Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Grey Day
08/24/04
Although my 'tarp' was well set up, it did not provide any protection from the rain because it didn't rain. There's no way to tell if it will rain during the night, but after last night, I wasn't taking any chances.
It took about 2 hours for my feet to warm up last night. They eventually dried my socks.
Wool is great.
My sleeping bag was much drier in the morning too. I dried it.
Down is great.
Nothing froze during the night, and I did NOT have a wet crossing first thing. I was so tired and out of it last night that I couldn't see the easy rock hop. Yipee. I was dreading starting with wet feet on a cold morning after a cold night.
Clouds obscured the snow-dusted peaks of yesterday. The grey morning continued unchecked as the noon hour approached.
Then things began to change. It began to snow. Or at least I think it was snow. It could have been tiny light chunks of hail. Solids from the sky are much easier to hike in than liquids. None of the white stuff really stuck at around 10,000', my rough elevation all day.
In my first hour of hiking, I met up with two guys from a party of four. As soon as they heard I was doing a thru-hike, they said, "Shoot. We just burned some food. But we have more. Would you like some food?"
Yes.
I got a summer sausage, 3/4 lb of cheddar, 8 mozzarella sticks, some pumpkin seeds, and a fresh plum! This extra food will go well with my extra crackers and allow me to do the Cirque of the Towers with food ease.
Now, I know cheese and summer sausage are not things I usually eat, or should eat, but hey.
I ate the plum as the guys talked about their '82 AT thru-hike.
I took an early lunch just before Lester Pass (WY16) because it wasn't raining/snowing/hailing, and who knew what it would be doing later?
I accidentally got on an alternate purple route at a junction. The destinations on the junction signs are a little confusing, so when I saw an actual named trail, the Highline Trail, I took it, not knowing that junction was the one that the CDT red route left the Highline Trail. I took a purple route back to the red route and hiked only a few extra miles.
Even so, I had a low-mileage day: 15.4. This heavily glaciated landscape is full of ups, downs, rocks, rivers, and turns.
I had two notable river crossings today. The first was after lunch, but I still didn't want wet feet. I searched upstream eventually finding a possible route across. The first half went well. To step into the second half involved a large step across a large volume of water down on to a pointed rock that had to hold both feet for the next step to happen. My poles helped me pull it off, and I got to the other side with only half of one foot kind of wet. It got my heart pumping though.
The dry option for next crossing of note was not worth the risk. A narrow log, which narrowed toward the opposite bank, had been placed between some nearby rocks and the opposite side, just downstream from a noisy falling cataract. The log was hard to get on, too high to use poles in the water, and too narrow to use poles effectively on it. I'm sure someone could do it, just not me today with a pack.
So I walked across the inlet that was almost as wide as the lake it was filling.
I'm camped just short of Hat Pass (WY17). The tarp's up for safe measure. My home tonight is on the uphill side of some large trees which are near a large granite slope. My food's hanging up high on a perfect branch.
