Day 11: Mile 181 to 193   (12 miles)

Woke up this morning at 6:00am to a beautiful sunrise. I just sat inside my tent eating breakfast while enjoying the view.

Beautiful sunrise

The view from my tent

Finally got packed up and moving by 6:45am. Made my way through the snow and by 9:00am, I had reached the summit of Mt. San Jacinto. It was an amazing feeling to stand at the very top of the mountain and look 360 degrees around me. Just a little ways down I stopped at the shelter to sign the register and continue my trip back down the mountain.

Up at the summit of the mountain.

After about a mile down, a helicopter came flying right above my head and landed in an open space in the forest right in front of me. I noticed someone with gear had gotten out and once the helicopter left, I was greeted by three people with the Sheriff’s department. (Rita, Cody and Steve) They were part of a rescue team that was looking for an Asian male who had got lost three days earlier when the snow storm came in and was separated from his group of seven people. While talking to them, I got full details on what had happened and who exactly to look for in case I found someone. Due to the high altitude, they were airlifting in one person at a time as the helicopter could not fly that high with anymore weight. Once the helicopter was on its way back, with the forth person, they needed to get moving and prepare for the arrival of their forth (Jay). I can’t say how much I appreciate what they are doing by risking their lives to hopefully save another.  (video of the fourth arrival will be posted soon as I can get the correct format changed) On the way down, I ran into a few more teams of people, one who was rocking climbing up one of the only water sources in the area and some search dogs teams as well. It’s amazing to see how many people are searching for this person and hopefully he is found alive but its starting to look dim when they are about to be going on four days missing.

(Rite, Cody, Steve moving into position for the arrival of their forth (Jay)

It was a pretty lazy afternoon for many people as the news of the missing person has people in a sad state of mind. Many of us didn’t make many miles as we just sat around water and talked a lot. Finally got further down the mountain and set up camp after a short day of only 12 miles. It’s going to make for a long day tomorrow as we drop deep into the valley where temps in the shade will hit 100 easy and being there isn’t much shade tomorrow, can only imagine the temperature in the direct sun.