August 8, 2016 - Well I thought the skies were clearing up as I was going to bed but I was wrong. It rained off and on all night, never came down hard but just enough to keep everything wet.
It was hard waking up this morning with all the wet gear and it being a little chilly didn’t help either. I thought about just laying around for awhile but I knew if I wanted 35 miles today I needed to get a move on. Plus better to pack up while it wasn’t raining but still had to pack up all my wet gear, I figured I would dry it out later.
Easy downhill through the woods made the morning hike easy. Then had some uphill as well but it didn’t really start to get hard until I passed the road that heads to the town of Trout Lake. I figured maybe trail magic at the road and just as I get there I see 2 trash cans with one labeled food and the other trash. I got very excited as I opened the food one but was disappointed as there was nothing left. On the bright side I got to get rid of my trash. When I crossed the road I filled up on water before my big climb towards Mt Adams. Right after the water I found a pear sitting on a log, that was odd.
I did almost fall into a creek as I was trying to cross on a log. The log got slippy towards the end so I had to jump.
It had sprinkled off and on all day but it didn’t really start raining until I was hiking through an old burn section so I got no cover from the trees. Towards the top the rain stopped and saw some blue skies and Mt Adams. I figured the rain was over, I was wrong. About 10 minutes later it started coming down really hard with some hail, not that big of hail. The hail and hard rain didn’t last long, wasn’t even able to get my umbrella out before it stop. However, the rain still kept falling but just light enough to keep me wet. Around lunch time the rain was down to a sprinkle but found some good cover to protect me while I ate.
The last 14 miles after lunch was easy, not much rain at all and I was starting to see more blue but I also saw lots of gray clouds.
Got to camp with my tent still wet from this morning, never had a good chance or good weather to dry it out. So far weather looks good and maybe everything will be dry by morning.
