Day 14 mile 206.8 – 223.5

Elevation: ascent 3,313 ft, descent 1,442 ft

We ended up with a longer stay at home then we had originally anticipated, which was due to another storm that rolled through Southern California. There were winter storm warnings for the mountains as since we were comfortable at home we weren’t in a huge rush to get back out in that. The rest at home was great, as it allowed us to change out some gear, do a lot of sitting on the couch and we were treated to some delicious pastries made by our daughter and Savannah as well as home made goodies provided to us by our friends Heidi and Jim. After about three days though we definitely were anxious to get back to the trail as our bodies had gotten accustomed to be quite active.

We had a great send off from our kids and were very lucky to have my in-laws (Jim and Marcia) take us back to the trail. I can’t tell you how fortunate we feel knowing we have such amazing support from family and friends. We were right back where we had left the trail and were hiking by 8:10 this morning. The first part of the day was relatively flat as we headed for an under pass of the I-10 freeway. We got to the I-10 oasis and made sure we signed the PCT Class of 2020 poster board. The one thing that we did get today was a steady drizzle, all day. So we got to put our umbrellas to use which was actually quite nice.

The majority of the day was spent climbing from the desert floor. The morning felt like we were in civilization for the most part as we passed a railroad track, the freeway, meandered through a small housing development and eventually a wind farm. Thank goodness today wasn’t as windy as it can be out here by Palm Springs as walking in horizontal rain wouldn’t have been so much fun.

We ran across two other couples thru hiking as well today. Both had been held up in a hotel waiting out the storm. One of them was Jillian and Dan who Amy had met the day coming out from Paradise Valley Cafe. That both are super nice and we leaped frogged with them a lot today. Then at lunch, which was brief due to the rain and lack of dry rocks to sit on, we also met a couple out for a day hike. They were very interested once they found out we were hiking the whole PCT. They had a lot of questions and we definitely didn’t mind feeling like celebrities. At about 2:00 we got to White Water River. With the past 4 days of rain the river was flowing and living up to its name. The problem we had was trying to find a spot to cross without hopefully getting our shoes soaking wet. Dan and Jillian joined in our search, but no one could figure out a dry way across. Dan and I even tried carrying large logs to see if we could build a bridge to cross on. That didn’t work as the water kept carrying the logs off down stream. So we succumbed to the idea that we would just have to get wet and wade across.

We ended up getting to camp at 4:45 and found a nice tentsite. We quickly set up the tent in the rain and got in to dry off and warm up. I can’t tell you how nice it is to have a tent large enough to allow us both to do this at the same time. Our old tent that could never have happened. We had to cook in the vestibule due to the rain and got a small break to get out to brush teeth and take care of business. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and it looks like we could be in for some more snow travel.

We are loving everyday out here and the challenges it brings. Thanks for following along. Brian