Agile Trekker: Miles 207.8 to 213.8, California, Pacific Crest Trail

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
1/3/2018	12 miles				32.4

Map: Halfmile maps
Guide book: none
Directions: Cottonwood Road parking. PCT northbound to dirt road at mile 213.8 (our previous end point). Turn around and take PCT southbound to dirt road/power lines at mile 207.8. Turn around and head northbound back to car at Cottonwood Road.

Glen was feeling more energetic today. We decided to do another section of the PCT, connecting to the section we did before. How exciting! I did the math - at the end of this hike, we have done 0.4% of the PCT. LOL. This could take a while :) I studied and found out there was a PCT parking lot on Cottonwood Road. The road degraded before the parking area though. It went from a paved road to a dirt road with deep ruts and some bigger rocks in it. We decided to just park on the side of the road and not drive all the way to the parking area. There was another car parked where we parked, so we assumed it was okay to park there.

The trail actually crosses Cottonwood Road, just past where we parked our car. We turned right on the trail and headed towards Mesa Wind Farm, which we had seen from the distance last time. Glen was fascinated by the wind farm. We noticed different types of wind turbines. We saw some where the tops look like they had broken off! Some had solid bases, some did not. Some had 3 blades, some had 2. I think Glen would have loved a tour of the wind farm. The hiking was easy, even though we were heading up hill. We were hiking at a decent speed. I guess because it wasn't a sandy wash! There were more wind turbines in motion today than we saw last time, and their sound is somewhat eerie. We have read the wind farm office is very hiker friendly. We saw a sign saying they had water and snacks for hikers at their office. We continued to our turnaround point at the other end of the wind far. We returned back to our car and sat down for a lunch break. Having our car in the middle of the hike has its advantages - it meant we could carry less water. Yeah!

After lunch, we headed towards San Jacinto Mountain. This portion of the hike is less scenic, except for the view of the mountain. We passed under Route 10 - a place that we know sometimes has water / trail magic during thru hiker season. After that, the hike was on soft sand. It became slow. We hiked to a power line. I had wanted to hike further, to reach a real road, which would have been a good end point, in case we come back and do some more hiking here. Glen was ready to turn around though. I still had tons of energy. We did turn around, and it was for the best. It was a gradual uphill to return to our car, and I did get pretty tired by the time we were done. I was ready to get off my feet and eat!

Seeing San Jacinto up close was exciting. I wanted to go hike it. San Jacinto is tall at 10,800'. We didn't see any snow on it, but we've read it is supposed to be snow covered in winter. I spent the evening doing research to see what it had in terms of parking. I found out there is actually a tram that goes partway up it, though the top of the tram isn't on the PCT. I really, really wished I had a map of the area - trying to research on my phone was challenging. It really looks like camping would be necessary to do the mountain, and we had no camping gear, plus its winter. I'm sure its very cold at the top of the mountain. I've read that in the summer it can be 100 degrees in Palm Springs, and 40 degrees on the top of San Jacinto.

Glen says he really enjoys desert hiking in the winter. He likes the warmth and the lack of rain. He already is thinking about another desert hike for next winter. I'm going to have to start researching to see if its possible to do more day hikes on the PCT down here.