It rained yesterday evening, it rained all night long, it is raining right now. Actually, it is not rain most of the time. It is just this falling mist. So I’m kind of charged up this morning. My inner tent, backpack, and stuff is still dry. It should work out.
I put together my plan and got every broken down to minimize exposure. Tied the rain fly outside my pack, put on my pack cover and rain jacket. The Salty hat works perfectly keep the rain out of my eyes and off my open collar. Big shout out to Steph for the Patagonia rain jacket she gifted me a few Christmas’ ago. That thing is an awesome piece of gear.
So, in summary, I was ready for action.
My feet are getting wet, my shorts slowly get soaked, and my phone touch screen becomes impossible to use. But there’s a bright side. The forest looks different and the mist around the mountains is kind of cool. Nobody I run into really wants to talk, so the mind starts to wander.
The movie Braveheart. Where the Scotsmen are running up and down mountains in the cold rain wearing just dead animal skin and a kilt. Wet shoes? What shoes? These guys were always running somewhere through shitty weather. In times of peace, they’d probably run 20 miles and 5k of elevation gain just to deliver a sack of flour.
So what do I have to complain about?
Around this point there is a break in the drizzle long enough to take a hero shot.
The trail has become more interesting. I’m walking through several narrow valleys at the base of a lot of steep rocky inclines. Started seeing a few of these.
Then I arrived in the next valley and saw this. It was amazing. The whole area smelled like a lumberyard. Truly. Notice how all these trees are sheared off at the same height. Was talking to another hiker about this and he figured the snow had frozen hard around that level. Then an avalanche rolled through and sheared them off. Whatever happend, it looks like a giant lawnmower rolled through.
Well the next highlight is my personal favorite. Yee ol river crossing of death. Let’s blend in a bunch of slick, random logs somebody threw across the gap. Some ultra runner gal scoots past me and goes over, almost losing her balance. I shot this vid just after she crossed.
Well it ended well. Crossed that and the other minor falls with no incident. Don’t remember Mel Gibson doing that.
I prefer all my water crossings to look like this
Well all that excitement got me hungry. The rain stopped for a while and I found a nice flat spot to dry out my rainfly. Made some Chili Mac, oatmeal, coffe, and had a candy bar. I don’t know, like maybe 900-1000 calories. Still hungry.
Chatted with a lady on her lunch break going Southbound. Her daughter is a triple crowner and is still thru-hiking the more obscure long distance trails. That is another level of hiking. Stormtrooper was telling me about the Wisconsin “Ice Age Trail” that he did. Something like 1,200 miles of poorly maintained to non-existant trail. Drinking out of muddy livestock ponds. Ugh. That is another level of thru-hiking that I never want to experience.
I pack up and run into Workhorse and Chai taking their own break. They passed me while I was eating lunch. We caught up for a bit, had a few chuckles. They are aiming for Waptus Lake which would only be a 16 mile day for me. I tell them I’m going a little further.
Of course, it starts drizzling again and this time it seems to be getting stronger. The drizzle changes to rain more and more often. Wind is coming up. Yeah this is starting to suck.
My inner Scotsman is challenging me with the idea of just night hiking through this shit and get to Steven’s pass. I have been battling with him all day on the topic. I could probably pull off a 30 today and do it.
Well I pass the lake and the creek feeding it and start another big climb. I figure I’ll make my decision pretty soon.
At the top of the ridge was my first campsite option. It was 7PM by now and I just made another 2k climb for a respectable 22 miles for the day. I had been checking the wind direction with a compass and it had really good cover. The ground looked like it would shed the water ok. So this was home for the night.
Got a small break in the weather to slap my tent up and get my stuff inside. Had to take a couple more trips outside to trench around the tent and reposition some stakes as the rain really picked up. Finally inside I felt pretty secure. Made dinner and went to sleep.
The wind picked up to 15 / 20 mile gusts and the rain got really heavy all night long, but everything held together. No leaks or failures, but everything I have basically went from dry to either damp or muddy and soaked. Over night the temp kept dropping to the point where I had to wear my puffy with my sleeping bag. Slept surprisingly well.