Day: September 19, 2016

The weatherman was pretty spot on today.  It started raining just before 6 am and hasn’t stopped yet.  It’s not terribly cold, so it’s not miserable yet, but the rain is supposed to continue through tomorrow afternoon and I doubt the sun will come out to help dry things out.

I woke up just before it started raining, but since the store doesn’t open until 8 am there was no point in getting up before 7 am.  Having the tarp separate from the hammock worked out well.  I was able to get everything packed up under the protection of the tarp, get the rain gear on, then put the tarp up last.  It took longer than normal, though.  About an hour instead of 45 minutes.

I got to the store just after 8:30 and several hikers were already there.  I got the phone charging first, then got my resupply package and breakfast.  They had a pretty good croissant sandwich but the espresso machine was broken so I had to settle for regular coffee which was pretty good anyway.  

One hiker had gotten too much in her resupply box and was sick of tuna so I think I scored eight tuna packs from her.  I needed to buy two days worth of food so her tuna took care of two lunches.  I had sent myself enough dinners and snacks.  All I ended up needing to buy was one breakfast so I bought a cherry pastry.

A few of the hikers headed out in the rain about 10 am.  I was ready to go but my phone needed another hour to fully charge.  I kept snacking while waiting for the phone to charge.  Most of the hikers were taking a zero in Packwood since it was supposed to rain all day, but I wanted to make some miles today and test out the rain gear while the temperatures were not too cold yet.  It was basically like an average rainy day on the Appalachian Trail.  I’ve hiked in days like this dozens of times before.

I did not get out of the store until 11:30 and the hikers trying to hitch to Packwood were still out in the rain with no luck getting a ride.  There were plenty of cars, but no one wants to stop for a pack of wet smelly hikers.  I made my way down the road back to the trailhead and headed up the trail.

The trail had plenty of puddles to dodge and lots of riverlets flowing downhill.  It took all of thirty seconds for my socks to get soaked.  I thought these shoes had goretex in them, but they wet out so fast that I doubt there is any water protection at all.  No worries, most shoes wet out pretty quickly so I’m used to it.  One thing I was impressed with was their traction on slippery mud slopes, rocks, and roots.  I did slide a few times, but far less than with previous shoes.  I’m digging these Salomon’s.

There were a few times when the rain eased up a little bit, but it has rained pretty solidly literally all day since 6 am.  I found a thick tree that provided some protection from the rain at about 1:45 to take a break and eat a tuna packet.  I found another protected area at a campsite at about 5:00 and ate another two packets.  Other than those two stops, I was on the move the whole time without stops.  Rain tends to make you not want to stop and rest or eat.

I wanted to camp low for warmer temperatures overnight, but the last low camp was at about 5:30 so I began the long climb to Rainier National Park.  There were two camping spots up high before hitting the park that I could hit before dark.  But after climbing only about five hundred feet I noticed the clouds were getting thicker.  Great, I don’t want to be basted in cloud dew all night long.  

I kept my eyes open and saw a clearing not far away that looked to have good trees for the hammock.  I went down to the area and found a good pair of trees but one was really big.  I managed to get the tarp up, get everything underneath, then get the hammock up but still wrapped in its snake skin cover to keep it up against the tarp while I cooked dinner.  I ate quickly, then unfurled the hammock and started setting everything up inside the hammock.

Apparently the sleeping pad and bag ended up getting wet despite the pack cover.  The pad was only wet on the bottom side and the bag was only a little wet in the foot box area.  I had to hang my clothes differently than usual since they are soaking wet and I will have to put them back on in the morning and it is supposed to be just above freezing tonight.  I had to leave the rain gear hanging outside the hammock.  Tommorow morning is going to be fun.

I finally got in the hammock, I’m pretty dry, and I’m warm.  The rain is still pelting away but I should be able to sleep well.  I doubt I will rise as early as usual because of the rain and cold, but I need to get going fairly early so I can make at least 25 miles tommorow.  I only packed four days of food and it’s 98 miles from White pass to Snoqualamie.  I was able to do almost 15 today which is what I was expecting, so three 25’s will leave eight miles into town on just breakfast food.  

Maybe I can show up into a town with nothing but fumes in the food bag for a change.  I have been showing up with one or two days of food left which is too much extra weight I don’t need to carry.  Let’s put a little algebra to good use for once.

This state continues to amaze me.  I was a little worried last night about finding a spot to hang my hammock since I was above treeline, but today above treeline was orders of magnitude better than yesterday.  I felt like I was in the Sierras all over again.  The views and vistas seemed to go on for a hundred miles in every direction.

I got up at the usual 5:45 and we on the trail by 6:45 but it seemed lighter than usual because I was above treeline and there actually was more sun than usual.  The views of Mt St Helens were as good as they have ever been and in the morning sunrise they were extra special.  The views of Rainier were impressive in the sunrise as well.  And the trail keeps getting closer to it.

It was still early in the morning when I hit my first snowfield going up to the knife edge trail.  The new shoes I got for Washington worked fantastically on the snow.  It was still out of the sun and was rock hard.  I jabbed my shoes across the snow and they held like glue.  I was able to walk across the snow as fast as if it was dirt.

Once up to the knife edge trail, I looked at the lower bypass and it looked pretty scary itself.  It was on the side of a very steep slope and had a snow field across it.  I found out later from another hiker that it indeed was pretty scary to walk across.  I had already decided that I wanted to do the extra 600 ft of climbing to go up and over the knife edge.

The climb up went pretty quickly other than stopping to check for cell signal and wish Karen a happy birthday.  I had good data, but could not make calls, so email was my only option.  I was so enthralled with the scenery that I had not noticed that I passed the knife edge trail and was hiking up to the peak of Snowy Mountain.  Yikes, I was high.  But the view was incredible.  I could see all of Ranier and St Helens and could even see Mt Baker off in the distance.

I scrambled off of Snowy and back to the knife edge trail.  Once across knife edge, the descent back down to the bypass trail was steep and slippery.  The talus just gave way under your feet at nearly every step.  It was like a rock glissade.  The trail afterwards was quite sketchy as well.  It was very narrow, very steep on either side, and had small landslides all over the place.  There were road apples all over the place.  I was amazed that people were actually brave enough to bring horses up here.  I never would.  In the picture, you can see the trail snaking up the next ridge heading towards Mt Rainier.

Eventually, the trail turned off the ridges and headed east down to the valley below.  Seeing the snowfields high above was just as impressive as seeing them from above looking down at them.  I filled up with water at the first chance in the valley and hiked until noon to stop for lunch.  At noon I had gone only eight miles instead of the usual twelve to fourteen.  I had taken so much time on knife edge (two hours) and stopping to take pictures that I was way low on mileage but every minute of delay was worth it.

After lunch, the trail was much more familiar trees and woods for most of the afternoon until we had to climb another pass to get to the next valley.  It was above treeline for about an hour and had good views of Rainier.  The last six miles were downhill through forest to get to White pass where my next resupply box is waiting.

I got to the pass trailhead parking at 6:30 and there was a trail angel set up cooking burgers and handing out beers.  Rainier beers.  I had to stop, of course, and discovered that the store closed at 6 PM so there was no use in going any further.  I will have to wait until morning to get my box and it will probably be raining by then.  

The forecast shows rain from tonight until midday two days from now.  Tommorow will be crappy and forty degrees all day long.  I had toyed with the idea of hitching into Packwood and taking a zero tomorrow.  Depending on how miserable tomorrow actually is will determine if I hole up or just head out after resupplying.  One inch of Washington rain in mid September.  How bad could it actually be?