`PCT 2026 DAY 22 – CA Section C –

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026

Good day, Morning!

The start of this day’s hiking was to climb up out of the Whitewater River drainage and into the Mission Creek drainage.

It sounded simple, but it was only simple in comparison to the challenge of negotiating the torn up Mission Creek drainage after I reached it.

Mile 226 is the start of the damage caused by a hurricane in 2024.

It was the start of a very difficult slog through the trail in this part of the PCT. Although, there was more washed-out, rock filled debri fields than actual ‘trail’ left.

It’s hard to really describe in photos or in words how tricky navigating this part of the PCT was.

I had some GPS tracks from previous hikers who made it through this area earlier in the year and some descriptions of the routes to take.

But it mostly relied on you keeping an eye on your feet and where you step, being careful when and where are you crossed Mission Creek (even though it wasn’t flowing heavily, it was still deep and wide in some places), and keeping an eye on my GPS app on my phone to make sure I wasn’t going the wrong way.

It was definitely a challenge and slow going the whole afternoon.

Once I got about halfway through the destroyed section and it was getting late, I decided on a campsite that had a fairly nice view of the river valley. The fact that it was atop a 12 foot high bank that the storm waters had formed by ripping away the rock, dirt, and sand around it only meant that it was probably doomed during the next major storm.

I should be okay as long as that storm wasn’t that night.