Written 7/15/14
Posted 7/22/14
It feels more like a day spent in the Pacific Northwest than in Central California. We walked through hail, rain, and thunderstorms today. We did manage to still hike 18 miles despite the bad weather. After descending 2,000 feet this morning, we climbed up 1,500 feet to Benson Pass. The heat and humidity this morning was wretched and we were looking forward to jumping in Benson Lake in the afternoon.
As we were coming down from Benson Pass, we bumped into a bunch of people doing trail maintenance on the STEEPEST DOWNHILL EVER!!!! We stepped down 3,000 vertical feet over the course of 4 miles. It was pretty awful and our knees were crying for it to stop. About halfway down the climb we bumped into Lady Mac and Gourmet. We hadn't seen them since Yosemite Valley so we chatted and had some snacks. While we were resting, we heard some thunder and saw some very large ominous clouds heading our way. Mike and I left and started racing to get to the bottom. The clouds caught up with us and soon we were in a downright windy, cold hail storm! We finally got to the bottom of the descent and took refuge under some massive pines while we filtered more water.
We started climbing to the next pass and bumped into a very long winded couple from the south. They were talking to us about how they were going to do the PCT this summer but couldn't because of various obligations. Most of the time I enjoy chatting with people on the trail but in this instance I just wanted to climb up the hill before it started raining again! After they finished telling us about their retirement plans, we finally made our way up the climb. Shortly after, it started raining again! We got to the top of the climb and sat under some trees while we waited for the rain to stop. At this point I was pretty cold, soaking wet, and extremely hungry. It was still only 4pm so we couldn't justify stopping for the day. We struggled through the last 3 miles and finally made it to camp.
We quickly set up the tent, made dinner, and filtered water before the next downpour started. Luckily we were able to get all of our chores done and now we're laying in the tent watching it fight against the wind while getting pounded with rain. The roof makes a perfect rain funnel as a large pool of water keeps collecting and bowing in the roof. I sure hope we don't wake up in the middle of the night to a tidal pool of water after the tent has reached it's maximum capacity.
Today I had two very unpleasant things happen. First, I was trying to pee at some point while it was raining and a mosquito bit me right in the crotch! I've had mosquitos bite me on the butt, and this is WAY worse!!! Second, I got a super gnarly blister on my big toe. We haven't posted any nasty pictures of blisters yet, so here you go!
Hopefully tomorrow will allow us to dry out our stuff and won't be as difficult as today!
No comments:
Post a Comment