Ellen S - Pacific Crest Trail Journal - 2012

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Stevens Pass chair lift

WA 18

Rain...when I tally the no. of rainy days to the total, WA now is up to about 1/3 rainy. ??We were woken up around 4am by thunder and a downpour. The tent is holding up well. ?? Unfortunately, we each left a couple of things out. ??I left my gaiters hanging to dry on a tree. ??Fairly sheltered, so they didn't get too wet. ??Yeahbut put his pack cover on the ground inside the vestibule. ??It is sitting in a puddle. ??Good thing we hike out today so we can dry out!
Packed up and hit the muddy trail. ??We both broke out clean socks. ??3 days of the same wet socks (with caked in dirt) was enough. ??Of course, with the rain and wet vegetation, we knew our feet would be wet. ??But the clean socks felt soooo good!
We had an assortment of ups and downs today. ??None particularly long by WA standards. We got a break in the weather around lunchtime. ??Some sun shone thru the clouds. ??Seems the clouds tend to build in the afternoons, with rain returning by evening. ??For the second day, Yeahbut has had to keep his camera packed away. ??We will only have my inferior phone photos to document these days.
We passed a few pretty lakes. ??The color of the lakes is amazing. ??Some are touquoise, some are green.??
We crossed thru a ski area. ??They are doing a lot of work there. ??We saw signs warning about blasting, heard chain saws. ??Came across guys digging out the base of one of the chair lift supports. ??They said they were going to pour a bigger concrete base to support a bigger chair lift load. ??What amazed me was that they were digging with shovels...no mechanized equipment!
We climbed to the top of the ski area then followed trail down to the base. ??The ski area is closed during the week (they have some things on weekends). ??
To resupply, we needed to hitch west to the tiny outposts of Skykomish or Baring. ??Fortunately the rain was holding off. The highway was busy, but people in WA seem more hesitant to pick up strangers. ??Nevertheless, after about 45 minutes, a nice retired navy guy stopped for us.
He dropped us off about a half hour later in Baring. ??We have a box waiting for us at the Dinsmores, the WA angels extraordinaire. They have a bunkhouse and hiker necessities, a miracle in this sparsely populated area. ??There is also a tiny store/cafe where we feasted on really good sandwiches while the locals entertained us. ??So good to have full stomachs, and a dry warm place to hang our hats for the night!
Tomorrow we get off trail. ??Yeahbut has picked up an insect bite or infection on his leg that has made hiking painful. ??The weather forecast is for even more rain. ??We plan to go pick up our car and go see some sights in WA the easy way.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Smartphone

Entry 96 of 97
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