Woke up to fog and light rain, so we all suited up in rain gear...all day it was on and off with the jacket..hot and sweaty climbing up, cold when you stop or the wind blows...lots of wardrobe changes today..it's hard to be a trail diva without a good support staff!!
We hiked 11 miles today. Zag and I move at very different speeds, so the method that had evolved is sort of like this:
The night before: "what's the plan for tomorrow?" Hike to here..ok
In the morning: where are we going? "we could go here, but if the weather is bad we can do this, or if my knees/feet hurt we can stop here and call the hostel and get a room..."
Isn't it early I in the day to know you can't make it to the shelter?
We'll see..
So I hike. Moving quickly to get warm and that's the pace that's comfortable to me.
I stop at a landmark about halfway to our original final destination and wait..when my trusty hiking mate shows up, we have lunch
.so far, zag hasn't bailed on me for the longer destination..she's been a trooper, hiking on sore knees and feet....
I can hike about 5 miles without stopping before my muscles need to rest...usually it's around my shoulder blades from my intense use of the hiking poles..sister is getting some good shoulder extensor muscles....that pud at my armpits is about gone!
Today I hiked pretty much by myself. John the retired navy/auto zone guy walked with me just a bit. He's full of stories, but there's a little something off putting that I can't quite put my finger on...so I hike on..
Beautiful weather today...walking in the fog is so strange...it finally started raining good as I got to the shelter..thunderstorms complete with tiny hale.
Shelter was nearly full so I decided it was the perfect time to check "tenting in the rain"off my list. Any time the rain eased up, I sat up my tent, dug a little trench around it so the water would flow around it rather than under it (go air force field training!) what I couldn't control and didn't know about was the integrity of the tent itself...(remember that I have a down sleeping bag that is useless if it gets wet)..I'm in my tent now and feel an occasional drip..I've been too chicken to get my sleeping bag out of it's waterproof sack, I'm bundled up in my clothing from today, plus warm hat and orange puffy jacket..I'll look at the weather radar soon and will get it out if the worst I'd over..
In the shelter tonight: domino, fidget (UK girl), & 3 other guys
No comments:
Post a Comment