1:45am the rain started last night. I scurried out of the tent to pee quickly, then made a quick check around the tent to make sure my ground cloth wasn’t exposed where it would collect water. We woke up at 7:30; my tent fly was soaked, but the interior appeared o.k. Then when I got outside the tent, I discovered a huge puddle had formed and collected right under the tent, and the floor was soaked underneath. We both had packed as much as possible inside our tents, then ventured out quickly for the remaining packing. No question – it was raining when we got up and it was going to rain all day.
I went to relieve myself before starting hiking and a huge elk made his way down the trail while I was behind a tree. We saw each other at the exact same time and he charged off through the woods like a freight train. On trail, we hiked in rain and wind across a couple more clear cuts and a burned area. Thankfully, it was in the high 40’s, so it wasn’t miserably cold as well as wet.
We stopped at 5 miles at a 4-sided cabin, the Mike Urich shelter, one of only three on the entire PCT. Inside it was dry and there was a hiker register, so Tabasco and I spent an hour there, and I opted for an early lunch since it was going to continue raining. Moving on down much, much better graded trail than yesterday, we soon encountered Bryan (aka Hikerbum) who I last saw in the High Sierra. After a few minutes of conversation we continued in the rain.
Shortly after noon we ran into Alyssa and Sage, who I really like a lot, thru-hikers I spent time with around Walker Pass/Kennedy Meadows. Again we spent several minutes catching up until we were all cold and continued on. Tabasco and I were both frustrated that as of about 2pm we had covered about 10 miles. We started pushing a little harder, despite wet muddy trail and mid-afternoon passed Tabasco’s good friends and former hiking partners down south, Nick and Emily. After 30 minutes or less, we pushed on and at 5:30 we reached a gap where I told Tabasco to stop so I could study the data book.
With 22 miles behind us and a climb ahead, we decided to stop and we had to create a small tent site for Tabasco and I am camping on the trail. We are very wet. I have some damp to dry clothes and a damp sleeping bag, all else is wet, including the tent. It is still raining and looks to continue the next 2-3 days. Still, the trail and hiking were better today than yesterday. And we saw a huge bull elk this afternoon with big antlers and he bugled at us…very cool. Time to call Debi; I have a cell signal, then go to bed. Today’s mileage: 22.4; cumulative:1640.2. Weather: RAIN; low 40, high 53.
