RAINY DAYS
PCT Day 143: Mile 2484.2 – Mile 2504.3
Saturday September 3, 2016: 20.1 miles (32km)
I wake up normally around 5am, no alarm needed, so it was a real surprise this morning to see that the time was almost 7am when I woke up. There seems to be some accumulated fatigue that is taking its toll.
At 3am the rain was still pouring down and there was a lot of condensation on the inside of the rain fly. A product of the warmth inside the tent, the coldness outside, probably in the high 30 degrees F and the amount of moisture in the air.
There were still no shadows on the ground till 11am and they disappeared around 11.04 and the rain came back again. The morning did look a lot brighter than the last few days and the temperature increased into the 40’s F.
Two fellow thru hikers passed me and I later walked with them for a period of time. Their trail names were Bright Lights and City Time. They have set themselves a deadline of September 8th to finish and will need to do 30+ miles a day to achieve this. So at some point the pace was a bit quick and so I bid them happy trails.
The clouds would dissipate and reappear, giving you brief glimpses of the landscape which must truly be quite stunning on a clear day. A rainbow appeared for awhile to add to the beauty.
About 3pm there was a break in the clouds and I could see a big patch of blue sky. This seemed a good time to dry the tent, ground sheet and the rainfly. So they were placed in the field and given a half hour to dry as much as possible. It did make a significant difference when setting up the tent tonight.
The trail wound its way across a slope to a pass before dropping down into the valley. I set up the tent next to a babbling creek and am sharing the site with Kayla who is heading Southbound. She had the unfortunate situation of losing one of her trekking poles in the river today. It was doubly bad as she has a tent which relies on the hiking poles as her tent poles. She has managed to tie it to a tree for tonight but not sure how things will go in the future.
There is 65 miles to go to Stehekin and 145 miles to the Canadian border but more important than any of this is September 13th when Corky will fly into Vancouver. I am looking forward to that so much.
