No tags yet.
I thought I am done with hail storms in Colorado!
Day 105
Date: 14.08.2022
CDT Mile: Mile 2'103.3
Miles hiked: 23.7 miles / 37.9 km
Elevations: 4'744 feet ascent (1'446.9 m Aufstieg) / 3'999 feet descent (Abstieg 1'219.7 m)
Camping at: 7'041 feet / 2'147.50 m
I slept very well last night, once I warmed up. And I do feel much better today. My miserable mood from yesterday is gone. Putting on my moist shirt and wet shorts and get in my soaked shoes isn't even as bad as I thought it would (it's still not fun, don't get me wrong and I would've prefered it was all dry, but it could have been worse). Luckily, it is not super cold this morning and my shirt dries pretty fast on my warm body and under my jumper and jacket. But my rips still hurt quite a bit, however it seems a little less than yesterday. May that's also because I took 3 Ibuprofen this morning for breakfast. The weather cleared up and some rest clouds from yesterday are about to go away. The lake water looks pretty nasty, so we collect water at the next tiny stream in about 1 mile. We had a couple of climbs to master this morning but they were all mostly gentle and much easier than we thought. And they offered some great views, we even could see the sharp peaks from the Tetons from here. After 6 miles we breaked again for second breakfast and also because this is the last water source for 17 miles. Could be there is water in 10 miles, but we are not sure about quality and quantity of this source. While breaking three Southbounder's pass by. They give us a lot of useful information about upcoming towns and we break for quite a while, chatting to them. We hike on, up the second and steepest climb of today, but also that wasn't as bad. As the sun is out and it is hot, we stop to dry out literally all our gear and have an early lunch. Even my foodbag, and every single ziplock bag I packed my food into, is wet. What a yard sale, having all our gear spread out to dry! My tent was soaked!
We hike on in the afternoon and it starts to rain around 3pm. We stop under a tree, but the rain only lasts a couple of minutes. Shortly later however bigger rain drops fall, and we quickly changed into our raingear and within seconds the temperature dropped massively and it started to hail too. Mouse and I found shelter under some trees. The thunder, lightning and hail must have last for more than half an hour. Sitting there on the ground, getting hailed on every now and then, with my sweaty shirt under my rain jacket, I get cold quite fast. Once the storm passed, the trail is muddy and super slippery, like an ice field! But soon later the sun is out again, warming us back up and drying the wet rain gear while hiking. I already forgot how cold I felt just a minute ago. However, about an hour later the second storm rolls in. I still had my rain pants on and found a good tree, I thought. The ground around this tree was dry from the first storm, as the branches are long and low. We can just sit below the lowest branches. But the hail becomes stronger and stronger every second, covering the ground in a white landscape. Also the thunders and lightnings are very loud and very close. I am not scared here, as I sometimes was back in Colorado, we are below trees and not on a ridge line or on top of a mountain. But one big lightening must have been very close, Mouse next to me nearly jumps up! Again the temperature drops immediately and the tree doesn't provide complete shelter. We are being hailed on, it hurts! The tree still provides more shelters than others around us or even being under no trees. But our raingear is soaked within a minute. I am cold and wish the sun back. But the cloud is all dark and grey, as far as I can see. I wonder how long we will be sitting here for and if we will see the sun again today. I am freezing. This storm takes much longer, maybe an hour or more. Once the hailing stops we wait for a couple of more minutes and hope for the rain to stop soon too. But it doesn't. We have to hike on, better in rain than in hail! Both of us not very motivated to leave our tree but we finally make it and it luckily doesn't rain that hard anymore. About half a mile later we run into Cheetah and Captain, still under a tree. They have decided to cook dinner. But I can't stop now. My raingear is soaked, sticking to my skin and I am super cold. I want to hike on to get warm and also hope that the sun is coming back to warm us up. Then I am cooking dinner. Mouse feels the same way and together we hike on. The sun really comes back about 15 minutes later. Crazy how fast the weather changes from one extrem to the other! I warm up again and feel much better immediately. I find some raspberries along the trail and pick the awhile hiking. They taste very yummy. As I feel warm again, and my raingear is nearly dry again too, I am ready for dinner. And when I pass a picknick table I stop for dinner. Mouse and I can cook and eat on a table, sit on the bench, feel warm and dry. Much better than when it is hailing under a tree. While eating, Cheetah and Captain pass us. All of us are tired and instead of hiking 2 more miles, as actually planned this morning, we decided to camp at a parkinglot close by, with the luxury of a pit toilet, picnic tables and a bear box. What a day! I hope we are done with storms and rain now for a while! At least the weather forecast looks better for the upcoming days, keep fingers crossed!
Comments