miles: 28
It rained last night (AGAIN) while we were sleeping in our tent. It kept waking me up because I was concerned it was coming in the tent... which, upon further inspection, it was. I looked over at Ben, sleeping soundly, and there were little drips of water landing on his face. The moisture was coming in because the little fabric strips meant to tie up our tent doors were literally wicking the rain into the tent. Hmmm.... design flaw?
So. When we woke up, there were thick black clouds accumulating above us and it was still fairly early in the morning. Not a good sign.
Ben's dad had to take off early, which allowed us to get an early start on the day. We were out of camp by 6:30am and hiking fast. We wanted to get ahead of the rainstorm while we could. We made good time and had done 10 miles by 10am, which hasn't happened in a while.
The first part of the day remained calm, quiet and dry. As we climbed up toward Mt. Thielsen, the thunder erupted. We had stopped for lunch and took shelter under a large tree, in the event that a thunderstorm were to take place. Which... it did. Of course.
This is when we rapidly shifted into panic mode. "This is gonna be a big one, it's weird feeling, like the calm before the storm. Let's get the tent up... NOW."
Tent was erected in record time and we barely made it inside before the hailstorm broke loose. Thunder / Lightning / Hail / Heavy Rain. We took shelter in our tent for over 2 and a half hours, which really cut into our day. Starting to get cold, we made the executive decision to pack up, although it was still sprinkling. We needed to get moving in order to get warm.
Why so much rain, Oregon? Why? It isn't supposed to be like this. I don't do well in this weather. It's miserable. It's cold. It feels like November. It makes the trail that much more tough, which we don't need.
The rain finally let up and the sun came out eventually, allowing us to thaw out and dry some bits of gear. Mt. Thielsen remained cloaked in a blanket of cloud matter and completely obstructed our view. We never saw the top of him, which was unfortunate, but also sort of cool in a away.
Sadly, I had to keep my camera packed away (once again) because of the rain.
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| The view while we hid. |
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| Top left area you can see the thick sheet of hail on the ground. |
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| Ben helping the wicking process. |
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| Water! Finally! |
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| Mt. Thielsen in the clouds to the right. |
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| Of course, horses, right there is fine. If you can't tell - this is the middle of the creek, our water source. |
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| Dew. |
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| Reached the Oregon/Washington high point. |
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| Red rocks here. |
The end of the day brought a cozy camp, although moist. All we could hope for is some sun tomorrow to dry out our things/ourselves.
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