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Stormy and cold afternoon
Day 141
Date: 19.09.2022
CDT Mile: Mile 2'926.1
Miles hiked: 24.8 miles / 39.7 km
Elevations: 3'888 feet ascent (1'186 m Aufstieg) / 4'688 feet descent (Abstieg 1'430 m)
Camping at: Reynolds Creek Campsite, Glacier NP, 4'642 feet / 1'415.8 m
It rained a little during the night, but in the morning everything was dry, even the sleepingbag! How wonderful, we do not need to dry out today again. That's good, as today is big mile day again.
We got up around 6.30am and had breakfast together with Baby Grand and Rex at the food prep area of the campsite. Cheetah, Mouse and Captain, who are all staying at the same campsite tonight as we do, headed out on trail already. Having pit toilets at the campsite is a wonderful thing, and I got to enjoy it in the morning😁 We heading out as last party (Baby Grand and Rex headed out about 30 minutes ago). The day started off with climbing Triple Divide Pass, with 7'376 feet / 2'250 m. It is a beautiful gentle climb, but my backpack is still very heavy still and that makes the climb still kinda hard. The sky is cloudy and very grey at some spots, it is very windy, which sucks if climbing and the wind is against you, but we also get to feel the sun sometimes. The heavy windy however made climb much harder than it actually would be. Also today the views from the top of the pass were breathtaking. Glacier NP definitely competes with the Sierra Nevada in Californian, it is absolutely stunning here and I can't keep stopping and enjoy the epic views! It is very windy on the top and we even get to feel some rain drops. Looking at the weather we put on our rain gear, but currently more for warmth and for keeping the wind off rather than the rain. The downhill was gentle and beautiful. Wedheard some animals noises, and think it way coyotes. Rex told us later that day that he had seen a bear (assuming grizzly) in that area too. Also, we have heard the very strange noises of Mouse several times during the last few days.
The trail for the downhill climb was at times very overgrown and all the wet leaves and bushes made my rainpants and my shoes wet again. It drizzled and stopped again all day long. Before lunch we caught up with Baby Grand and Rex and also with Cheetah, Captain and Mouse and run into each other again all afternoon. For lunch we found a beautiful dry spot under a massive tree, which protected us from the rain, which is pouring down the sky now. As we hike out after lunch, the rain stopped. But not much later, we had to stops under a tree to put back on our raingear. All 7 of us are under the same tree, playing the game of putting on and taking off our raingear. But the rain this time is more like a storm. It is super windy too. While the other 5 hiked on, I decided to wait out 5 to 10 minutes and hope the rain stops again. Soccermum thinks this is a great idea too😁 And indeed, the heavy rain stopped shortly later again. However, all bushes and grasses along the trail are soaked and pass that collected water nicely on to us while passing. So we are soon later soaked anyways...
As we pass the Saint Mary Falls, the trail suddendly became very wide and nice, and we figured out there must be a car parking area not far away. We have also seen a handful of day hikers. The car parking is indeed only 1 or 2 miles down the trail. And then the second storm kicked in. Without pre-warning. Heavy rain, thunder, lightening and even a little hail pored down onto us. We just left the forest, and hence have no protections from trees anymore. The trail was a stream, everything fully wet! And cold! But also beautiful, leading along the crystal clear Saint Mary River, with its beautiful river pools and little waterfalls. On a beautiful warm day this would be such a nice trail to hop into one of these amazing looking natural river pools. But today I am only shivering and wet to my bones.
We had to cross a wooden suspension bridge over reynolds river to reach our campsite. The bridge was missing some of the wood steps and was swinging heavily while crossing. I like it😆 Finally arriving at our campsites, which we share again with Cheetah, Captain, Mouse, Baby Grand and Rex, I was very cold and shivering. We were supposed to pitch our tents at the stock rail, but it is flooded. No chance to pitch tents here. Also Channy and Just Mary are here too. Channy had to dig a water ditch, so the tent doesn' get flooded. The assigned campsites are often very poor an very slainted at the National Park. However, we found a suitable spot in the woods and with help of a rake and a shovel we made it campable. I hope that this spot doesn't get flooded tonight, as it is supposed to keep on raining all night. We had dinner at the food prep area all together, and all of our feet and toes are freezing because of our wet socks and shoes. I am so cold! Is this now how it is gonna end? Are all days as of now gonna be that cold and wet till we reach Canada? This was how I ended the PCT. The last two weeks we had rain every day and it got very cold too. I remember I felt miserable several times and looked forward to finish the trail. But then it did stop raining while cooking dinner, finally! All of us went to bed early, also because of the bad weather, it got dark even earlier to normally. Luckily, tomorrow we have a short day, only 15 miles to hike to the next campsite at Many Glacier, and so we can sleep in and hopefully dry out tent and gear (it should stop raining in morning. But I am not sure if we are lucky enough to get sun though). I am having a harder time than normally falling asleep, also because I am so cold and my body just doesn't wanna warm up in this humid and cold weather. I really hope we get lucky and get better weather for the next couple of days.
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