September 2nd
In the middle of the night I awoke to the scritching sound of mice. I unzipped the tent netting, reached out and shook the food bags. Then I checked the “offerings” we had left. All gone. Time to sacrifice a few more crumbs to keep the vermin out of the food bags, and maybe snack on a few tidbits myself.
We awoke to the sound of water dripping on the tent. The promise of a clear morning had been unfulfilled. I never heard it actually rain last night. It could have been that I was sleeping very soundly. Or it could have been that a heavy mist was accumulating and drops of water were falling from the branches above. Either way we waited hoping that the mist might burn off and te skies might clear. No such luck.
Finally about 8:45 we made the decision to launch ourselves outside, knowing that it would not be a bad as it sounded. It was a wet and dreary day. It actually rained only a couple of times and not for very long, but the shrouds of mist moved in and out all day. And the threat of rain as well as wet vegetation had us wearing the raingear most of the day too. Not to mention the colder temps. I like the new rain gear. The Marmot Precip jacket is lightweight, moves with comfort, repels rain and actually breathes reasonably well. The Sierra Designs rain pants work well too. They also are comfortable and was to move in and repel water. They breathe, but not really well. Condensation from sweat builds up inside faster than it can be breathed away. But then I have never had a pair of pants that this didn’t happen to. The rain limited our views. The trail was manly forested anyway. We probably would have had very few views, but there were a couple of places from which we could have seen Mt Adams and all we saw was the inside of a white cloud. Frequent huckleberries, plump and ripe as well as occasional patches of blueberries made up some for th lack of views.
We continue to be in a hiker “void”. We saw no other northbound thruhikers. In fact, tomorrow morning will mark a week since the last northbound thru hiker we saw. We did see two southbound weekenders and one southbound section hiker. Its possible he was a southbound thruhiker, but we didn’t stop to talk as it was blowing a hard cold rain at the time.
Toward the end of the day we did have one brief glimpse at Mt Adams cloaked in white clouds. At least we know where it is. The rain kept us moving, as it was too cold for very many breaks and those we took we kept very short. We chased dark again, getting to camp a few minutes after 8pm and a few minutes before dark, finishing 25.8 miles in just under 11 hours.
During dinner we listened as several coyotes, not far off, started yelping at each other. The stars are again coming out and again suggesting a brighter tomorrow.
