A good day, although I started out thinking that quitting the trail would not be such a bad idea. Despite all the hospitality of our hosts and the pleasant company of fellow hikers the previous evening, the days hike began as a pre-dawn trudge up a hot, stuffy and barren canyon past a wind farm. But I kept hiking, and the magic of walking, not to mention a nice display of wildflowers in the San Gorgonio Wilderness turned the tide for me.
First poppies, San Gorgonio Wilderness, mi 218
My mental transformation was completed when I arrived at the Whitewater Preserve, a canyon oasis that was once a trout farm, and still holds Rainbows in shimmering green pools. I ate lunch and took a nice nap in the deep shade of the sycamores there, listening to the many birds call and sing. There is really nothing like water in the desert.
Spring-fed pools, PCT mile 219
After resuming my hike up Whitewater canyon I found the river running strongly, although it had been dry down by the preserve. The river runs through a badlands of loose powdery soil and rock. There is enough water to severely erode the hills, but not enough to flush the sediment downstream. The result is a canyon that is choked with rock and sand, and raised well above the level of the bedrock. Rather than a steam flowing at the bottom of a V-shaped canyon, the canyon is filled with perhaps hundreds of feet of debris, forming a flat and unstable plain that the river meanders through.
The Whitewater River, with water
From there I climbed over a couple of ridges toward the Mission Creek Canyon, which I will follow to its head, some 17 miles and 4000 feet above my camp tonight. The ridges offered spectacular views of the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa ranges, the Coachella Valley, and Mt San Gorgonio.
Mission Creek is a howling wilderness, set on the desert side of the San Bernadinos, very rugged and very barren. But the creek is flowing (much to my relief) and I can never resist the charms of a desert water canyon. Now that the wind has died down, the frogs are in full chorus and the creek is rushing past my camp at mile 229. Perfect sleeping conditions.
34.0696 N, 116.665 W