Day 13 – Tuesday, June 6

PCT mile 219.5 to PCT mile 239.9

Day Total: 20.4 miles

One mile into our hike this morning we saw something wonderful that we hadn't seen on the trail yet – a river!

The trail crosses the Whitewater River, which was flowing with plentiful, cold, crisp water. We loaded up our bottles and enjoyed hiking for a few hours in a canyon that hadn't yet been lit up by the sun. 

At the first crossing of Mission Creek, we soaked our feet, ate a snack and I think Stephen even fell asleep for a little bit.

The trail followed the creek for another eight miles or so, allowing us to carry far less water than we often do in the desert. But by 10:30 a.m. it was excruciatingly hot, so we found a shady area along the creek to rest. 

We napped, read, and ate a big meal of chicken flavored rice before packing up to start hiking again about 5 p.m. It was still hot, but the sun was low enough behind the canyon rim that we were not in direct sunlight.

We climbed all evening, out of the San Gorgonio Wilderness and into the San Bernardino National Forest. We crossed Mission Creek a handful more times, all the while gaining elevation. 

We walked through an area that had been badly burned during the Lake Fire, which burned more than 31,000 acres in June 2015. This section of trail just reopened to hikers last November.

We saw some charred trees and when we got a strong whiff of smoke Stephen said, "Yikes, I can't believe we can still smell the fire." Then we rounded a bend and saw a couple of people who had a campfire at their site. Not sure that's allowed, but it explained the smell.

We hiked a few more miles, up some steep switchbacks as the temperature continued to drop. Thank goodness. 

In the dark, we set up camp next to a forest service road amongst big burned trees, where we knew there was water nearby.

Before bed, we looked at the elevation profile for the following day. We were hopeful that we would be able to hike all day since the next 26 miles were all high enough that it wouldn't get too hot.

With that hope, coupled with exhaustion from several consecutive late nights and early mornings, we decided we'd sleep in until 7 a.m., our latest start in a while.