It started raining in the night. Not a hard rain, more of a mice running across a tin roof, light rain. Only there was a mice infestation because it never seemed to stop. We woke up when we heard Ivy stuffing her tent into her bag. There was a break in the rain and we hoped we’d be able to have breakfast, make our toilet (Bunny scolded me on my hole digging escapades), and pack up. We didn’t make it.
We underestimated the mist/fog/cold/rain today and we won’t do that again. We were basing our decisions on how to dress based upon a weather report we saw nearly 4 days ago AND my attempt at building good karma at the gate 3 miles before camp (bonus find to any thru-hikers who might be following us). As I was coming through the gate, I felt some intense intestinal rumblings, so I grabbed the trowel and my toilet kit and headed for the first clump of bushes I could find. I dug an extraordinary cathole. A real thing of beauty, 8” deep with sharp walls. I ended up broken hearted. No Texans appeared. Rather than fill it in, I left it for the next fortunate hiker that stumbles upon it in his, or her, moment of need. There should be no better karma than that.
By the time we rolled out of camp at 9, we could tell the fog was here for the day, but we kept believing that we saw it thinning out ahead. Instead of getting out my rain mittens, I kept on my glove liners. They were soaked in a short while and my hands started getting numb. Add in that this section of trail has taken a real beating over the winter. There were easily 100 trees down blocking the trail in a little over a mile. We had to crawl over, scramble around, or just push through the best we could. It was very taxing and used a lot of our energy.
It was between 40 and 45 with winds between 15 and 20 miles per hour. With all the extra energy we spent climbing over all the downed trees and the wind chill with the constant mist, we quickly burned through all of our breakfast calories. If we stopped moving, we got instantly chilled. This was one of the worst times we’ve had on the trail (and that’s including our ascent and decent of Katahdin when we finished the AT last year). I could tell my thought process was falling apart. I couldn’t think of simple words. My hands were completely numb and I started to panic. I felt I was on the verge of hypothermia.
Sonya had just sent us some hand warmers in her care package. Luckily, it came to me that they were in my pack. I dropped my pack and scrambled to find them, but couldn’t open the package. Bunny still had enough dexterity in her hands that she could open them for me. I also got out my rain mittens and threw the warmers in them. I started getting feeling back in my hands which helped to calm me down some.
By now, we were about 6 miles in and it was 9 miles to water. I was out of water and didn’t think to ask Bunny if she had any. We talked about setting up the tent at the water source and trying to get warmed up. We kind of hoped Wolf and Ivy were faring as bad as we were and had already decided to do that. (When we did catch up with them, they admitted they had been thinking the same thing.)
We got to the turn for the spring and I dropped my pack. Bunny started getting out some food while I went and get a few liters of water. I got back and made sure we drank a couple of liters of energy drink with our lunch. We ate as much as we could as fast as we could because we were so cold. We could feel the calories from the food right away. We decided to push on and hope things got better. Within a mile or so we hit snow.
The biggest irony is that the minute we started walking in patches of snow, we started seeing blue skies ahead. The bigger the snow field, the more blue the sky became. We managed to walk out of the fog that was hanging on the ridge we had been on all day. After 11 crappy miles where we questioned whether we would be able to continue, we were now optimistic that we would be able to make it to our designated spot with Ivy and Wolf. Only, we were going to be very late. We had started late. We had lost time scrambling over all the trees. We’d be lucky to make it before 7.
The late afternoon made up for the morning and early afternoon. This morning, we had passed the 300 mile mark on our trip but we didn’t care. We couldn’t stop to acknowledge it. Within a mile of being in the snow fields, we were able to take off all our extra layers and start drying out. We had no way to let Wolf and Ivy know we were going to be so late, but they are used to us coming in a couple hours after them.
Most days, we just follow their footsteps. We don’t have to refer to Guthook, but I like to see the terrain ahead to know what to expect. Sometimes, Wolf will leave us directions in the dirt at a questionable intersection. Today, we saw an arrow pointing off the trail rather emphatically. We looked for a second, couldn’t see the trail where it was pointing, but could recognize it as Wolf’s mark, so we took it. We crossed a strong flowing creek heading away from the trail we could see in front of us.
Once we got across and walked downstream, we understand. Wolf and Ivy has found the best place to cross because the trail was flooded at the intersection of the creek. They had probably spent 20 minutes to find the place that we hesitated at for about a minute. We trust Wolf.
Around 6, the sun was starting to fall behind the mountain and the wind started having a cold chill to it. We dropped our packs one more time and put our rain coats back on. About 30 minutes later we came to our turn for the campsite and saw a big arrow drawn in the sand with “Wolf” written above it. We made it to camp at 6:45, just leaving us enough time to set up before it got dark. I thought for sure Wolf and Ivy would both be asleep.
Wolf waved to us as soon as we got in sight. He had water for us if we needed it. He had walked back up to the trail at 6 to see if he could see any sign of us. They were worried about us being so late and shared their similar experiences with us. The big difference is they walk, on average, a half mile an hour faster than us, start earlier (today an hour), and take fewer breaks. They had been in camp since 4.
I set up the tent and went to get water while Bunny did the nest building. By the time I got back with the water, she was already in her sleeping bag trying to get warm. I changed into my night clothes (we always keep a separate change of dry clothes to sleep in) then started to prepare hot tea, then a hot supper, and prepared our cold soaked breakfast while everything was getting ready. After Bunny ate and drank her tea, she started feeling better. I was glad this day was over. It was only 16 miles, but it was one of the hardest days we’ve had on trail, but we handled it.
EFG
HUGE day. Way to go guys!!!!!
It kind of sucked early on. Almost as bad as when Bunny tried to poison me in Spain