DAY 158: SNOW AND MUD

miles: 22

September 24th, 2013.

Where to begin.

It's been too long since I last posted, and I'm sorry I've gone missing and left the blog hanging at the very end of the journey...

It isn't over yet!

We are just getting started, in terms of the snow, misery, and climax of the story. Please - stay with me, as there are a few more posts to come in final conclusion of this journey.

So. Here we are, waking up in the dark in our completely saturated tent, in the saggy, wet, sop of a campsite on this dark, September morning. We are about to enter the Glacier Peak Wilderness and the weather is still looking crummy (not just "crummy", actually "scary" would be a more appropriate adjective) as we stuff our damp sleeping bags in their shredded, useless stuff-sacks.

Everything is wet.

The morning started off drizzly and cold. Taking down camp took longer than usual


Summary of hiking in Washington too close to October:

Views only 15% of the time.
Extreme physical fatigue and deteriorating bodies...
Ongoing struggle to keep gear dry.
Fight agains hypothermia.
Difficulty with taking in enough calories to stay warm.
Eating strategy: eat while walking, no warm food, no cooking, only Snickers.
Being prepared for 3-seasons but entering 4-season hiking (WINTER IS HERE).
Systems were mastered for spring/summer hiking but fall/winter hiking caught us off guard.

Rugged. Isolated. True wilderness. Exposed. Hungry. Exhausted. Exhilarating. Raw. Bittersweet. Freezing. Unmatched beauty. Freedom. Urgency.

The morning started out in a freezing, cloudy haze. I left camp in a hurry because I feared I would lose my fingers if I didn't start moving. Body heat is hard to keep up these days... Once we were hiking we warmed up quickly. After about an hour, at just the perfect moment, the clouds lifted and began exposing dramatic views of Glacier Peak Wilderness.

WOW.

Most of our morning was spent standing on cliffs and vistas having our breath taken away (literally) as we took photos. We eventually realized we would never make it to Canada if we didn't keep moving, we couldn't afford to stop so often, so eventually we put our cameras away and resigned to walking as fast as possible.

Smiles taking in the view

Helping mark the way.

The mountains after a dusting of snow.

Dr. Slosh and Ben.

Ben heading uphill - the views keep getting better and better.

Clouds drifted in and out of sight.

Just above cloud line.

Although it looks sunny, it is actually quite cold if you stop moving. As you can see - we are also increasing in elevation ever so slowly... eventually causing some concern. (see the trail ahead entering the snow line?)

After some exhilarating ridge walks with dramatic cloud displays, we turned a corner (abruptly) and suddenly were in THIS landscape:

YIKES.

This is the trail.

Luckily, the trail goes down, down, down, down, down, to the valley floor you see here.

Ben slipping and sliding around in his Cascadias and shorts.

After an agonizingly slow descent to the valley floor, we finally exited the snow region and were glad to be down, however, we were greeted with thick, slippery, mud. This was no regular mud.

I never thought I'd say this, but I may go so far as to say that mud might be one of the most treacherous conditions we experienced on the trail. Who knew?

The mud slowed us down even more than the snow did. Is it possible that the mud is slicker than snow/ice?? It was for us. I don't know many times we both almost fell on this day.

Certainly dangerous. MUD. Dangerous mud.

Our pace was slowed down significantly by the 6 inch deep mud troughs (probably to about a one mile and hour pace in some places). I think we had it particularly bad because it was after a very recent rain/snow storm and the water was using the trail as a means to get downstream, creating rivers to walk through. Ice cold rivers with hidden mud pockets waiting to throw you off the trail and onto your face.

It can be ridiculously demoralizing to fall on trail, depending on the days mood and spirit.

I stopped taking photos early in the day due to the mud factor (still bitter) but wished I had some photos of the latter portion of the day because it was stunning. The day ended with swirling trail through gigantic forests, mossy areas, rivers upon rivers upon rivers, upon rivers and bridges, and non-bridge stream crossings.