CT – Day 14

Daily Miles: 20
Total Miles: 276

While it sprinkled for awhile last night, the rain was over when we woke up and our tarps were dry.  The sky was still grey and overcast, but it just created a nice temperature for walking.  

We walked to the first water source of the day, which was the end of a 12 mile dry stretch.  We picked up a bunch of water, as we were heading into a 14 mile dry stretch.  We did our laundry at the creek, so it would have chance to dry before the inevitable afternoon showers came.

The trail continued to be very quiet today, seeing only a few hikers. We did see a few motorbikes on the trail, including one guy that Beardoh had met on the PCT in 2012 and in Salida the day before yesterday.  We also saw lots of cows!  They seem to enjoy walking and pooping on the trail, so we had to walk carefully a lot of the day.

For most of the day, the trail was full of loose rocks.  It was hard to walk too fast, as you had to maneuver all the loose rocks.

The skies cleared up in the late morning and were a brilliant blue for a few hours.  The grey clouds rolled in in the early afternoon and we could hear thunder and see rain off in the distance.  Once it started sprinkling, we looked for a place to put up a tarp to wait out the rain and hail.  We hung out under the tarp for over an hour and then started walking again once the rain let up.  We only had two miles to go until we got to the next water source and could make dinner.  It started to sprinkle steadily on us as we walked, so once we got to the creek, we hung the tarp again for our dinner break. We were reminded today of how nice it is to have hammock tarp in the rain.  Even though we have rain gear, we don’t stay completely dry unless we are under the tarp.

After dinner, the rain was letting up again, so we figured we would try to get a bit further.  We probably only got another mile before the rain started again.  We found a reasonable place to camp and started setting up.  

When it is raining, we always set up the tarp first and then the hammock and everything underneath.  For Beardoh, it is pretty hard to set up in this order, since he is bigger and his hammock requires more finessing with a tarp.  For SweetPea it is only an irritation, as crouching under the tarp is uncomfortable.  In future nights, we will probably try to stop for the day before the rain starts, so that Beardoh can put up his hammock and then his tarp.  That way everyone is happy. 🙂