Day 32
Start: Mt. Gleason
Finish: Mattox Canyon
Daily Mileage: 19.4
PCT Mile: 440.2
The wind did come up last night and I could hear it roaring through the trees. However, in my sheltered spot in a grove of oaks, there was only the occasional lightest puff of air, so it did not disturb me at all. When I got up, I did see the tents of others being buffeted in the wind, and they couldn’t have had as good of a night.
We were in the clouds and wind as we started walking. It was cool and I kept my wind shirt and gloves on for far longer than normal. An easy downhill for the first few miles, but couldn’t see much since we were socked in by the clouds.
It was relatively easy hiking since the trail generally went down for the second half of the day. We lost most of the elevation we have been in for more than a week, and the temperatures finally began to moderate.
We hiked through large swaths of burned forest today. This is a recurring pattern out here. In most of the areas like this we have passed, there are huge stands of burned trees, and all that appears to be growing back is desert scrub. There are no new trees in sight. I wonder if the forests are just disappearing due to fire and if they will ever grow back. We did pass a forest service ranger station, but it was closed so I could not ask.
We completed our descent for the day through the continuing white sand. I don’t often wear my sunglasses, but it was so bright with the sand that I had to put them on. We cruised downward to a creek that was our goal for the day. We considered going further to shorten our hike into town tomorrow, but 14 miles is short enough and there was water and flat spots here. Also we are still under a wind advisory and there is no mention of sheltered campsites in the next few miles. We didn’t want to get stuck in an exposed area camping in the wind.
Today also wasn’t the most exciting hiking. There was some interesting sights with the white sand and approaching San Andreas Fault we will cross tomorrow, but we couldn’t see much for half of the day in the clouds, and then wound endlessly down the mountains.
