Cottonwood Canyon

The one with the dangerous river crossings, a swarm of bees and a Mexican Wave with strangers!

📍 Location: MM 219.5 to 232

🏔️ Elevation: 4836ft
🥾 I actually walked: 12.3 miles
💰 Money: No money spent
⛑️ Health: I’m managing my blisters but it’s difficult with all these river crossings. Apart from my feet I’m feeling good.

☀️ Weather: Very hot, but the water helped. I dipped my hat into the river every 3rd crossing. DinkyDi is nagging me constantly about hydration and eating which I’m very grateful for.

🍲 Food: A bag of M&M’s for breakfast (I know!), and a coffee. Around 11 we had lunch. I had chicken noodles with bacon and extra onion (yum!). Endless snacks and dinner tonight was a dehydrated meal surprise. It had potatoes in it and chicken. It tasted awful but I ate it all as I need the calories.

💤 Sleep: Awful! I hope I sleep better tonight. It was too hot for clothes so I slept in my underwear but my skin was sticking to my airmat. I tried sleeping on top of my quilt but got cold. It was a restless night and I was pleased when the clock turned to 4.30am!

🐍 Snake count: 9! We passed another rattler today (holding my breath as we did!)

THE LONG WINDED VERSION:-

🌄 6.30am I was up mega early so had a coffee whilst waiting for everyone. I’m feeling apprehensive about today as we have lots of river crossings to do and we have heard many horror stories about this section. I’m with a super sensible group and we all agreed to stick together through the first half of the day.

💦 6.50am We (Me, Disco, DinkyDi, Joey, Erica, Edelweiss, Maddy and Crypto) reach the river which was meant to be low in the morning but right now it is raging! I instantly see why it’s called “Whitewater River”. I’m feeling nervous and I’m so glad I’m with good friends. Everyone is feeling apprehensive and Disco Daddy is the first to cross. He makes it look so easy. Once he is across, we all take to the river. DinkyDi reminds us to unclip our packs so that if we fall we can release the backpack easily. Disco Daddy shouts from the other side to remind us to have three points of contact at all times. Slow and steady we all make it over. If you see the video you can see how scared I was. There is one young lady left called Maddy who is stuck with fright in the middle of the river. Her walking partner “Crypto” explains to us that she nearly drowned in a boating accident when she was 16 and this river malarkey was pure hell for her. We all jump to our feet and offer support and encouragement as she makes her way across the river. She’s small, like me, so the force of the current was challenging. When she made it she just looked up and started crying. That got me and DinkyDi tearing up as well. I was still shaking with adrenaline but what an achievement. Wow!

💦 7.40am - 2nd crossing. I won’t name them all but there was over 20 crossings today. My feet looked all wrinkled when we finally pitched up to camp!

🎒 8.40am - We pass a lady who is hiking in the opposite direction to us and I stop to say hi. She totally blanks me and keeps her head down as she walks past me. I look up at DinkyDi and we shrug our shoulders. That lady must be having a bad day I thought. We later find out from Disco that the lady had fallen in the river and lost half of her gear. Blimey, she was having a bad day. She’s had enough and was heading off trail. 😢

🐝 9.09am We are now on the mountain ridge and feeling so high. I keep stopping to take photos. What’s that noise? It sounds like a low flying airplane. “Bees!” Yells DinkyDi. And a huge swarm of bees flew over our heads. I’ve never seen a swarm that big before and it was simply fascinating to watch.

🦶 11am - Mission Creek rest and late breakfast (noodles with onion, chicken and bacon). I snack on Snickers and tend to my blisters. The ones on my big toes/callus area have reappeared and it’s not pretty. Everyone is here resting up in the shade. We stop for nearly an hour, enjoying the scenery, filling our water bottles and escaping the sun.

☀️ Disco, Crypto, Edelweiss & Maddy are the first to leave. Our goal is mile marker 232 which is just 6.5 miles from here. We are in no hurry so enjoy our time by the river.

🌳 1pm - The rest of the gang pack up and hit the trail. These water crossings are good fun and a wonderful break from the heat of the sun. The terrain constantly changes from wonderful rock formations to gorgeous forest trail. We plough through mud and DinkyDi says “some people pay a fortune for a mud bath and we get it for free!”. Navigation is often challenging, but the rock cairns were strategically placed and we didn’t have any squiggles today.

🌱 1.39pm - The next section is saturated with a plant that we think is Poodle Dog Bush. It’s highly poisonous and everyone is walking extremely carefully. If you brush against it then you may end up with blisters and a severe rash which is not good. We are slow through this part and the conversation is very low.

🦺 14:00hrs We see a man up the trail wearing a hard hat. He is standing right next to a big bush of Poodle Dog bush. “Hello” I said and thanked him for his hard work of clearing the trail. “Is that Poodle Dog Bush?” I asked. He shook his head and gave me a very long plant name that I’ve completely forgotten! What numpties we all were! 😂

👋 Two mins after seeing the trail maintenance guy, we stumble across a whole group of maintenance people. Any excuse to stop and have a break I got chatting to them. They also agreed to do a Mexican Wave for my YouTube channel. How funny! I’m having the best day!

🎒 We’ve now lost Joey & Erica and it’s just DinkyDi and I. Di has a bad shoulder which is giving her lots of pain. We do a makeshift shoulder cushion from buffs which help a bit, but she really needs a new pack that offers more support. These ultralight packs have no frame or load lifters so when you have 30lbs on your back it can be very uncomfortable.

💧 We take it slow and steady and the river crossings are still deep. I’m up to my thighs at nearly every attempt. It’s cold but welcomed.

⛺️ 4.30pm - Eventually we make it to camp where Disco, Joey and Erica have been waiting for us. Disco has made our “dining room” which has become a regular habit. We love Disco daddy!

🛀 6pm - Everyone is knackered so we retire to bed. I can hear the birds chirping and the sound of Whitewater River flowing. I take the opportunity to have a bath inside my tent. These super thick bath wipes are awesome and it’s lot long before I’m feeling clean again. Note to self: buy more bath wipes when you get to Big Bear.

Tomorrow we have a big day. Over 16 miles and more water crossings! Bring it on!

As always, thanks for listening to my rambles.Läs mer