Campsite Under Rainbow Bridge to Mojave River Campground
I had a bit of a restless night last night. My tent site was a bit tilted towards my feet, so I felt like I kept sliding down. Finally, around 5:00 AM I figured out that I had to slide up towards the head of the tent more and then I won't slide. I then had 2 hours of better sleep.
I awoke at 7:00 AM and took the tent down and stuffed by 7:45 AM. It was refreshing to unpitch a dry tent after yesterday morning's rain. We were actually on the trail just before 9:00 AM today.
I awoke at 7:00 AM and took the tent down and stuffed by 7:45 AM. It was refreshing to unpitch a dry tent after yesterday morning's rain. We were actually on the trail just before 9:00 AM today.
Start of today's hike with Ron, Brad, & I.
As soon as we got on the trail we crossed the Rainbow Bridge:
Self-portrait "Crossing the Rainbow Bridge"
The Rainbow Bridge
From the bridge we can see where we camped last night. It was somewhere down there, just upstream from the bridge.
We camped somewhere down there last night
Today's hike took us by the last of Deep Creek and past the Mojave River Forks Reservoir Spillway.
Mount Baldy snow covered. We will be getting there soon.
Mojave River Forks Reservoir Spillway
Ron & Brad hiking past the spillway
Just past the spillway we had our first "major" stream crossing. What mde this more major than other stream crossings we have already done is that we actually had to remove our shoes to cross this stream. When we arrived there, there was a group of around 6 other hikers who just crossed.
Shoe replacement party.
After 3 hours of hiking and 4.21 iles, we arrived at Ron's stopping place, which was a sad thing. According to this sign, he had come 16.1 mile, from Splinters Cabin, with us during the past 2 days.
The plus side to Ron leaving us is that Brad's mother Mary met us here and brought us a picnic lunch including hard-boiled eggs, fresh bananas, grapefruits, tomatoes, oranges, and yummy sandwiches. How incredibly awesome and generous Mary is!
Mary's picnic lunch setup.
We were there for about 30 minutes when Tim made a surprise appearance. We were supposed to meet him in a few hours at the Mojave River Campground, but didn't think he would be here now.
The best part of him showing up, besides him being there, is that we could give him our bags and slack pack the last 4 miles of our hike today.
So, we said goodbye to Ron, Mary, and Tim and hit the trail for 4 more miles...actually we had 3.3 miles of the PCT and 0.75 miles of a side trail to the campground. As usual, the trail was beautiful.
The best part of him showing up, besides him being there, is that we could give him our bags and slack pack the last 4 miles of our hike today.
So, we said goodbye to Ron, Mary, and Tim and hit the trail for 4 more miles...actually we had 3.3 miles of the PCT and 0.75 miles of a side trail to the campground. As usual, the trail was beautiful.
Beautiful PCT
Back into the high desert.
On the trail we saw a group of people that were training llamas to use as pack animals. It was pretty cool seeing them on the trail.
Llamas on trail
After just over 1 hour we made it to the side trail. Now only 3/4 mile to Tim...or so we thought.
Mojave River CG only 3/4 mile away
After following the "trail" for some time we felt that we had hiked more than 3/4 miles and still didn't see the campground. Bringing out our phones/maps, we realized we went too far right and missed the campground. Instead of going back, we decided to bushwhack our way to the campground.
Bushwhacking to Tim.
We finally made it to the campground and after several calls to Tim, we found our home for the night. Hopefully we can find our way back to the trail tomorrow a lot easier than it was to find the campground.
Luxury tent for the night.
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