Wow! It rained and rained all night, but the sandy/rocky soil we were camped on soaked it all up just fine.  However, the air itself was so damp that even though we stayed warm and comfortable, our sleeping bags have picked up some moisture.  We really need a sunbreak so we can air and dry things! The rain stopped (hooray!) when it was time to pack up.  So nice to be able to do a normal packup instead of trying to hunker under the tarp.  We said goodbye to our fellow camper (he was not up yet, but was eating breakfast).  The rain resumed when we started hiking. It rained most of the day after that, and since much of the time we were pushing through wet huckleberry bushes, it was a very wet day!  I was very glad to have an umbrella–it makes rainy day hiking much more enjoyable.   Another young hiker couple caught up with us and when they saw my umbrella, the girl said, “Duh, why didn’t I think of that?  I’m going to get an umbrella, too!”

Many of the bushes had ripe huckleberries, but when it is 50 degrees and raining, we didn’t feel very inclined to stop and pick huckleberries! I did notice that the berry bushes on rockier, drier hillsides were starting to turn red, while those in wetter, forested areas are still green.  There were no views today except an occasional glimpse of a nearby mountainside.  As the rain continued, soon the trail itself was one long mud puddle which at times turned into a creek.  Bill and I both now have “dishpan feet” from being in soaking wet socks and shoes all day long.

At our morning Snickers break, along came 3 cheerful young thruhiker guys. “Hey, hikertrash!” they cheered.  “Isn’t the PCT the BEST trail in the world?”  We yelled back, “Yes, it is!”  The young guys waved and on they went, all raingeared up, packcovers on, and moving fast.  Soon we were headed on, too, planning for lunch at Stampede Pass weather station. Big disappointment! The cute little house was boarded up, the water shut off, and it was still raining.  We found a tiny covered entryway that had just enough room to squeeze in with our packs, and I sat outside in the rain under my umbrella (LOVE the umbrella!) to cook dinner, then retreated into the entryway to eat.  (See note below from Alexa!)

But now we were really seriously low on water (we’d counted on the faucet at the weather station) and the next creek was 5 miles away.  Oh well, we kept walking.  But surprise!  At Stampede Pass, there was a water cache!!  That really cheered us up.  The afternoon was a rerun of the morning–lots of long ups and downs, in the rain, pushing through wet huckleberries.  The trail became rockier and rockier, but I remembered this from our 2005 thruhike, so was expecting it.  The forest here is actually very pretty, with lots of mossy rocks, but in the cold and rain, we didn’t stop to enjoy the beauty–just took sideways glances at it.  Our goal was to get as close as we could to Snoqualmie Pass where we can get warm, dry and clean!  We stopped for supper at Mirror Lake, then kept going till 7:00 and camped.  We can just faintly hear the noise of traffic on I-90, so we must be almost there, but we could not see anything in all the clouds and rain and we were really tired, so we decided to call it a day.  All our gear is now a bit damp, so it may be a challenge to stay warm and get a good night’s sleep.  We’ll see!

Note from Alexa: Sounds like the time in Wales where the only dry area Monty could find to write in was in a castle dungeon!

Walk with Aragorn to Minas Tirith: Walking parallel with the River Anduin.

Tags: Stampede Pass weather station