Day 15 – Down down down…

April 25th

Oh my goodness so much down.

We stayed in our sleeping bags an extra half hour this morning because it was so cold. When we finally got up I saw the trees above the tent had dripped all night from the clouds boiling over the ridge.

“No problem” I thought. “We’ll be in the desert today — we can dry the tent down there.”

I also thought, “15 miles down, that’ll be a breeze!”

We got going around seven and right off the bat both of us were twisting ankles and tripping over rocks in the loose forest duff. We were definitely not taking the downhill seriously (dumb idea).

A few miles in we sank below the tree line and the wind really kicked up. We were being thrown off balance by the wind on our packs. I was having a blast.

The view was just fantastic.

But it was the same view for seven and a half hours. Down and down we went until our knees were aching. Tomtit even twisted his ankle so badly he ended up on the ground. Luckily it was more of a roll to protect his ankle and he was alright, if a little shaken up. Dark clouds were forming as we walked, and the trail’s switchbacks would take us under them to be sprinkled on and then back to sunshine over and over again.

The best sight in the world was the little drinking fountain at the base of Mt San Jacinto — it signified the end!

The ominous clouds were moving in closer, but we only had 5 miles to get to a famous trail angel house — Ziggy and The Bear’s place in Whitewater. We have done one 20 miler already so we knew we could make it, we just had to beat the rain.

We hustled our butts at 3 mph (we’re usually a solid 2 mph) along with Al, who we met on the descent, across the desert floor. Crazy wind pushed against us the whole way.

Just as we were in sight of Z & B’s, the skies let loose. The rain cover I picked up from the hiker box went on my pack and Tomtit threw on his packa (pack cover/rain jacket combo) and we practically ran the last quarter mile to the house. My windshirt was soaked through but everything else stayed pretty well dry.

The place was totally packed — everyone wanted to get out of the rain. We were given a register to sign and told the rules of the house (clean up after yourself, etc) and then given hot drinks and a dry place to put our things. The number of hikers there was so overwhelming that Ziggy and the Bear couldn’t accommodate everyone for sleeping, but several people left to get hotel rooms which solved the problem.

Tomtit and I stayed in the shower room with another hiker Roxane and we were warm and dry for the night. It was a great end to a long and soggy day.

Posted by Jill