I slept in at the room until a little bit after 5:30 AM. I actually got everything done last night in terms of video and blog editing, so I didn’t have to wake up and do anything! I just got up and began packing my things. Last night I scheduled an Uber to come and get me this morning around 7 AM. So once I was packed up, I headed to the continental breakfast before leaving the motel.
When I got to the breakfast, I saw the three hikers who I met yesterday when I was about three or so hours out of town. The one guy’s name was Web Cutter, and the two girls were named Fish Head and Jess. I sat there and had breakfast with them, which was so awesome. I think this is the first time on the entire trail that I’ve seen any hiker more than once. I wind up passing by most people just because I’m on a different time schedule and doing pretty big miles every day. So the only opportunity for me to see someone more than once is if we go into town around the same time or camp together, then I’ll see them again in the morning.
It was really cool sitting and chatting with them. Looking outside it was still raining and had been raining all last night. Which definitely isn’t ideal! Today I’m going to be doing the infamous mission creek washout portion of the PCT. That’s a 10+ mile section of trail, which has been completely destroyed. Apparently there are very small sections of trail remaining in the midst of all of it. But for the most part, you’re just following a creek bed and kind of choosing your own path and adventure.
I don’t really mind route finding and navigating. And I’m assuming that it won’t be too bad, considering how many people have gone through this section. This portion of trail has been washed out since 2024. But with it raining, I figure visibility will be a little bit worse. And I always get a little anxious at the idea of the unknown. Especially when I’m trying to maintain big consistent miles. Today is Monday and I’m hoping to get to Cajon pass Thursday afternoon. Which requires doing big miles every single day. The less miles that I get done today just means I have to do much bigger days tomorrow and the next day.
Getting back on trail past I-10 this morning.
After eating breakfast, I said goodbye to those three hikers and then grabbed my stuff. The Uber wound up arriving a little before schedule, which was perfect. And as we drove back toward the trail, the sky actually got more clear. By the time I was getting dropped off, the weather looked perfect where the trail was. It wasn’t raining at all, and I didn’t need to have any layers on. Hopefully it stays like this for most of the day!
When I got dropped off there were some construction guys there at the road. I chatted with them for a few minutes and then got back onto the trail and continued heading north. It was a really nice start to the day and I knew I had 17 fairly leisurely miles to go before I entered into the washout portion of the trail. The first few miles were fairly flat, then I began a climb up a couple rolling hills.
I passed this sign a few miles into the day. Mission Creek camp was my tentative ideal campsite for the night.
I’ve really been enjoying the elevation game out here though. The difference between this trail and the Appalachian Trail is stark. All the time I spent between New York and New Hampshire on the AT definitely prepared me well for this terrain. I was feeling really good and just did my best to eat as much as possible. Over the course of the morning I saw one hiker. I was surprised how quiet the trail was.
After 3 or 4 miles of walking, there was a steep descent. Which brought me down to the white water area. I remember back in 2017 it was over 100° coming through here. So the guys I was hiking with and myself all headed to the oasis center. It’s this incredible area with man-made pools and palm trees. There’s running water there and lots of shade. We were getting wrecked by the heat and wound up spending a long time hanging out over there. If I recall, it’s vehicle accessible, so there were lots of other people there too.
Heading along the trail toward the wind farm.
Just because of how many miles I’m doing today and the impending washout, I didn’t plan to head over there. But when I was passing by the junction, I saw two hikers. After a second of talking to the girl, she actually recognized me. I realized it was Drizzle! A hiker who I’ve never actually met before, but have heard a lot about. I hiked on the Pinhoti Trail with her ex partner. He talked about her a lot when they were together. I’ve heard about her time on the Appalachian Trail and had heard that she had plans to do the PCT. I had no idea she was out here though so it was so cool to finally put a face with the name. She was super nice and we wound up talking for a while. She was hiking with one other guy named Chapstick. It was really nice to see some more people since it has been such a quiet day so far.
The trail rode along narrow ridge line for most of the day.
Right around the time that I saw them, a bunch of dark clouds began moving in. I could see that it was raining off in the distance and knew that it was only a matter of time until it moved closer over here. After maybe only 5 or 10 minutes it started to rain lightly. It was almost too hot to wear a rain jacket, but I was hopeful that it would let up quickly. This portion of the trail was super flat and was also sort of washed out. You’re kind of just going through what used to be a large river bed. But there are lots of stones marking the route.
I really enjoyed how you could see the trail stretching out so far off in the distance.
After another mile or so, I came to a fairly wide river, which was the next water source for the day. There are mixed reviews about the upcoming water sources in Mission Creek. Classically, there’s always a lot of fear mongering on trail. People have talked about getting sick from drinking out of the creek, so I’m going to avoid drinking out of it as much as I can. Though I’m going to be following the creek for the last 13+ miles of the day, so I will definitely be getting water out of it at some point.
Dark clouds starting to roll through the sky off in the distance.
When I crossed this river, I didn’t really see an opportunity to rock hop. And I figured I’d be getting my feet wet very soon anyway in Mission Creek. So I just forded through it and then when I got to the other side, I filled up some water. The water was super fast moving and definitely could’ve been a difficult crossing if it had been substantially deeper. Then after I filled up on water, I had another 6 or 7 miles to go before I would begin the washout portion of the trail.
Coming up from that river I got back onto some nice, well manicured, trail. The rain had stopped and everything was so lush and beautiful. I really enjoyed the next hour or two.
The trail went by so many wildflowers and had some very great exposed views of mountains in the distance. Some of the mountains off the distance were covered in snow. I’ve seen comments about the upcoming section of trail, which goes up above 8000 feet. A couple weeks ago there was a lot of snow there. But I’m also pretty sure I was potentially seeing San Gorgonio peak, which is over 11,000 feet. I can’t be certain though if that’s what I was seeing in the distance.
Today is the first day that I’ve seen these plump little flowers! They look like they’re filled with air.
I’m hoping that there won’t be too much snow once I get up and above 8000 feet. But if Mission Creek winds up taking me a long time, then I’ll probably stop about 30 miles into the day right before the top. So it would be just below 8000 feet and i likely wouldn’t have to deal with any snow.
The next couple hours went by pretty quickly and before I knew it I arrived at the wash out. I was just hoping it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting and I was still able to make pretty good time. A hiker named Jack Rabbit is up ahead on the trail attempting the calendar year triple crown FKT. I had messaged him asking about the conditions of the washout. He said it wasn’t too bad. The worst aspect of it was that it slowed him down to about 2 mph. So I accounted for that when I prepared for my mileage today. Even if the washout slows me down to 2 mph for the entire time, I should still be able to do 30 miles well before dark. I’ll just have to see how it all plays out.
When you first get into the washout, you’re able to very quickly go across the creek bed and get back onto the trail. Then you can follow the actual trail for about one more mile. After that, the trail has been completely washed out on both sides. Ordinarily it zigzags across the creek and rides on a ridge slightly above the creek for most of the time. But when you’re walking through the creek bed, you could see that the entire side of the trail has just been destroyed.
Even a little bit of washed out trail isn’t going to get me down!
After that first mile, you had to get into the creek and stay in the creek bed for the next 6–8 miles. Any attempt to rejoin the PCT would result in not being able to find the trail, and likely adding a lot more time to your day. Just a couple weeks ago a video was put online of some searching rescue guys coming out to this portion of the trail. A hiker had attempted to follow the washed out and nonexistent trail. Which resulted in them “cliffing out”, meaning they walked until they basically ran out of any place to walk. They couldn’t move or backtrack. The hiker wound up getting stuck there and actually use their GARMIN to hit SOS and was rescued by helicopter. I was definitely keeping that story in the back of my mind as I made my way through the wash.
After the rain stopped, the trail was so vibrant and lush.
But there was never a moment where I was fearful or where a situation like that was even possible. The only way someone could’ve gotten into a situation like that is if they were not following the proper route. Likely, they were following the map on their phone. Versus following the many cairns in the creek bed, which indicate exactly where you need to go. Luckily that hiker was ok! I’m sure that was an unbelievably scary situation. But it could’ve been easily avoided just by reading the comments on FarOut. There are a lot of very vivid descriptions of exactly how you should proceed through this section of trail. And if you didn’t have FarOut, you could simply follow the cairns through this entire section and be perfectly fine.
Walking through the creek bed definitely slowed me down a bit. Comments advised to stay as close to the creek as possible, just because the path was a little easier to walk. Sometimes it wasn’t bad at all. Other times there were large rocks and boulders to climb around. I could tell that it was slowing me down, but it wasn’t slowing me down as much as I had expected.
Enjoying the last few miles of actual trail before I headed into the Mission Creek washout.
I was most nervous about the upcoming section of the trail. Specifically where you stop following the creek bed and attempt to reconnect to the PCT. There were so many comments on FarOut about exactly where to go and what to do. I knew that once I got to that location, it would probably be much easier to follow those directions. But it can always be confusing reading instructions when you’re not looking at the described area.
I was shocked that as I made my way through the washout, I never saw anyone at all. It wasn’t until I reconnected to the PCT briefly that I actually came across two hikers. Their names were Waffles and Beer. Waffles was from Belgium, and I was assuming that they were a couple and were both from the same area. Right around the time that I saw them, the trail washed out again. Comments indicated to get back into the creek and follow the wash for another mile. But this is one of those moments where you sort of have to trust your gut, rather than comments. Instead of getting back into the rough creek bed for the next mile, I just climbed up the washed out trail and got back on the other side. Then I was able to stay on well manicured actual trail for the next few miles. That saved me from having to climb back onto the trail at a later point, which might have been a lot steeper.
Walking along a narrow cliff in the washout. I believe this is one of the sections where you were able to pick back up on the trail, finally leaving the creek behind.
For the most part, all the comments on FarOut were very accurate and describes the area well. But if you haven’t gone through that section yet and plan to, just know that some of the comments are not 100% accurate. And some of the comments are off by a mile or so. That definitely added some time to my day here and there. There was at least one moment when I attempted to leave the trail and get back into the creek. But then realized that the mile marker indicated on FarOut was clearly incorrect.
If I had just followed the cairns through this entire section, I would’ve probably saved myself at least 10 or 15 minutes. All in all, though the washout was definitely not as bad as I expected. Once I reconnected to the PCT, I was on smooth trail for the next few miles. Then after a little while the trail washed out one more time. This time you could not continue on and had to get back into the creek bed. I decided to fill up water there to give myself the option to camp anywhere I wanted to. It was pretty likely that I was going to do 30 miles to the mission spring camping area. And there would be water there. I just wanted to give myself the freedom to stop anywhere if I chose to.
At this point, I was surprised at what time it was. I had definitely expected the entire 10+ mile portion of washout to slow me down to 2 mph. But it was well before dark, which means I still maintained almost 3 mph for at least a couple sections. That was great news and meant I would be able to finish the entire wash out tonight and get to camp well before dark.
Entering into the San Gorgonio wilderness.
After the trail washed out for the final time, you just had to get into the creek and follow it for maybe a half mile. When I was in the creek, I went past a hiker named Easter bunny. He had actually cleared his own tent spot because he just wanted to be done for the day. Apparently, at one point in time, there had been tent sites there, but now it was completely washed out. I talked to him for a few minutes, but then continued on because it was getting pretty cold. At this point in time I was probably around 7500 feet of elevation. I would be setting up camp for the night fairly close to this elevation. And then climbing above 8000 feet tomorrow morning.
After continuing through the creek for another few minutes, I just followed the cairns and was able to climb up a muddy embankment on the right side of the river bed. Shortly after that, I was right back to the trail. I passed by a really nice campsite right before reconnecting to the trail. It was tempting to stop there because I figured it might be windier further up. But I just wanted to get all of this done tonight and not have to worry about anything tomorrow.
From there, it was less than a mile to the mission spring camping area. And the trail was pretty clear at this point, so I made regular time. When I got to the campsite, you could see it from the trail. Which was nice because I wasn’t sure exactly how far off the trail it was. And there were about eight other hikers set up there! I think was one of the only days I’ve camped with other hikers. There was only one other day where I camped with one other hiker, and I arrived after dark after they were already asleep. Other than that, I haven’t camped with anyone! So it was pretty nice to be able to chat with some people and get my tent set up around other folks.
This campsite had dozens of exceptional flat spots and even a picnic table!
Plus, it was ridiculously early. I figured the wash out would’ve burnt way more time than it did. I still managed to do 30 miles before 7 PM. Which left me with plenty of time to cook a hot dinner and get situated for the night. It was definitely going to be a cold night, but I have everything that I need. If felt great to take off my wet shoes and socks. I’ll probably be sleeping with my socks tonight so that they are slightly more dry and less cold tomorrow when I put them back on.
After all that I got in to my tent and had dinner. Then did my stretching and a little bit of video work before going to bed. Luckily, a lot of the mileage tomorrow is going to be relatively flat. So I’m banking on being able to do some writing and video work while I walk. Honestly, the majority of the mileage between here and cajon pass is generally downhill or flat. Other than the first 15 or so miles tomorrow morning.
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