Today was…squishy. Squishy because it rained all night and everything was wet. Squishy because the trail was soaked and you sunk in the mud with almost every step. And squishy because I tried a personal modification with Leave No Trace (LNT).
Let’s start off by explaining the primary principal of LNT. The short hand version is to pass through an area and leave no indication that you were even there. Preserve nature from the influence of man. It’s simple yet tougher that it seems. The toughest part for me has to do with human waste. All animals poop in the woods, but people pose the greatest risk to other people with the bacteria in our BMs. To that end, LNT asks that all solid (or semi-solid in my case) waste be buried at least 6” deep and the surface be returned to pristine condition so it doesn’t appear to have been disturbed. No problem, I can do that. My poop exploits are well documented here.
The tough part of LNT is the big ask…please pack out the TP (and not just simply the unused TP). Back in the day, our yard used to get TP’d when I was in high school. We’d pick up as much as we could, but, invariably some couldn’t be retrieved. It would simply dissolve after the next rain or two. I assume that by burying the TP, it doesn’t get enough moisture to break down. Animals who have a good sense of smell (it doesn’t have to be that good to find my holes after I’ve been out here a few weeks) will sometimes dig up the old holes and take the soiled TP creating an eye sore as well as a bacterial risk for other people. I decided there must be a better way to get more moisture on the TP.
The answer seems quite simple, wipe first so the TP is on the bottom and will be exposed to all the liquids from loose stools and urine. The side effect to this is a squishy walk the rest of the day (admittedly there are a few kinks to work out; I’ll just continue to carry out the TP).
We haven’t hiked with Bear and Sassy since we summitted Mt Katahdin to complete our AT thru-hike almost 2 years ago. That day was one of the crappiest days of hiking we have ever experienced. Today was a close twin to that day: drizzling, in the 40s, and strong winds. We didn’t have any views today because of fog. Come to think of it, I don’t remember any scenic overlooks with almost 800 miles of hiking together on the AT. I remember fogged over view after fogged over view while hiking with them. Bear and Sassy are the death of scenic overlooks. Their streak continues.
It’s a damn good thing they are so much fun to be around. There is no one we have hiked with as much as them. Second place is probably a toss up between Dancing Dog (with us now, but her weather luck is almost as bad as Bear and Sassy…when she joined us on the AT in the Smokies it was 70 degrees. Over night it snowed almost a foot and dropped to -12) and Charcoal B & Struggles who we hiked most of Washington with last year. We should be able to salvage this hike when we catch up with them in central Oregon in a couple of weeks (they are the only couple we have had consistently good weather with). Even Peter and Marcia got us into a couple of rain storms in Scotland when we met them on the West Highland Way. (It never rains in Scotland unless we’re with Peter and Marcia).
Todays hiking, in spite of the squishiness and rain, was an easier day than yesterday. We started off a tad slow, not actually getting out of camp until 10:15. In reality, that’s pretty normal early on for us. Dancing Dog had a water accident which caused a minor delay—when she put her pack on, water poured down her back. Her reservoir cap had gotten cross-threaded and the pressure from resting on her back caused the water to drain out. It wasn’t bad, but we didn’t have an identified water source for nearly 8 miles. We promised not to let her get dehydrated but she wouldn’t take any water from us. She must have walked with her head tilted back and her mouth open.
There weren’t a lot of people out. We saw 6 total. Two girls from Portland we’re doing a 3 day trip to Cascade Locks which they decided to cut to 2 thanks to the rain. There was an older couple out day hiking (if they’re older than us, they’re Old). Another man was solo hiking for a couple of days. Finally, a young woman with a dog who was an excellent judge of character…he was very friendly to me, but recognized Sassy and Dancing Dog as the source of the bad weather and barked at both of them. The owner said he never did that. Dogs know!
We got water from a small stream near the junction of the Eagle Creek Trail. We wanted to come up the Eagle Creek Trail as an alternate route from Cascade Locks, but a forest fire a few years back made it unsafe to traverse. I’m still trying to find a way to blame Bear and Sassy, but I’m coming up empty.
We carried water for about another mile and a half to a flat spot on an abandoned forest service road. With the rain and cold, we all just set up our tents and crawled inside for supper and bed. When we started the AT, it rained on us every day for the first month then we got nice weather. When we started hiking with a Bear and Sassy, it rained on us every day for a month. We’re on our second day of rain in OR hiking with Bear and Sassy. Coincidence?
EFG