Start point

Splinters Cabin, mile 298.5

End point

Deep Creek Hot Springs, mile 307.9

Miles hiked

9.4

Wilderness area

San Bernardino National Forest

The day on trail

Today was just gorgeous. I woke up ready to hike. I had some frost on my rain fly and took some time for the sun to come out and dry it. I also needed to call Garmin because my device hasn’t been updating the tracking points, which is a big part of why I bought it.

Garmin ended up needed to escalate my issue because they weren’t able to see any problem with why it wouldn’t update. I’ve honestly no idea what’s going on, but whatever.

I’m planning a fun trail zero day at the hot springs. I have a few tall boys of beer and some wine to enjoy with people out there. I also have plenty of food to last me the extra day, and still make it to Wrightwood and any potential detours (some beta is coming in that some of the passes might be especially slow).

But I’m so ready to hike. Just…slowly because of the extra baggage in the form of liquids to share!

First things first: I hit 300 miles!

And the day was just beginning. I soon ran into my old trail buddies Hugh and Michelle! We hiked together for a bit, had lunch together, and caught up. They’re just wonderful people and we’re telling me about their kids and how they (the kids) are looking at leaving Canada.

There were so many gorgeous flowers. The fields of yellow flowers were blinding in the way that snow is blinding. They reflected so much yellow that it was painful to walk past.

And there were more of these delightful purple stars.

Soon we got to the creek that passes by the springs and the views were just breathtaking.

I had some vulture circling nearby for about 5 minutes.

And I caught some lizards getting into an altercation.

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Of course we had some blow downs and slides.

But then I descended into the springs and had a soak of soaks. It felt amazing to soak my muscles in the hot water. And plunging into cold made my legs completely numb.

There were some people here, including much of the group I’ve been trying to escape. Luckily they’re on their way out tomorrow, when I’m taking my zero.

One of the guys in that group loves to start campfires, and he completely ignores that we’re not supposed to. He also doesn’t listen to me, so I asked Hugh to intervene when they started a campfire right under a dry tree. Hugh used to work with his local fire department, so he had better authority and was happy to do it.

I hung out by the fire for a bit, with Sera, Primo, Luca, Hugh, and Botany (new friend). Then I went to bed because, well, it was past hiker midnight.

I’m so excited for my trail zero here!!