Saturday, July 10, 2004
It's Like Thunder, It's Like Lightning
07/10/04
Spur took off at the crack of dawn while Apple Pie and I hung around on the logging road braiding her hair.
Five minutes after camp we saw several great places to camp. Oh well. At some point we caught up to the Otter who shared the morning climbs with us.
I caught up with Spur and the Otter on top of Nevada Mountain, where we had lunch. Apple Pie came in before too long.
The Otter and I left together, but soon I was hiking by myself, enjoying the rhythm.
Then I found something amazing: a note from one 1979 CDT hiker to another couple folded with two 1977 dollar bills. Scott "CDT '79" was congratulating Heath + Sue on their progress and provided the dollar each for them to celebrate in Waterton. I found the folded bundle underneath a trail sign with Nevada Mountain in one direction and ? Mtn in the other.
I can only guess as to how it stayed hidden for so long: an old part of the sign was on the ground. Perhaps the note had slipped behind it, next to the pole and the note fell to the ground when the sign fell away.
I photographed the note, folded it and the bills back together as best I could, put the packet in a Ziploc, then buried it in the rocks holding up the sign. I put a note that I found it on the 25th anniversary season of its writing. It was an exciting experience.
I continued along alone, arriving near my destination of Dana Springs, the first water in a long while. The forest opened up in to fresh, green grass dotted with wildflowers. I then passed through a wall of mature trees and saw a larger grassy hillside.
I'd also been keeping an eye on the sky. The clouds look threatening, but no more so than almost any other day with clouds. I see white puffy clouds, smooth, depthless, dark grey clouds, and other miscellaneous clouds. Oh, and there was some thunder, again like most days with clouds.
As I ambled along the two-track admiring the flowers, I heard the Otter call my name. I looked down the hillside to see the Otter standing at the edge of trees. He invited me to join him. He was waiting out the 'storm' because he needed water at Dana Springs, but it was too exposed. I said I wanted to check things out. I took a few steps towards the as-of-yet unseen springs when something caught my eye.
From the trail, it looked promising. I headed down toward the white patches, hoping they were not rocks. They were not. In a few steps, I found myself amid several large puffball mushrooms. One was as large, if not larger, than my head. So I took some photos, posing with my brain.
The thunder was building up, but not of too much concern, so I continued toward the rise. From there, I could see Dana Springs. It was pretty exposed, so I decided to, well, head to the highest spot around. It looked interesting. I didn't spend much time there, deciding I didn't want to look like an idiot if I did die on the highest spot during a lightning storm.
Then it began to pour. I tried to wait it out under some trees, but this rain was unrelenting. Tree by tree, I made my way down to where the Otter was, whoop-whooping to narrow in on his location.
The rain let up as I got closer, and I saw that he had his rainfly up in trees.
I lingered outside, trying to decide what to do. I was a little cold from the rain, wind and dropping temperature, so my brain was sluggish.
We were out of sight of the trail, and I didn't want Apple Pie or Spur to pass.
I finally decided that I would put my pole across the trail. The Otter mentioned that I might leave a stick arrow instead. As I set out into the open field, I saw a flash and dropped my trekking pole as a pile of thunder poured out on top of me. I even winced, like it might hit me in the head. I quickly made my way up across the field and to the trail, made a large stick arrow, and, cautiously eyeing the sky as if I could avoid a bolt, hot-footed it back down to the trees.
At the edge of the trees, I tried to decide what I wanted to do. I looked up and saw the dark clouds above me moving in a bizarre way. I wasn't going to get water just now.
Instead, I grabbed my sit pad and slipped under the Otter's makeshift shelter, the Otter Den. We got a few drops as warning, then the sky opened up with thick rain which soon turned to hail that covered the ground. The shelter needed nearly constant adjustment, but it worked.
I was anxious to get water and go, but the Otter's conservative respect for the power of lightning kept me in the Otter Den longer than I might have on my own.
In all, I was waysided about 45 minutes.
I decided to leave before the Otter because the storm seemed to be moving on, and I was too wet to be sitting around much longer without getting into my sleeping bag. I crunched across the field and went to Dana Spring, avoiding the trough at first. The Otter arrived and suggested that the trough was the place to get the water. I was cold and a little punchy, but I eventually made my way over.
After I finished pumping my water, I saw something disturbing: Apple Pie's footprint.
Shit! They'd missed my arrow and were hiking to catch up with me not knowing that I'm behind them. Not good. I set out and began tracking them. The freshly wet soil of the trail and jeep roads facilitated following them. I even determined when they had met up with a blue pickup truck that we'd seen earlier.
We hiked and hiked, racing to catch them. The real issue was that on rainy nights, like tonight is shaping up to be, I sleep in Apple Pie's tent. Of course, the Otter offered to let me stay in his tent, but I didn't want to invade his space.
So we hiked, and soon we hiked past the junction where there's an alternate route. We hadn't discussed which route we would take, but their tracks told me they were taking the main CDT route, not the alternate.
I continued pushing with my hiking, but we eventually had to stop for dinner. I thought we might have caught them during their dinner, but it wasn't going to happen.
I would repeatedly say, "I'll hike to that tree/sign/curve/rise, call out, and then I'll hear them call back, then I can stop." I hiked miles doing this before, then after dinner. We finally stopped as it was getting dark, which was also the time we'd found a navigation arrow they'd drawn. A very perplexing navigation arrow. It indicated that they were going to hike down to intersect the alternate route. From my reading on the map, it looked like it would cause them to lose forward progress.
I was too tired to make a decision then, so we easily found a flat spot and set up. I'm sleeping out next to the Otter's tent. I can dash in if I need to.
From a thin, lodge pole pine forest without my posse, good night.
