Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Zero at the Dinsmore's

Day 148-September 8th
Destination: Steven's Pass (Dinsmore's Hiker Haven)
Miles: 0
Cumulative Miles: 2169

"I call it the morning dose of self-loathing."
--Johnny Law on Pop-Tarts

Today, we reassessed our plans to move forward. We are not giving up this close to the end, we just needed to figure out how to move forward, without putting ourselves at risk. This meant getting some more gear, drying out our existing gear, and waiting out the rain while we developed our strategy.

Psycho's parents came to Baring, to take us into an REI to up our rain protection. We bought pack covers and a tarp to pitch over our tent to help keep our bags drier at night.

The benefit of our return was coming back to a small herd of hikers. After all our jumping around, we have hiked the majority of the hike outside of the culture of fellow thru-hikers. Now, as the good weather returns, we will be hitting the trail with a collective of hikers we have known for a long time, but not hiked with in several months.

The ten of us (or so) here, all have roughly the same goal time for hitting Monument 78 at the Canadian Border.
This means that we should all be hiking roughly together, which will be a nice change up from our rather solitary hike we have had for most of Oregon and Washington.

Tomorrow we will hit the trail at Steven's Pass, covering the 16.5 miles for a third time. This time, however, the weather is supposed to be better, and we should be able to see the very scenic section of the PCT. While our decision to turn back set us back 2-3 days, everything that has resulted seems to be working out. Things work out on the trail. They always do.

We are probably going to be without phone reception for the next 8-9 days, so take care. See you all after we get to canada (lest we find some random place with a signal).
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

2 comments:

  1. YEAH. Good on your parents Psycho. Sounds as though you also got that reboost to your will and determination. Company is good for the last part into Canada. Should make you both feel a bit more secure in your well being and dealing with the elements. Journey on with blessings of safety and cross that border.

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  2. Hurray! I'm glad see you are pressing on! I heard that for then next month it's only going to be clear skys and 68 degrees on the west coast. You won't need that new rain gear after all.

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