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| This is what it looked like. |
miles: 11
"Are we really going to hike today? Are we really going out in this?"
These are the questions.
As I moped around in and out of bed, trying to take advantage of my last few hours where a bed was available to me, I felt like crying. I dreaded the freezing temperatures and wet misery that was the weather outside, that I just felt despair. I so badly wanted to stay in Skykomish until the weather turned... Am I wimp? Then I felt guilty for feeling so ready to be done, and all because of this weather! Apparently I am a pretty fair-weather hiker, I'll admit it. I'm very miserable when cold and wet. I can handle the heat JUST FINE. I actually LOVE the heat and sun, the desert was my favorite place.
The cold makes me feel fragile and vulnerable: hypothermia never leaving my mind as a potential threat at any given moment, while I'm hiking in wet/cold conditions. The constant fear of freezing to death, or at the very least, losing some fingers.
So this is what I dwelled on those last few hours in the hotel room.
So... procrastination happened. As usual. And we wound up leaving the hotel after 2:00pm. Smiles, Dr. Slosh, Rocky and myself.
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| Skykomish really was a "Great Northern Town" |
We thought it'd be a hard hitch out to Stevens Pass, but we were surprised to find it was one of our easiest! As soon as we hit the road, Ben walked up to an RV at the gas station and asked them if we could have a lift (BOLD, I know). Sure enough, within moments we were piling into an RV rental, driven by a couple of German tourists out to see some sights. They both spoke barely a word of English, so it was difficult to make small talk. In fact, they seemed to be very confused as to why we were wearing trash bags and being dropped off on the side of the road at Stevens Pass, but they nodded and smiled profusely, pretending (I think) to comprehend our explanations of what we were doing. We thanked them, forced gas money onto them, and were on our way.
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| Geared up in our best trash bags and ready to go. (Ben - the gnome on the right) |
So we marched through the tall sopping wet grasses, cursing the trail and lack of maintenance as we went. Me, still feeling like crying (a common feeling as of late) for no reason. I think I may just be at my wit's end with this weather.
Hiking in the rain is tough business. It is not for everyone.
And apparently it is not for me.
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| This terrible iphone photo pretty much sums up the hiking we did this afternoon. |
As we hiked and climbed and hiked and climbed through the thick and slippery mud, we continuously squeezed through wet foliage patches, sharp bushes, and dodged tripping hazards. This was no easy trail. Section K was starting off on a rather gnarly note, throwing all of the most unpleasant hiking conditions at us, icing it with a whopping 39 degree evening. A few miles in, something a big disconcerting happened as well: we began passing thru-hikers heading SOUTHBOUND (the opposite direction from us) as they evacuated the trail and headed back down where they had come from. One of these hikers was Goku, a trail friend we had not seen since the Sierra section down in central California! Due to the language barrier, it was hard to understand exactly why he was turning around (this was alarming because he was a particularly hardy and strong hiker) and we questioned him, eventually leading him to show us a few photos on his camera. What he showed us was terrifying: snow and white out conditions.
Goku was done, going home, throwing in the towel. This was extremely sad, but set off a red flag in our minds, in terms of the potential for trip-ending conditions in our near future.
We had skipped to Stevens Pass in order to hopefully AVOID the bad weather coming our way, but it was becoming clear that it may have caught up to us and arrived prematurely.
Ben and I had a lot to talk about that night, as we unfurled our sleeping bags in our damp tent. I shook with anxiety. Was it unsafe to increase in elevation? Apparently others had turned back and/or hole'd up in their tents during a blizzard out there, where we were headed. I am semi-comfortable in snowy conditions, but not comfortable or confident enough to spend 5+ days in those conditions.
We managed to get about 11 miles in before dark (which comes early these days, as the days get shorter, and shorter, and shorter) and camped in a very crowded little campsite. We were worried that the semi-flat spots we were able to find would fill with water and flood in the middle of the night if the rain kept up at the rate it was falling. We had heard of so many hikers who either made poor camp site location choices, or had no choice but to camp in a sunken area that collected water and pooled, drenching them and all of their life-sustaining belongings inside. This is my worst nightmare. We have been lucky to remain dry throughout every overnight rain storm, so far....
The conversation that night was grim.
