Through the rain and muck

7/27/2014 After crossing the Sandy river, with its thigh-high white water, we were a bit shell-shocked, a bit cold and a bit lost. We had to both pull out our gps (iphone Half Mile and Guthook apps) to try to find the trail in the pouring rain and mist. no luck. Then we happened upon some little stone cairns that other hikers had built, to show the way. These are little stacked stone towers that people use to mark the trail occasionally. and in this case, they led us right to the trail.

But by this time, Our phones were soaked, as much as we tried to keep them out of the rain. We both put them in our bra's, our only dry part of our bodies, and hoped that they would dry out. We continued and took the Ramona Falls Alternate, which boosted our spirits. It was one of the most beautiful sections of the entire trail, gorgeous, lush and the falls were lovely. Of course our phone cameras were both completely fogged, but we took misty pics anyway.

then, the Muddy River Crossing…. 2 logs stacked on top of each other, with a rope to help shuffle sideways across. Such a funny river crossing, we couldn't help but to laugh. ….and also to comment….. here there is the Sandy River, absolutely dangerous, and with no aid whatsoever (except for submerged logs, which might help in august), and at the Ramona Falls creek, which is like crossing a large mud puddle, there is a beautiful lacquered bridge! And at the Muddy River, which could be rock-hopped across, there is a rope and Logs! Makes no sense. There should be ropes at the Sandy, at least!!! anyway, something to ponder. separates the mountain women from the girls, thats for sure!

After these 3 water features :), it was smooth sailing. this section, although still with its occasional 1000 ft inclines, is the flattest of the entire trail. We enjoyed just hiking along, and swashbuckling through the berry bushes and overgrown trail. The weather was still pretty bad, and soon we came upon 4 men and their scout troop of 16 and 17 year olds. They were freezing cold and were using their Delorme device to call in for an emergency pickup of the boys, who were huddled in their emergency blankets and tents, shivering. My guess is that the boys had not anticipated being cold and hadn't packed the right gear.

The men were quite impressed with us, which made us feel really good, but we felt obligated to admit our misuse of "PCT rule #2, which is, "if you send something home, you will need it". We explained how we sent our warmth layers home, and then needed to purchase $200 of vests and rain gear at the Timberline store….. and we sheepishly admitted that we had sent our fuel in the box that Dianne took with her-yikes! (earlier on the trail, I had asked connor, "did you keep a fuel?" she said, "no, did you?" arrrghhhhh, another bar lowered below Cheryl Strayed and her book "Wild"! Sending home fuel. absolutely our worst maneuver yet.

But, as trail magic would have it, one of the men gave us his jet boil fuel---since they were being rescued, they would no longer need it. We were saved from a cold dinner of power bars. (lest you think we would have starved, we wouldn't have. throughout the trip we have had way more power bars than we could EVER eat!) So, wet and cold, we set up camp early, cooked in our tent (verrrry carefully), hung our clothes (why? good question. even in our tent, they seemed wetter in the morning), stripped down, put on our only dry clothes, and snuggled in our sleeping bags. We got an idea from the shivering scout troop and cut up our emergency blanket and stuffed it into our sleeping bags---immediate warmth!!!! whoo hoooo!!!!

and went to sleep at 8. and woke up at 8. and put on our wet clothes and hiked another day in the rain and went down the incredibly steep and rocky Indian Creek Trail Alternate to tunnel falls and saw the beautiful tunnel falls---very very very cool! and couldn't take pictures since our phone cameras were still water-logged and camped by the river, and woke up at 8 and on the trail by 10:15…. (last day and a new late time!!!) Last day, last day last day!!!!!!