Day 19

Mile 308 (Hot Springs) to 333.1 (cowboy camp - too windy for tent)

PCT miles - 25.1

BIG Rattlesnake Day!

We woke early just upstream of the Hot Springs, which is a gathering place for locals and hikers. Many of these folks were awake and still having fun at 4:30 in the morning. Endurance! Youth! Wow.

Hiked past the lovely Rainbow Bridge and saw a few hiker friends cowboy camping in a sandy beach below the bridge. They later said they couldn’t stay at Hot Springs because it was too noisy. We slept right through all noise.

We soon came to Silverwood Lake - a very long lake with inviting beaches. We hiked to the far end of the lake and stopped for water at a nice picnic area (with bathrooms, with soap!). After cleaning up and filling water containers we decided to continue on another 5 miles to the next water source and then look for a place to camp.

Hiked through open area with lovely yellow and purple wildflowers in bloom. Late afternoon Chris came across a HUGE rattlesnake on the edge of the path that very quickly slid down the embankment away from her rattling (sounded like hissing) loudly. Clearly wanted nothing to do with us, which was good. Rick stopped and tried to get a photo, but it moved under a bush. It was about 4’ long with a very thick body. Much, much bigger than other snakes we have seen. Impressive size.

A hiker we met earlier in the day ‘Spider-Man’ (Sterling, from South Africa) came up behind us a couple miles later and said the rattlesnake was still there rattling fiercely when he passed. We asked another young hiker at the next water source if he saw the snake. He pulled out his ear buds and said he heard nothing. Guess that’s one way to avoid snake encounters, but seems risky.

We finally made it to “the water source” (involved a bit of bushwhacking upstream and downstream looking for any water that would flow into a water bottle) and then started to look for tent sites. It was very windy and we were on a ridge with no flat spots. A bit farther we saw a small trail to knoll top that had just enough room for our sleeping bags. Would have been difficult to get the circus tent up in the wind, so we decided to cowboy camp on the day we encountered our first rattlesnake. How perfect! Chris was still thinking of that Riffleman episode Rick had recounted several days ago, but fell asleep unusually quickly. We were beat.