Day 13

Mile 201.1 to Whitewater Preserve (mile 218.5)

PCT Miles: 17.4 (27.8km)

Total Miles: 218.5 (349.6km)

I’m definitely in the desert again.

I started walking around 7am, with a beautiful sunrise 🌄. This beautiful sunrise soon became unbearable heat with absolutely no shade to hide.

I had a water situation since I lost my 3 water bottles. Being in the desert again means caring about water consumption and refill. I was counting on a water cache that trail angels put under the bridge that intersects the I-10 highway. And thankfully the cache was there. I used the shade also to have lunch and camel up.

4 miles after, my maps shows that there should be an office of a windmill company where they welcome PCT hikers! I went there and it’s pretty cool: they have sodas, snacks, water (and later I found out that inside another door they also have ice cream and clean flush toilets 🤩! Hikers paradise! I took 3 500ml water bottles, so now I have capacity of 3.5 liters.

The rest of the day was pretty much like the beginning: hiking in the desert (I was rattled at! I didn’t see the rattler, but you can hear in one of the videos the rattle), managing water consumption, trying (unsuccessfully) to hide from the sun.

At the end of the day, I decided to go a bit off trail to a place called Whitewater Preserve, that also welcome hikers. Such a nice place! One of the coolest places I’ve camped so far 🤙! And the best price ever: nada!