May 5th

209.5-231.1

We heard the wind howling last night and we’re thankful for the shelter indoors. It is the weekend so the local post office is closed. Unfortunately for us we are still carrying our spikes and ice axes, totally unnecessary for this stretch of trail. It adds and extra pound and a half to our packs, which are already bloated with food and water for the next stretch.

We get back on trail and by about noon we get to whitewater preserve, a state park that is a little oasis in the desert hills. They allow hikers to camp and fill water bottles here.

The rumors of contaminated water sources cause us to carry 3 liters from here, even though we will be walking by water all day. Hopefully this isn’t the source from where everyone is getting sick. We do our best to not touch any surfaces that other hands have recently touched and begin hiking out, and vow to move quickly through this section of trail.

The trail along this stretch climbs up along the flanks of Mt San Gorgonio, following closely a creek called Mission Creek. Many believe this is the source of norovirus, though it seems unlikely to me that a fast moving creek would be the culprit. The trail notes left by other hikers in the mapping app we use are nightmarish. One note describes the scene as similar to a Zombie movie, and that he passed dozens of hikers in their hands and knees vomiting in close proximity to the river. These hikers were unable to hike out and had to shelter in place during their illnesses, likely continuing to contaminate the water.

Luckily, we did not witness any of that. It was a challenging, but lovely stretch of trail. We were very careful with selecting our water sources to avoid possible contaminated sources.

The trail in this section was destroyed by hurricane Hillary that blew through the area in 2023, so hikers just walk along the creek bed. We cross the creek hundreds of times. It reminds me of the Gila River canyon on the CDT, and it is fun to splash around in the cool water.

We hike until dark and find a great campsite on a sand bank above the creek.