Day 57, Wet n' Wild

Part 2, The Sierra Nevada, Day 57

Wet n' Wild

Miles: 16.35

PCT Mile: 862.33

I woke up throughout the night and it was raining all night. When I decided that the rain wasn't going anywhere, I got up, stuffed my soaking and muddy tent into a garbage bag and put on all my rain gear. I didn't get to take many pics today because of the rain, but it was a crazy day nonetheless. I started hiking early at 7 am with Shepherd, and we were headed for a big creek crossing.

I passed this hut that's used by the forest service. I was tempted to seek shelter for a bit inside, but it was locked. 

The forest was quite beautiful in the rain: 

Approaching Evolution Creek, there were two options; I could take the alternate route through a Meadow, which is supposed to be easier, or I could the regular way. I took the regular route because this is such a low snow year. In big snow years, this crossing can be dangerous, swift and deep. 

This was easy, but cold. Here is Shepherd crossing it.

It was so wet out that I didn't even bother taking off my shoes, I just plowed through. We waited for the others to show up when we got across. It was a miserable time to sit still. When I hike I can keep warm, but not moving made me shiver. When the rain came down harder I took off at a fast pace just to keep warm.

Evolution Creek was raging on towards the basin.

We hadn't seen KC for hours, as she took off ahead of us and was cruising. Barely was also gone, and we hadn't seen him in over a day. We weren't worried though, since he told us he was slowing down. I haven't seen Barely since then. 

At this point we followed the raging San Joaquin River for a few hours. I think the rain caused it to swell a bit, cause it was fast. 

Here's me looking annoyed in my rain armor:

We stopped at a steel bridge to plan our next moves. This was the end of Sequoia 

Kings Canyon National Park and the start of the John Muir Wilderness.

Everyone ate lunch under the shelter of a giant tree, while Shepherd and I made coffee. We decided to camp near the summit of Selden Pass. Why we decided to camp that high up in a storm is beyond me, but I was in no mood to question the plan. I just wanted to hike.

We came across another wilderness hut and this one was dank, dirty and creepy. We joked about it being a good place to get murdered. 

The last stretch of the day was all uphill. Hiking in the rain sucks because I constantly have to stop to shed or put on layers. Hiking in rain gear turns your body into a sweat lodge, and the sweat eventually gets cold, so it's a losing situation either way. 

We got to the camp and not only was it raining, but we were inside a giant cloud. The whole area was dead silent and there was little visibility.

We sat around on our bear cans under any large trees we could find and just looked around nervously at each other. Everyone's gear was soaked and it was wet and getting colder. I, for one, was freezing and shivering, but I kept it to myself. 

I set up my wet tent in the mud. There was no dry ground. At least my sleeping bag was dry. As long as my bag is dry, I'm not worried, and I take great care to keep it dry. Hummingbirds's bag was getting wet, and she was concerned.

Even though we were above 10,000 feet and were not permitted to start a fire, we decided to light one. It was a dire situation and we needed badly to dry ourselves and our clothes out. We tried for an hour to get a fire going, but it was too damp. Eventually, with the help of some Vaseline, we started a fire. 

The fire was glorious. We stood around it for hours and dried out. 

It continued to rain all night, but I was ok inside my dry sleeping bag with all my layers on. I felt safer with the group in this weather, and we ended up having a good time.