Daily: 23.7
Total: 2597.8
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| Rainy Pass living up to its name |
Today was a weird day, not because it felt weird but because weird things happened.
We took the 8 am shuttle after spending a day in Stehekin, which was unplanned but very much appreciated. Most of it was spent trying to figure things out for afterwards, which is frustrating when all you've got is a satellite wifi connection through your phone and a very finicky sat phone to deal with. But at least we had something!
Stehekin is really cool. I'd like to visit when it's not raining. Buy we spent most of our time in the community room of the Landing, watching the clouds roll in over the lake and the cliffs across the bay. Then we ate a delicious dinner at the restaurant, which gave us portions even thru hikers had to work to finish.
Anyway, then out and into the rain today. The sun came out a few times today but never to stay. Somehow, I stayed dry. I think it's partly because I decided to manage the water a lot better. There are a lot of places in hiking where you can cut corners, but backpacking in the rain takes a little bit of responsibility. You have to know when to take off or put on your rain layers so you don't either get wet from rain or sweat yourself wet. And then you have to actually do it.
Anyway, on to the parts of today that made it an interesting day. First, we saw a moose!!! I've never seen one, even in a zoo, at least not that I remember. It was traveling south on the PCT and got within about 100 feet o us before turning to run up the hill. It was a large bull. So cool!
The weirdest thing was this, and I will try to describe him as best I can because I really don't know what to make of him. In the middle of the afternoon, a man came walking down the trail, with a Jansport school backpack and a black wool town coat and I think pants of the same material. He looked like he had just eaten something that turned his lips blue, was wearing dark blues brothers-type sunglasses (in the rain under trees on a cloudy day), leather hiking boots, and his hair was dark and short and parted on the side like in old movies. He had somewhere between a pencil thin and a Hitler/Charlie Chaplain mustache, which grew in a line barely above his lip. And he had fake ears. Yup. He didn't say anything but hi, and when he got out of our way he put his leg up in a Captain Morgan stance and made a point to face away from us.
Afterwards, talking to Marmot and Roo about it at the Rainy Pass trailhead (which had really nice pit toilets with trash cans - you could have slept in there) Marmot seemed so relieved. She said she had been worried about us after they passed that guy. Roo asked if she thought he would eat us and she nodded seriously and emphatically. We still haven't seen Mowgli and Shaker, but I'm sure they're okay. But he definitely gave us all the creeps.
Anyway, then we hiked up a hill to notice more and more fresh snow on the ground. Then the rain turned to snow and finally we found one of the only not snow-covered campsites just before Cutthroat Pass.
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