PCT Mile: 2522 – 2532
Miles Hiked = 10
Shortly after we got into our tents last night it started raining. It rained all night. It was still raining at 6am – our usual “get up and get going”time. I told Sydney to stay in her tent for a while longer. I think we both fell back asleep. It was nice to sleep in.
I woke up again at 8am and it was still raining. My Garmin GPS device has weather report capability, so I checked the weather. There was something like an 80% chance of rain for the rest of the day.
There was an outdoor toilet nearby with a view – I took advantage of it and then returned to my tent to consider our options.
In my tent, I considered our situation. We were pretty isolated. We had packed food for five-plus days. Today was day four and we still had 50 miles to Stehekin. The original plan was to hike 20 miles today and tomorrow and then have an easy ten miles on our last day into Stehekin. I concluded that we couldn’t just sit here in our tents all day – we needed to hike at least ten miles today. It continued to rain. At 10am I told Sydney that we need to break down our camp and get back on the trail by 11am. So that’s what we did. At 11am we were back on the trail as it continued to rain.
It didn’t take long before we were soaked. As long as we kept moving we stayed relatively warm. The trail went downhill for the first few miles and then reversed and headed uphill for the next four or five.
We were mostly in the forest. It was wet and green and there was moss growing up the trees. It was obvious that rain is a normal part of the environment here.
After about eight miles the trail leveled out. We were at about 6000 feet elevation. It was cold. We were still soaked. It started to snow.
A little later, after we had hiked ten miles, we started to look for a campsite. There was one coming up but if it was occupied, we would have to continue hiking. Luckily it was empty, so we quickly set up our tents. After Sydney hopped in her tent, I collected water for both of us from a nearby stream. Soon we were both in our tents, in our dry camp clothes and in our dry sleeping bags trying to warm up. I think we both dozed off for a bit. But we warmed up. Eventually we made dinner and then retired for the night. I hope the weather is better tomorrow … we need to make some miles!
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One Dream, One Path, Four Feet 