August 28, 2008

Wet again, I hiked into the Government Meadow shelter to find sleeping bags, tents, and socks strewn about as hikers tried to dry out anything. Inside the shelter, a fire was warming hikers and some even used the fire to dry out themselves. It had been a very wet few days. I didn't bother. Instead, I fueled up on energy bars while sitting on the shelter's steps. After maybe an hor's break, 30-30 and I hiked onward. As we hiked northward, we got varying weather reports from local day hikers. Some called for sleet at elevations of 4,000.' We saw a camper parked on a road and 30-30 recognized Nomad, who was trailing his wife, JoJo as she hiked the PCT. Nomad cheerfully served us cans of root beer as 30-30 and Nomad chatted away. I needed to hike on as I was chilled from stopping, but I thanked Nomad for the drinks and wished he and his wife well.

30-30 and I opted for a road walk later in the afternoon to break up the monotony of the woods. We hiked for a good hour before we hiked upon a dead end. Dag! There were two campers enjoying their peace in their little nook in WA. I eyed their truck and had to ask...."Is that your truck?" One of the campers drove us back to where we started our roadwalk. As 30-30 rode in the truckbed, I sat shotgun and noticed some shotguns too!!! "Don't worry," the man told me. "I won't use them on you." And then he offered me a Little Debbie Cupcake which illogically told me that I really was safe from the man and his truckload of guns. And so...30-30 and I basically lost about 5-6 miles by choosing to road walk. The decision was ours, but the cupcake couldn't help my disappointment. Losing miles at the end of a day is disheartening. As we hiked onward once again, the storm that so many of the day hikers began to look like we were going to be hit. As it began to drizzle, I kept hiking. But before I was soaked, I literally ditched under some tiny pine trees to take shelter. 30-30 was not happy but the rain would not abate. I set up my tent and got in...quickly. 30-30 looked for a better spot, but in the end, camped nearby. We did not speak for the rest of the night except for my exclamation..."Hey 30-30, there's a tree in my tent." I was camping with a pine tree inside my tent fly. It made me laugh about my desperation to keep dry. Too stubborn to accept 30-30's offer of water, I cooked my Mountain House Beef Stew dinner in my Propel-water mix. It tasted sort of like something that would be offered in a Hawaiian restaurant. Ahhh...hot, sunny Hawaii, I fantasized as I fell asleep to pouring rain dotting my Twister game footprint that I used instead of Tyvek.