Day 127
Start: Big Huckleberry Mountain
Finish: Trout Lake Creek
Daily Mileage: 30.8
PCT Mile: 2226.5
It was not a great night. It rained the entire night. My Zpacks Duplex is not the best at keeping you dry through several design flaws, but it is also old now and leaks. I woke up in the middle of the night to puddles in the tent and the ceiling dripping condensation from sleeping in a cloud straight onto my down sleeping bag. I noticed that because the inside of the bag was wet.
I wiped up the puddles best I could with my pack towel, and laid my raincoat over my sleeping bag as a poor attempt to avoid further wetting. It was all I could do.
In the morning, it was a slow start, especially since it was still raining. We were still targeting our normal start time, and since we were planning 31 more miles we needed to keep to that, so we just made due and packed up our wet gear. Honeybun had a similarly wet night with his tent leaking as well.
We were the only people stirring around our camp despite being the last to arrive last night with everyone else still in their tents. We would pass tents throughout the day today with people hiding out from the rain. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t get us to Canada.
We started down the trail in our rain gear, brushing past a million wet bushes overhanging the trail with the weight of the water on them. We were still in dense forest, and there was not much to see or do besides just book it down the trail.
We did pass some lava fields, but my camera was secreted away and bagged to keep it dry since it is not waterproof. Because of that, I took few pictures today, wanting to keep it safe. It is a nice camera, and far better than any waterproof model.
We entered and passed through the Indian Haven Wilderness Area. There were some ponds but not much else to see, not that we were really looking. It was really just all about the miles and keeping moving today. Our hope was that if it cleared up at all, we would have the time to lay out our gear and get some sun on it.
It rained through into the early afternoon as we hiked in and out of the clouds. Often viewpoints were a field of pure white with little to see but a few nearby trees. That’s just how it is some days. In any case, it was way better than dense wildfire smoke.
The rain finally cleared mid afternoon, and a slight breeze even began drying out the bushes and trail. We came across a trailhead with a picnic table and joined a couple other thru-hikers for lunch and laid out our tents. I got the inside of my tent mostly dry in the break which was fantastic, and gave me the confidence that camp tonight was going to be manageable.
Hiking on for the last stretch of the day, there was quick drying and we hardly got wet from the vegetation. At the end we even passed through some great old growth forest with enormous trees. A small consolation prize for the day.
We set up near a stream with our first real mosquitoes in Washington. Getting back out to suck blood and make up for lost time in the rain. We laid out our gear to dry some more but there was no breeze or sun here, so there was only a slight improvement. At least most of my gear is somewhat dry with the exception of my sleeping bag. Hopefully I can get some dryer time in town tomorrow.
While I have hiked through rain many, many times, this was one of the more challenging occasions. I went into the PCT knowing that my tent was not fully waterproof and had design flaws that can lead to the inside getting wet. However, since the west coast is largely dry during summer, I figured I could milk the last life out of this tent without buying and putting wear on another tent that I’m largely just using to keep bugs and condensation off. My battle with the rain was of my own doing, and I accept that. I’ll still keep this tent until the end of this trail before I spike it in the trash can where the Zpacks Duplex belongs.
