What A Day

Day 140-August 31st
Destination: Abandoned Weather Station
Miles: 13 (plus 0.5 off trail miles)
Cumulative Miles: 2059

We started our hike with a decent descent down to our first water source for the day. Shortly before arriving at the water source, Psycho rolled his ankle just enough to cause him to go flailing about and falling to the ground. He didn't hurt himself at all, except for a small bruise on his bum.

Then, after refilling our water supply, we continued down the trail. About five minutes into the walk, Psycho's trekking pole snapped into two pieces. He still has one working trekking pole, and has become less reliant on his poles, but the uphills will now be more difficult.

Around 9:30am, the rain started coming down. We put our rain gear on and kept moving. Unfortunately, the trail was winding through dense huckleberry overgrowth, so by noon we were soaked clean through to the bone. Our rain gear is good for a few hours, but the added droplets of water coming off the brush spelled wet disaster for us.

As we were heading largely downhill, our bodies were not generating enough heat to keep us warm. We decided we would find a dry-ish patch to throw our tent up, and wait out the passing rain storm. We made a lunch and hot tea to warm ourselves. It was still raining at 1pm. We napped for an hour, it was still raining at 2pm. We continued to nap.

When it was still raining at 3pm, we realized that we had to go hike in the rain, or else we would have too many miles to cover the next day. We slipped on our wet socks, a most miserable feeling, rivaled only by the far less pleasant experience of sliding into soaked boots. We of course had to pour the water out of our boots first.

Packed up, and still soaked, we started hiking again, to churn out a few more miles. Shortly after starting, some sort of spider bit Psycho's leg. For the remainder of the day, every left step reminded Psycho of the bite.

The good thing about being soaked, is that you can't get any wetter. We stepped through trail puddles and rivers with careless abandon, and tried to lift our spirits by shouting how "fun" this was.

Eventually we arrived at an abandoned weather station, where we hoped to find shelter from the now down pouring rain. All the doors were locked, and the windows were boarded over. We found one unlocked door, but sadly the door behind it was locked, and the alcove was only large enough for one person to stand in.

We fought off the very strong desire to break into the building, and instead settled for a 3'x5' covered porch. We huddled our drenched gear and bodies into the porch. We decided to layout in the small confines of the porch. We stretched our ground cover over the steps, and draped our tent in a way that would best keep out the rain.

After dinner the wind picked up, and beat the tent furiously against the metal walls of our cramped quarters. The wind did not let up all night, and neither did the rain. Our sleep was perhaps the worst on the trail, and our sleeping bags were soaked by morning. Fortunately, we stayed warm, huddled close together.

Psycho was thoroughly impressed and shocked by Apricots' positive attitude throughout the mostly miserable experience.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile