PCT day 140 – Don't mess with me mousey
It rained all night. I know because I woke up every hour, looked out the tent and saw I was becoming increasingly flooded! Ignore it.
7am came around and it was still raining, so I didn't get up. Again. Eventually I was forced out of my tent because of a call of nature. It wasn't raining that badly, the drips from the trees were making it sound worse in my tent. So I packed up as carefully as I could. My sleeping bag was a tiny bit damp. My whole tent was damp and the fly was soaked inside and out. It was very unlikely that I would have a chance to dry anything out today.
I was walking by 11am. Another late start. The weather varied between being in a cloud, drizzle, rain and pissing it down. I started with my layers on and my hat and I didn't take them off all day. I was constantly on the edge of being cold so I just kept walking and I didn't stop for 18 miles. The sun came out for about 2 minutes today and that was it.
My feet were soaking and my shoes were starting to squelch. I hate having wet feet. My dip in the creek a couple of days ago didn't make any difference though, it was so rainy and all the plants were so wet that my feet would have been soaked regardless. I did the 2500ft climb in the various different rains. I had to be careful to move quick enough to keep warm but not too quick so I would sweat inside my waterproof.
I had to cross lots of water today. All the rocks were slippy. If only all creek crossings were arranged like this one.
I came to one crossing where I saw a path through on the rocks. The last rock wobbled and I got a wet foot. Not that it made any difference, my feet couldn't get any wetter! But it's here I yelled my first and only word for the day. I saw no one all day. Not a soul.
Then I came to this fast flowing river. Someone had handily put some logs to cross on, but they were slippy too. With my terrible track record over the past couple of days I was nervous. I made it all the way across and slipped right at the end. Luckily this time I managed to save myself and I dodged a dip in the river.
The rest of the day was spent going up and down, in and out of rain, getting wetter and wetter as all the foliage brushed up against me.
I got water from the lake and walked to a camp spot. It was 6:45pm. I was freezing and starting to shiver. I had spent the last 10 miles dreaming about taking my wet shoes and socks off and putting dry ones on. I set up my tent in a rare moment of no precipitation. Everything was wet but the care I had taken this morning in packing up had ensured that at least the inside of the tent was dry. I could see my breath. I dumped all the stuff I needed inside my tent and got changed into dry clothes. I made my mountain house and while it was 'cooking' I set up my stuff and got into my sleeping bag. I ate Cheetos, cookies, crackers and then started to warm up when I ate my hot meal. I made a hot chocolate and ate my Galaxy chocolate from England. Now I was starting to feel better!
An icy wind blew and helped to dry out my tent a bit, and made me really cold, then of course it started raining again. It is super cold tonight. The condensation had already started forming.
I heard a scuttle outside my tent. I shone my torch outside and a mouse was running over my bag. Great. If it nibbles through my tent I'm going to freak out! More noise and the mouse is on my tent. Crawling on my tent. In-between the net and the fly. I gave it a swift whack and sent him flying. Don't mess with me mousey.