As mentioned, I started out this day with Chardonnay and Mike but that only lasted for about 2 miles. At that point the trail heads up a valley and heads straight towards a saddle. Here is a picture Mike took of me just before the walk up the valley to the saddle.

The trail gets, or seemed to me to get, fairly steep and first Chardonnay and then Mike head out ahead of me and then Mike moves out past Chardonnay. I have about half way up to the saddle when I see first Mike and then Chardonnay disappear over the horizon. By the time I make it to the stop, both of them can no longer be seen. At this point the trail now descends back to the desert floor. After the difficulty of the saddle for me the rest of the day is easy enough and I felt good most of the day. A number of people pass me along the way. A number of people divert after about 8 miles to the Whitewater Preserve which is a hiker friendly camping site. I did not know it at the time but the picture below shows the very white desert floor which is where we are heading and the location of the Whitewater Preserve.

I took the trail less taken… I just continued on the PCT and bypassed Whitewater. I figured if I went there it could be another Ziggy and I would stay there the rest of the day.

A little later on I continue to follow the PCT. No diversions today 🙂

After awhile on the desert floor you ascend again to the crest and then of course descend again to the floor. I on the second descent to the floor I decided to camp pretty close to a stream. About an hour before getting there I was warned by a day hiker going the other way not to get too close to the stream as it was raining in Big Bear and the water could rise quite a bit during the night. So I camped a safe distance away. While coming into this camp, there was a lady on a horse that passed by going the other way. We just nodded at each other and said hi. This gal would become very important to me later on. Below is a picture that is fairly normal for the trail on the crest. The trail is wider and is clearly marked by the holes made by trekking poles. I wonder if these trekking poles are causing problems with deterioration of the trail in those cases where the pole is making holes right next to the edge of the trail causing it to be loosened and collapse.