Start point
Dirt Road at mile 192.5
End point
Faucet at mile 205.7
Miles hiked
13.2
Wilderness area
San Bernardino National Forest
Santa Rosa and San Jacinto National Monument
San Jacinto Wilderness
Snow Canyon
People I met
Sydney/Alpha
Laila
Sera
Ellena
Lucy
Josh (we met before but we finally got to connect more)
The day on trail
Today was a beautiful start. I’m so excited to get off this mountain. Getting off San Jacinto will feel like escaping Idyllwild. It’s a dream.
There have been so many storms that slowed me down. The one at Cibbets, the one in Laguna, and the one at Barrel Springs. It’s been adverse weather event after event. And it feels like, and I hope it stays, some warmer weather. I know warm. I’m good in warm. I thrive in warm.
There was a little snow coming down. Not too much. We had to basically dry camp last night, so it was all about refilling water at the first decent source. Shark and Half Pint found a trickle a few steps down a hill just off trail which worked well enough.
And you know what? I did a dumb thing. Absolutely boneheaded. I accidentally attached my clean water bag to the dirty side of my filter, and the dirty water bag to the clean side of my filter. I basically accidentally, gently, backflushed about 1mL of dirty water and gunk that my filter had caught back into my clean water bladder. I might have contaminated my clean water bladder.
Hell. That might be disaster.
My stomach is already acting funny. It’s gurgly and gassy. There’s a saying “don’t ever trust a fart on trail” and yesterday had me running to a bare strip of land between snowbanks to dig an emergency cathole.
I don’t know what’s upsetting my stomach but this water thing could be bad. It likely won’t be, but the possibility is there.
After rectifying and trying to do a cursory clean-water rinse (though abbreviated), I got my gravity filter hang going and met Sydney/Alpha and Laila, whom I’d also met up Spitler Peak, the morning we bailed out. There was so much going on that morning that we barely had a chance to talk.
We ended up hiking together. They’re lovely, wonderful people. Laila is from Switzerland and Alpha is from Belgium.
We all hit the 200 mile marker together. Well, markers. There’s a bunch of them.
We hiked together for a bit, took some lengthy breaks, which was really nice.
I started off from a break and they ended up getting stuck behind a rattlesnake. I thought they’d just wanted some space!
I got the message about the rattlesnake as I was taking photos of this baby king snake.
It was poetic; when king snakes get larger, they eat rattlers.
The scenery was, predictably, incredible. The superbloom is continuing to push through and you can see it come out in valleys and hillsides.
I continued on and got to the faucet at mile 205.7.
That’s where I met Sera for the first time, Ellena and Lucy for the second time, and Josh again. I was able to sit down and learn about them all. It’s wild how many people come from Europe to hike this trail.
Alpha, Laila, and I set up camp barely off trail, by the water faucet. We all had a good rinse to get the dust and sweat off, and we stayed up late talking. I might have found some people to hike with for a while.
Gear
This is the second day with my new pack and my shoes. So far they’re great. I’m working on getting everything where I want it. It’s always hard to get everything sorted in a new pack, especially one that has only one main compartment.
The shoes are good so far. They’re super cushy, which is great. They could be a touch wider in the tow boxes, and I think I’ll need a wide in future ones. But it’s stable. I don’t know if the tread is better; it’s likely just due to the fact that it’s new tread, but they stick to dirt, snow, and rocks so dang well. Even the shape of the heel is great for kicking steps in snow as I descend.
Ohhh no, not the contaminated backflush. I would have been clutching my chest like – WHAT DID I JUST DO?? And on top of already feeling funky. UGH. Side note… I’m equally fascinated by how many Europeans come here to hike the PCT. Oh! And I’ve been waiting to see that picture of the rattler since you first told me about it. What a wild day!
Yeah I was MORTIFIED. And scared af. Luckily the collection point was really high up near the original snowmelt so chances of contamination were super minimal. And you know I’m really fastidious about backflushing otherwise, so other contaminants are less likely to remain. But still!
I have SO MANY QUESTIONS! I suppose I could google them but I will ask you instead.
1-How is it that a filter has a dirty side and a clean side? And why do you have a dirty water bag? I truly was horrified at the thought of drinking contaminated water.
2-What are you using to dig catholes?
3-Why is that young woman wearing sandals while hiking?!
4-Was that the first faucet you encountered on the trail that is only used for washing off?
Finally, let me say…..congratulations on hitting the 200 mile mark! It’s such a mental booster.
Of course!
1: I have two bags (made by Cnoc) for water filtration. One is for dirty water (rivers, streams, puddles, non-potable faucets), the other is for clean water.
The dirty water bag goes to the input of the filter, the clean goes to the output (dirty and clean sides, respectively). When the filter slows, you can force water into the clean side to back flush gunk from the filtration fibers.
2: I have a backpacking trowel that weighs a couple ounces. It’s aluminum.
3: she had horrible blisters so she was trying sandals to offload pressure
4: that faucet is with non potable water. So we can use it for anything! If you want to cook or drink with it, it just needs to be filtered, treated (there are a few chemical treatments backpackers can carry), or boiled first.
Thanks for the congrats!
PS. I noticed in the photo that your camera has a long(ish) lens. Have you always been carrying this lens on your camera? It seems a bit bulky there on your chest strap.
It’s. 24-240 lens. I’ve been using it since my first thru hike, the Tahoe Rim Trail, in 2019!