Me? Go Over That River?

8/15/13

PCT mile 2438-2453.5  15.5 mi

Elev.3027-@4424

I woke up to a sagging tent , rained most of the night. I packed most of my stuff in the tent trying not to touch the condensation. My sleeping bag got a bit wet on the bottom but I stuffed everything away and we got on the trail in clear skies. We crossed some streams with nice log bridges and eventually the trail turned brushy with switchbacks as we ascended for 7 miles. I was wet from thighs down from rain-wet brush. We passed 2 men, one an older gentleman thru hiker trail name Tortugo ( turtle ) He'd taken some falls and his knees hurt, Peggy gave him Alleve. We decided Alleve could sponsor our hike since it's keeping us going! 

This is the dew drenched trail.

We came into a valley filled with high and low bush huckleberries that we, of course,  stopped to pick. It was so hard not to get waylaid by berries that I put parameters on my berry picking -  If I picked a handful then I couldn't pick more until I'd walked 50 steps and then only if the berries were at my shoulder level!!   Pretty pathetic but only because I can't say no to a full berry bush!  

We filtered water from Deep Creek before ascending the peak surrounding the lake. 

We stopped for a break but cut it short when we saw dark clouds gathering. I wanted to make it over the peak and into the trees before the storm.

A view of Deep Lake from the climb up Cathedral Peak.

We hiked just below the top of Cathedral Peak  and around to high meadows where we took 30 minutes or so to try to dry our gear before it rained again.

As rain sputtered we scooped everything up and into our packs, put our pack covers on and headed down the mountainside into yet another valley and a river ford that we knew might be tricky.

We crossed fields of boulders like this that fell from the granite mountain peaks.

Soon it was raining in earnest and I was wet, my parka makes me too hot so I just mostly used it to cover my pack. 

We heard the river before we saw it. The trail turned a corner and there it was as we looked down.

You can see the PCT mid photo on the right side, once we cross the river that's where we have to get back on the trail.

This is snow melt off a big snowfield far up in the mountain, it shoots down a steep slot at a steep angle over large boulders that are slippery. At first we eyeballed it from various angles and then I tried to step on boulders. I slipped and fell, hitting my right hip, right foot going in, right cheek hitting my hiking pole (instead of a boulder) so that was when I knew the safest way across was wading in.  As I was making my way in knee deep water I heard Peggy, she'd fallen too.  She was down on a rock trying to get up but the slick rocks were hard to stand on.  We each had to find the best way across for ourselves.

Once we reached the trail on the other side we filtered water not knowing what was ahead. All the while it was raining and now we were both wet from the waist down at least. We still had to find a camp spot so we ended up hiking 1.5 more wet miles to a clearing where we had the tents up in a flash. Tossed in the items from our packs and dove inside.  All the wet clothes went into a pile and I got into my damp down bag with my down jacket and wool hat on too. My feet wouldn't warm up but I used the time to journal and keep busy. Around 6:30pm I decided to get water heated for dinner except I never cook in the tent, so I eased the Jetboil to the outside of the fly, reached out and got it going just on the outside away from the tent fabric.  I had hot water for instant mashed potatoes in a few minutes and was eating in another minute.  Like a flush I felt heat rush from my head into my feet, I was warm and stayed warm all night. I'd just needed fuel to get warm.  Sometime during the night it stopped raining and the skies cleared.  We'd survived but I had a nasty black and blue bruise on my hip.