Day 12 – Monday, June 5

Homemade frosted banana-walnut cake

PCT mile 204.8 to PCT Mile 219.5
Day Total: 14.7 Miles

It was already hot when we got up at 6 this morning.

There was no shade.

My legs were sore and tired after the long descent yesterday and we began the day with more downhill. We arrived at the promised water faucet at 7 a.m. where we "camel-ed up" by drinking two liters each, and then filled up four more liters to carry with us. (We get info about water sources from the daily PDF water reports with info supplied by other hikers published on pctwater.com).

From there, we walked along a road through a small, desert-floor neighborhood for a mile-long stretch and saw only two cars. The guy in the second car rolled down his window as he pulled up next to us and asked if we were hungry.

Yes.

The answer is always yes.

And then, hilariously, this guy handed me a humongous piece of homemade frosted banana-walnut cake on a paper plate. Thank you, we said, and he drove away.

What a strange-yet-great breakfast gift! 

By the time we got to the Interstate 10 overpass we were roasting. The trail was on hot sand, so the hiking was slow, making the heat feel even worse. My iPhone said it was 96 degrees on the desert floor by 9 a.m. And there was no shade.

So we made the decision to go into the nearby town of Cabazon to spend the heat of the day in air conditioning and start hiking again that night. 

We took Uber for $11 into town, and spent all day inside. Our driver was a guy who was a retired police officer and he was very intrigued by our hike. He pointed out a health food store where we could buy dried fruit. "That would be good for you," he said. It was endearing. 

We used the electrical outlets and free wifi at Starbucks, ate a big tasty lunch at In-n-Out burger, and dinner at Panda Express. There is also a huge casino in Cabazon, which we walked through, but I didn't feel like I fit in with my backpack on and dirty legs. 

For as nice as the air conditioning was, I would've rather been hiking. It's frustrating to not be able to hike because of the crippling heat. I look forward to getting to higher elevations and cooler temperatures. 

At 5:30 p.m. we took another Uber back to the trail and started hiking. It was still hot, but fortunately we were behind a ridge that kept us in the shade until the sun went down. We climbed for the first few miles, including walking through a massive wind farm with hundreds of wind turbines. 

After dark, we were walking a little farther to get close to the river where we could refill our water, when we heard stampeding. In the moonlight, we saw a half dozen cows running up the hill one ridge over from us. No idea where they came from. It was spooky!