi was a very good cat and a sweet boy.
In 2024 a hiker died trying to cut some switchbacks. Now there are warning on Far Out telling hikers to strictly stay on trail.
I wound up getting to the I-10 underpass and blew right by it. Then headed out to the next road where you’re able to hitch a ride into Cabazon. I was told that you could also get an Uber, so I decided to try my luck with that. Short days are such a delightful rarity for me out here. I don’t want to waste a single minute of the day trying to hitch. I was actually able to call an Uber right away and it arrived within three minutes! Then took me to Banning which is about 15–20 minutes from the trailhead. I think I’ll probably try to schedule an Uber to pick me up for tomorrow morning. That way I don’t have to wait around or worry about it tomorrow.
I believe that this sign is outside of a trail angel house. But staying in a motel just makes it easier for me to get work done.
I got dropped off right at the Quality Inn. Then checked in, dropped my bag, and headed across the street to grab some Mexican food. I was in bed eating Mexican food by 1:30 PM. That sounds like a dang productive day to me.
I got two MASSIVE burritos at the spot across the street.
After I ate, I took a shower and a bath. Then I started doing a ton of writing and video work. I have so much to get done. I would love to do as much as possible today. After I got at least a couple hours of work done I went to go resupply. I think my plan is to skip Big Bear. It’ll save me a hitch in the middle of the day. If the mileage lined up a little bit better, I might’ve gone into Big Bear. There’s actually a person who was possibly going to host me. But it’ll wind up being a short day in. And I have a box being sent to Cajon pass. So I’m planning on spending the night there if possible.
I love when a burrito is the size of my whole head.
When I resupplied at the Dollar General, one of the employees was super curious about what I was doing. I wound up talking to that guy for maybe 15 minutes on and off while I loaded my cart with tons of food. I need about 3.5 days of food. And I was struggling between the balance of getting way too much and not enough. But I think if I eat at the continental breakfast tomorrow morning, then I should be all good.
I also got a bunch of drinks there, chocolate milk, and an ice cream bar. It was this delicious creamy pecan Mexican ice cream bar. That was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever had and I don’t know how I’ve never tried one before. I hope I see more of those in the future. I chugged a sprite and a gator lite as well. Then planned to fill my bottles with some Gatorade too. I love to do that when I’m leaving town. It’s just a little treat for the first day out of town.
A good ole dollar general resupply!
Back at the room, I got going on more work. I wound up getting about five videos uploaded to YouTube, a couple things done on Instagram, and all of my blogs finished. In the interim, I also ate a bunch of Mexican food. I got multiple burritos so that I could eat them over the course of the night. And you better believe I was putting in work on that chocolate milk
I also wound up taking another bath so I could shave my legs and also soak my body. And I got some writing work done while I took the bath. One of my main goals of the day was multitasking efficiently. Anytime I was doing one task I was simultaneously doing something else. If I didn’t need my phone for anything, I was exporting or uploading YouTube videos. While I was eating, I was uploading. While I was packing my food away, I was uploading. You get the gist. I think I did a better job today being strategic and multitasking and then I ever have.
One of my craziest moves of the day was deciding to drink a coffee around 8 PM. But I could feel my eyes already getting so tired. Lately the hardest thing I have to do every day is write my blog. I think I’ve Pavlovian trained myself into getting sleepy every time I go to write. I swear I can hardly keep my eyes open, even if I’m just editing and doing grammatical changes. So I drank a little bit of coffee in the hopes that it would keep me up a bit longer. Honestly, caffeine does not work that intensely on me when I’m tired. So I knew when the time came to sleep that I wouldn’t have any issues.
I wound up getting more work done while I took another bath. Then got into bed and had some more writing to do before calling it at night. I got everything scheduled to have an Uber pick me up in the morning as well. It’s pretty cool that you are able to schedule Uber rides. That way you’re not laying in the balance hoping that someone can come and get you.
Tomorrow is going to be a pretty interesting day of hiking. I have about 17 miles standard miles after I leave town. But then 17 miles into the day, I start the “wash out”section. A 10 mile stretch of trail that has been completely destroyed by water damage. It’s been like this for a couple years and still hasn’t been fixed. There’s absolutely no trail at all, and you’re supposed to follow cairns or written directions on FarOut. That of course makes me a little bit anxious, but I think I’m going to be ok. Even if it slows me down, I should at least be able to get through that before I make a camp tomorrow night. Though it is also supposed to rain for most of tomorrow! It should be a pretty interesting day.
I have one last side note for anyone who is still emotionally invested in my weird shelter story from Vermont. I’ve been a pretty busy on trail the last couple weeks, clearly. As I just flew from the East Coast to the West Coast, and have been doing really big mile days. But finally today I was able to get in touch with the Forrest service agent who went out to the shelter in Vermont to check on the man who I felt threatened by. The officer confirmed that the guy was strange and acting incredibly “off”. Apparently, he has been living out on the trail for many months and actually has no history on any record for the last 20 years. After they spoke with him, it became clear that the man was not armed and there was no reason for them to believe he was a physical threat to anyone. It’s very likely he is dealing with some kind of mental health issues, though obviously they would not and could not diagnose him. He had actually consumed some of those nicotine pouches, which is what caused him to believe he was poisoned. Which in of itself is incredibly odd and surprising. That was his only reasoning for stating that he had been poisoned, apparently.
I’m glad that I called the police because they were able to go out there and provide some support to this person. Who they said has had the police called on him multiple times. They also believe the police will be called on him many more times this hiking season. The officer commended me on acting quickly and calling the authorities. Not just to protect myself, but also to protect future hikers, and to provide support to that man. He confirmed there was no way of me to know if the man acting strangely and aggressively was threatening. And the best course of action was to leave the scene immediately and call for help. They also tried to explain to the man that the way he spoke, and yelled, at me had made me afraid for my safety. Though I’m sure that didn’t go very far.
It’s not every day that you get any type of closure in situations like this. I’m glad that this person wasn’t a legitimate threat. But when you are alone in the woods, you have no way of knowing that until it’s too late. I was pleased to get the confirmation that contacting authorities was the right choice, though I did already know that. And that’s all I got!
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