I think it’s safe to say this was a crappy night. It poured all night long. We had set the tent up under some pine trees in the hope that this would block some of the rain and it did. What we didn’t notice was the indentation which formed a low spot which meant we were set up in a small lake. It was still raining and I didn’t feel like dealing with the BioLite in this weather so we used the alcohol stove to boil enough water for oatmeal and hot tea.
It rained all day. We ate breakfast in the rain. We packed up in the rain. We (at least I did, Pam claimed emptiness) vacated some body weight in the rain. We hiked in the rain. We got slightly hypothermic in the rain because our hands didn’t want to work. We bitched about the rain in the rain.
This could have been a nice hike with open vistas of the eastern face of Rainier, but it wasn’t for us. We had about a 5 mile walk along the Cowlitz Divide which was a level to gradual downhill walk once we climbed up from Indian Bar. We stopped for a couple snacks in clumps of pine trees that on better days were used by women as open latrines as evidenced by all the patches of melted white paper on the ground. As we came around a blind turn, I ran upon 2 grouse trying to stay dry on the side of the trail (better than in the trail which was more of a creek now).
We ran into another young couple running the trail in a counter clockwise direction. I noticed they had a GPS and asked them how much further to the junction thinking we were close. They told me 6 miles. I told them no way. With the rain, I was losing patience and was too curt, I’m sure. She said that’s how far the GPS said so I thanked them and took off. About ½ mile later we hit the Cowlitz Divide Trail junction. The only thing I can think is that they gave me the distance to the junction of the road. I was flustered and didn’t explain myself well so now they have a story about a cranky old guy they can tell all their friends about.
The rain let up after the junction and the trail had very much a fairy tale feel to it. I was expecting a wicked witch to appear and invite us into her candy cabin to get warm and dry out. Honestly, I would have accepted. My pack was a good 10 pounds heavier with the wet tent in it and my shoulder straps were water logged. Pam finally broke down and responded to nature’s call once the sun started peeking out a bit. Not even 200 yards later, we came to the side trail to Nickel Creek and its latrine.
At least the sun was out enough for us to spread stuff out to dry up some. We set up the tent and spread out the fly and all of our clothes to dry while we ate a supper of tuna & rice followed by M&Ms—we earned these little chocolate drops of heaven.
While we were cooking, Pam noticed something fly overhead and land in a tree. She got out her camera and spotted a tiny owl. The thing was cute and not more than 4” tall. We’ll have to get it identified but that would be cool if it’s the endangered spotted owl that we’ve heard about.
We didn’t get everything completely dry, but we got it dry enough that we could sleep comfortably. We gathered everything up and went to bed while it was still slightly light.