This is part 23 of the “Why We Hike” Series
Thursday, May 21st / Pre-Hike Day
With Memorial Day weekend coming up, we decided to polish off the small section “D” which, including the 3 miles we still had to do in section “C” was 58.4 miles in total. It seemed like we could easily hike this in 3 days but left 4 available just in case.
We dropped off the Jeep at Highway 18 north of Big Bear and drove down to Snow Creek Village in the Mini Cooper. It was midnight by the time we got there and looked around for a place to make camp. Snow Creek Village is just west of Palm Springs off of Highway 111 (just after it splits off from the I10) – right by all of those wind generators. We had forgotten about the wind but it was absolutely howling. We thought if we set up a tent that howling wind would just create a lot of noise and be hard to sleep, so we opted for trying to sleep in the car. We would be getting up in 4 hours anyway.
Unfortunately Zach was not happy with that decision, with all the wind moving trees around and the stuffy air in the car, he couldn’t settle down. None of us got more than a few snatches of shut eye – if any at all.
Friday, May 22nd / 20.7 miles / Elevation gain: 4,433’
Snow Creek Village to East Fork Mission Creek
We didn’t really wake up at 4:30am since we were already laying there with our eyes open so we just sort of spilled out of the car. After grabbing our packs and fitting Zack with his new boots we got on the trail by 5am. The wind was still REALLY howling and even though the sun wasn’t up yet it was already pretty warm. We hiked 3 miles to Interstate 10 down through a wash with deep sand. Along the way we passed a couple of camps with hikers getting up and moving. Zach was very excited to see other hikers; he is really starting to view all hikers as friends.
The first camp was a college kid named Taylor and his uncle Ryan out to hike as much as they could between Hwy 74 and Wrightwood in the time they had. We didn’t stop to talk to the other guys since they were just getting up. After passing under the I-10, we started climbing up toward the desert foothills to the north. We knew that today was going to be a desert hike but any gain in altitude would be a welcome one to start climbing out of the heat and scrub.
At 7.5 miles into our hike we came upon the Mesa Wind Farm. Mesa Wind Farm consists of a few industrial buildings way out down a dirt road that housed the operations and maintenance for an older wind farm. They are hiker friendly and offered the use of their break room to us. Even at this early hour, the air conditioning felt good and we discovered we weren’t the first ones here; a young couple was relaxing and partaking of cold drinks and snacks. They offered free bottled water from the fridge and free donuts out of a box on the table, or you could buy from a selection of other things they kept on hand. We took a little water and a donut each but still dropped $5 into the donation box.
Almost immediately we discovered that the donut was a mistake for Kelly. While hiking steeply uphill in the heat, her body reacted badly to the massive sugar intake. Of course, not getting any sleep the night before didn’t help either. Obviously her body had dumped a ton of insulin into her bloodstream and she was now feeling extremely lightheaded. She quickly forced down a protein energy bar and by the time we topped over the pass she was feeling better.
After this little pass the trail became very relaxed and had it not been for the heat it would have been a really nice walk. Instead it became more of a grunt; I became concerned for Zack so we emptied out his packs and carried his stuff. I knew it wouldn’t be long before we switched him over to his cooling vest but there was a river coming up and I wanted to make it there first.
The sound of the Whitewater River was unmistakable but we couldn’t actually see it when we descended down into its wide valley. The trail followed the outside edge of the valley so we had to bushwhack it over to the river. It was flowing loud enough that it was all we heard as we approached to where it had eroded a 4 to 8 foot deep banked recess in which it flowed. There was a mutual surprise when we popped over that bank to discover 3 hikers bathing in the river, one being a young girl topless and in a thong.
After the initial surprise, we signaled that it was not a problem and modesty was forgotten as we had to deal with Zach and gather water. Zach was ecstatic to get into the cool water. He flopped down and drank way too much too fast. I imagine Zach wasn’t feeling too good after that for a while. While switching Zach over to his cooling vest, Kelly discovered that his new boots were really chaffing his front ankles, his front pads were looking good so we kept him on rear boots only.
Our companions in the river were from British Columbia, the girl was ‘Blister Sister’, and she was with her boyfriend ‘Starvin’ Marvin’ and their friend ‘Pets’. They seemed to be taking the trial at a pretty relaxed pace. In fact, when we were leaving, the guys were setting up a canopy to give them shade for an extended soak through the heat of the day.
The heat of the day was already on us. We went another 2 miles upriver to the trail crossing and found Taylor, his uncle and a guy named Mike sitting out the heat of the day near the river. It was obvious that we would need to do the same so I set up our rain fly as an improvised tarp. It provided some shade while allowing the wind to cool the inside. We all would occasionally dip in the river but mostly we were trying to get in a little nap time.
We heard people come and go as the afternoon wore on, but we stayed under the tarp and slipped in and out of blissful sleep. Around 4pm we decided to go about 6 miles up trail to a creek as an overnight stopping point. Everyone else agreed that they too were going to try for that spot, including another section hiker who had shown up while we napped named Paul.
Early morning hikes feel the best, but early evening hikes feel good too. After a short time it began to cool off considerably with a nice steady wind to help out. But in keeping an eye out behind us for the others, we could only make out 1 hiker who was still well behind us. Neither of us was sure who it was but we exchanged waves once and then lost sight of him while walking along a long crest line.
Upon arriving at East Fork Mission Creek, we found a suitable area to setup just past where the trail crosses it. We had our tent up about the time that the mystery hiker caught up with us. His name was also Ryan (not the uncle) and he had stayed at the Whitewater Preserve the night before, apparently with the trio of Canadians we met at the river. He was more or less hiking with them but also sounded like he was ready to move on without them. Before too long, Taylor and his uncle show up and our little camp area was filling up nicely. No one expected Mike to make it but he rolled in just before sunset. We never saw Paul again so nobody knows where he camped that night.
Ryan was an appointee of the Republican Party for the Dept. of Agriculture. He was very clean cut, so Kelly came up with the trail name ‘The Gipper’ for him.
The series continues here: Mission Creek Camp