Day 13: Mile 190 to 209.5 (I-10)

My camera broke and it somehow deleted all of my pictures off of the card. I will keep trying to recover them. 


19.5 miles

Today was all down hill. We were camped around 8000ft, and the I-10 was at 1200ft. We had to drop almost 7000ft in elevation in 19.5 miles. It made my knees hurt.

We left early, and just kept walking down hill. The farther down we got, the more the temperature went up.

At one spot I almost stepped on another rattlesnake. He was hiding under a bush in the shade. I stepped around a corner, he rattled, I jumped, and he moved away farther into the bush. I waited at that spot for Sara who was behind me, and she ran by as the snake rattled about 6 feet from the trail.

The last 4 miles were on the desert floor, and it was smoking hot. We made it to the bridge under the I-10 and found 3 coolers filled with water, soda, and beer in ice.

I called my Aunt who lives in Indio, she picked us (Brendan, Prudence, Nathan, Sara, and I) up and we are staying here for a couple nights. Most hikers took a zero day (day off) in Idyllwild, and we waited until here to take our zero day.