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Mission Creek
We packed out 4 days of food with enough snacks for a fifth day for this backpacking stretch. What we did not know was there was a ten mile stretch of trail along Mission Creek that was ravaged by a recent flood, and now those ten miles of trail which should have been a cruise took us a full day to navigate.
We had no idea what was waiting for us. Perhaps we had grown a little cocky since the first two hundred miles have flown by. But when we made it to mission creek we stopped and had our normal noontime siesta in the shade. Thinking we could get the rest of the miles done that afternoon.
All I could think when I hiked through mission creek was how wild the storm must have been that flooded this section. The creek must have swelled up tens of feet to do the kind of damage that we witnessed.
There were sections of trail where the creek had shaved off an entire cliffside, leaving us to figure out a way around. There were no paths that were smooth sailing; whether we were trudging up the sand or trailblazing in the brush it didn’t seem to matter much and was a slog either way.
The four of us (Buckeye and Whoopie) called it quits around ten o clock. We threw our bags down and slept right in the wash, at least the sand was nice and soft.
It was a little spot where the river bends through giant rocky cliffs that made us feel as if we were in the pocket of some deep canyon. The stars that night distracted me from the intrusive thought about what it would look like for a flash flood to sweep through our campsite. My mind loves to imagine scenarios like that when I am trying to fall asleep.
Because that section was so slow we were about a day behind where we were hoping to be and we were almost out of food. So, Lizzy and I had to hike 28 miles that day to get into Big Bear. We timed our breaks to maximize walking time. Do you know how long ten minutes feels after four hours of hiking? Not very long. We made it to a campsite right outside of town late that night. The next morning we made it into Big Bear and decided to celebrate with some fried chicken
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