Start point

Tentsite at 265.7

End point

Tentsite at 279.2

Miles hiked

13.5

Wilderness area

San Bernardino National Forest

People I met

Some random freshies

Josh

Marion

The day on trail

I woke up so cold today. Others were cowboy camping so I decided to go for it. Oops.

Soon I was up and on my way to meet Kevin for my resupply. He met me at the crossing of the 18 with his dog, Woody, and my stuff. He also snuck in a thing of mini cakes and a cute Sasquatch decal.

What a freaking brilliantly wonderful trail bro. He was the best. He picked up a couple hikers, too, Josh from Australia and Marion from France.

I was soon on my way. It was about eight miles to the nearest water source where I decided I’d take a break. There wasn’t much snow to get there so it was just a long slog with a heavy, fully resupplied bag.

There were some massive Joshua trees on the trail!

But mostly I knew I had a heavy pack and it would be a rough walk to get where I wanted to end up.

It was so nice to be hiking alone.

I just kind of jammed out and listened to some podcasts as I walked. I was just feeling good in my body and my head.

There was a little snow, and I lost my way a few times, but it wasn’t as bad as I’ve had it. It kind of was a beautifully unremarkable day.

I did run into the group I’ve been trying to ditch, and they asked me to relay information on snow conditions ahead back to them. I guess they didn’t want to deal with it because they never got to the site I was at.

But I really enjoyed my site. The initial one I picked had really rocky ground and a lot of trash and broken glass, which I only found when I was trying to stake it out. I ended up moving my tentsite to another spot in the area. I really was spoiled for choice there. And I loved the site I got.

I especially love having a bathroom area near snow. It makes the best TP. You cut out a little cone of it and it cleans you up so, so well afterwards! It’s the only thing I’ll miss about the snow when I’m in the lower desert.

Today was really great, though. I got to really be present in my head and my body, which is something I haven’t been able to do for a while. It’s nice to be decompressing from all these frustrations and worries.