We spent some time getting back to the trailhead this morning. After not seeing any hikers yesterday we saw Mr Pink at the start of our hike today. Later at Hwy 18 summit we saw Geek and Boudin.

We stopped at Doble Trail Camp for afternoon tea. Two horses were in the corral as we hiked down to the camp. We yelled hello to a cowboy who was raking up the camp and startled him. He told us about killing a 5-foot rattler in camp a few minutes earlier. Sure enough Ted had a 5-foot skin on a log and the rattlers head on the end of a long stick. No wonder he jumped when we called out to him.

The trail in San Bernadino Nat'l Forest is nice. Few blowdowns and well graded trails. Wish they had a few more springs along the trail though. 

Another nice day for hiking with good trail. We started with a 500 foot climb, but it was mostly downhill after the initial push.

We had wonderful forest hiking in oaks with brown oak leaves underfoot when we were at lower elevations. With a short climb we were in pine forest with brown needles underfoot. Both smelled so good!

Late in the day we headed for Deep Creek where we contour the dry hills with the creek far below. We have been in two areas called Garden of the Gods that have fanciful rock formations. I would add Deep Creek to the list.

The hard part of today's hiking was looking for a campsite. Ken ran into three hikers just before sunset and we all were looking for a place to camp. We finally camped at Bacon Flat with the endangered Southwestern Toad. We went to sleep with the sounds of croaking and ribbeting. 

The frogs and ducks woke us. We were in a hurry to get packed up. Before we left we double checked to see that we left no trace of our stay (LNT).

We got to our second bridge and met two hikers who slept on the bridge! The narrow trail high above the creek had no wide spots to camp. We stepped around Mosey and Scuba and dashed up the trail.

The big draw was Deep Creek Hot Springs. Since I was so eager to get there it seemed to take forever. There were three pools that held heated water before it mixed with the cold water of Deep Creek. I hopped into the walled pool, dangling my legs and greenish-white feet in the clear warm water. Ken went to one of the natural pools with a sandy bottom so I went over to join him there. Somehow, a hot pool on a hot day wasn't the refreshing rest that we expected so we filtered drinking water and continued up Deep Creek Canyon with its strange, beautiful rock formations.

Lunch was behind the Mojave Dam. We sat on a new boardwalk bridge across the slow marshy creek. Then we climbed back into the dry hills, heading for Silverwood Lake.

Late in the day we found a cooler of trail magic set out by Team Turtle. We each sat in the shade to eat an orange and a drink water that had been frozen in an apple juice bottle. Ther was still ice in our water with apple essence.

At dusk we cooked at a boat-in picnic area. When it got dark we camped.

What a day! We had a long high canyon walk, hot springs, desert hills and finally a huge lake surrounded by lush greenery filled with birds. All because we