Day 17: Cabazon - Whitewater Preserve

Date: 24.04.2018

Miles hiked today: 13.5 miles 

Total Mileage: Miles 218.5

Waking up in a real bed is sooo good! Also having a shower in the morning and putting on freshly washed cloths is awesome! They will be dirty in a couple of minutes again when we are back on the Trail.  That's how fast it goes from clean to dirty but at least they still smell fine for a little while before I start sweating again. Sadly it was a very hot day and we started back on the desert in very low evaluation hight. I started to sweat (or better my sweat was dripping!) Soon later. It was already very hot at 9 am. Luckily we only have to hike 7 miles to reach the Mesa Wind Farm office (we reached it around 10 am soaking wet), were we were offered cold water, airconditioned rooms,  toilets (with the best and softest toilet paper in whole america!), and the guys working there even cooked for us fresh fish tacos! These tacos were one of the best things I have eaten so far here! So yummie! The fish has been caught by one of the guys on the weekend. Even ice cream was being offered. Just absolutely amazing!!! We stayed there a couple of hours to wait for cooler temperatures and finally left the place at 2 pm (that's also when the guys have to go back to work and ask us to leave their airconditioned office). It was a very steep climb (not such a long one though) and Joanne and I hiked from one bush to the next one to enjoy the shade in between. Even our feet were very hot from the hot sandy ground we walked on. Also due to the heat we decided not to hike very far today. In 6 miles there is the Whitewater Preserve which looks amazing on the internet. That's where we are heading to. It's located in the San Gorgonio Wilderness down in a very wide river bed surrounded by hills and mountains. There are wadding pools where we hope to have a swim and escape the heat. We arrived there around 4 pm. To get there you have to leave the PCT trail and head 1 mile into the other direction. The path to the preserve was beautiful and romantic, crossing some small rivers over little wooden bridges, passing green bushes and trees, walking to the middle of the river bed. Even palm trees grow there! It's a little oasis in the middle of the San Gorgonio Wilderness and it's heat! The wadding pool was not very deep but still a very nice and welcomed cool down from the heat. (I did not manage to dip my head in the cold water though!). We pitched our tents on soft green grass. This is gonna be a awesome night as the temperatures will be around 16 degree celsuis and for sure I shall not be cold - for a change!