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| Dropping down off Fuller Ridge. |
Day 5, May 29th I did 47
miles today, it's about 12:45 am. I did a bunch of night hiking
actually, it was really nice. It's about 70 degrees out even still,
so you don't need much even to sleep let alone to hike. The moon is
fairly big and bright so the trail is real easy see you when you are
hiking through the desert with no trees. The coordinates for tonight
are 0530403 E 3770799 N. Let's see started off today high up on Mt.
San Jacinto, about a mile down from the Strawberry creeklet spring
thing. I had a great view of Idyllwild and woke up this morning - I
let myself sleep in because I went kinda of late and felt really dead
yesterday so I wanted to make sure that I felt good for today, which
I felt great today. I hiked for a good 1.5-2 hours of just
up-and-down, up-and-down, pointless up and down which San Jacinto
seems to be full of to finally get to the big big downhill. I passed
so many wonderful, delicious creeks but it was kind of too early in
the morning to really gorge myself on ice cold water (there was a
little ice!) I only saw, shoot, until this afternoon, 2 people all
day. There was really no one's going down that side of the mountain
for good reason, it's steep, it's long and it HOT. I think at one
point I saw my watch thermometer reading a 106, granted it was in the
sun, but it was definitely hovering around a 100 down in the sandy
flats area and even on the side of mountain. At least it was windy
though. That just takes forever when you have sixteen miles of
downhill off a huge mountain amount into a broiling sand pit, which
is the 3 miles between the edge of the mountain and the freeway. But
when I got to the bottom, there is that wonderful drinking fountain
and I gorged myself on water even though I had water on the way down,
but I was making sure I rationed it so I'd have some if I needed it,
needed it. So that was an interesting feeling of being way too full
on water and having to walk. When I got to the underpass for I-10, I
hung out there in the shade for, I don't know, maybe 40 minutes maybe
an hour. Just kinda eat lunch, relaxing, fiddlin' with stuff, not a
whole lot, but it felt good to do nothing, really.
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| San Jacinto Peak and yucca on the big 16 mi downhill. |
By then it was
like 3 o'clock and I powered on through the windmills and headed on
up and over to Whitewater Canyon and the creek there. Which I just
missed the sun, it went behind some hills just as I got there. It was
plenty warm, I washed my salt covered shirt and pants and my pair of
socks and myself, which was the BEST part. So now I'm relatively
clean, I guess. It feel so much better, reinvigorating, to say the
least, having this wonderful creek in the middle of the desert that
you could have a shower in, or bathe in, or just relax in. Then, I
kinda just took my time with that and finally was just like 'Oh it's
almost getting dark' and the moon was out 'Oh, lets get some miles in
under my belt'. I was already at 37 at that point, so I was like
'lets do ten more, make it 47' that keeps me on track pretty much.
Yeah, like I said, it was pretty awesome night hiking, to say the
least. These ridge line trails that are bright white, amongst little
shrubs, a few climbs but otherwise, completely open, you to get to
look back and see all the bright lights Palm Desert, Palm Springs,
date-whatever, Date Palm whatever those places are all called below
San Jacinto. Then you follow creek for another ten miles, so it's not
a bad deal, it's pretty gentle, pretty easy and I just didn't want to
do it in the morning sun actually. Tomorrow morning I'll have a few
miles to go up, then I really do a climb over five miles and I'm
kinda up at high elevation, getting on San Gorgonio, then Big Bear
actually, tomorrow. Yeah, it's really crazy, I think of how I did
before and now, I'm like Big Bear is tomorrow, and for me last time,
Big Bear would have been in two days from now.
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| Glorious Whitewater Canyon and creek - flowing water! |
So it's amazing how
fast I really move and how much ground I cover even though it takes
all day, like, literally all.....day....long. These days stretch to
feeling like 2 maybe 3 days. Like right now, tonight, does not feel
like the same day as I told you about, this morning, it's just that
long ago. But otherwise things are going alright my legs hurt, my
knees hurt. I got 2 blisters on both feet, or rather, one blister on
both feet, right above my heel big callus from the downhill today.
Just the way it squishes and rolls as you make a hard step down. So I
tried and I lanced one and I can't get the other, they are just so
deep and under hard skin and so we'll see how those go and feel. The
legs are tired and sore as usual. The left leg seems to be the
problem leg, to say the least. The knee hurts more, the foot had more
problems. But we'll deal with it, just keep going until you find out
that your leg fell off. So I need some sleep, probably going to get
another 47 in tomorrow to keep the average up.
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| View down the big San Jacinto downhill to the I-10 crossing...it just keeps getting hotter as you go down! |
