Trail: This section has been back to the desert. It's less green than it was earlier in the month, but the hills have been pretty. Whitewater River was relatively easy to ford. The current is fast, but it was only knee deep. I finished Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (4.5/5) and started listening to The God of Small Things, but the book starts put kind of slow, so I switched to The Halluci Nation's A Tribe Called Red because it has a nice drum for walking (forgot how sad some of their songs are though, e.g. "The Woodcarver").
Campsite: According to a commenter on FarOut, "If you camp here, you'll probably wake up in Oz," and I think they're right. I'm in an exposed site with 360 views, but the wind has definitely picked up and I think it's going to be a noisy night (tent flaps in the wind). I do think it will stay up though, and hopefully the gusts die down overnight.
People: I don't know most of the people hiking now and the bubble is about a week ahead of me. I crossed Whitewater River with two German hikers from Köln, and a small group of hikers stopped to vape some weed just past my tentsite before continuing on to camp after the ridgeline.
Tomorrow: The trail crosses Mission Creek about a dozen times, so even though it's an uphill day, I won't have to carry much water. I'm going to try to camp about halfway between here and the highway to Big Bear.