[pct-l] Pacific Nth West Rain

[wandering_bob at comcast.net (Bob Bankhead)]

Yeah, yeah. We know - and you hiked those 25 mpd up-hill in constant
wind-blown horizontal rain, bare-ass naked, and living off squirrel meat and
tree bark too. If it hadn't been for the sub-zero wind chill, you would have
succumbed to heat exhaustion enroute.

Us "modern" wimps have gotten too soft. Grandma Gatewood  would be proud of
you.

Regards,

Wandering Bob




----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Bighummel@aol.com>
To: <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Wednesday, August 25, 2004 4:18 PM
Subject: [pct-l] Pacific Nth West Rain


> A couple days of rain make the hardest day ever?  Try 9 days and nights of
> straight constant rain in 1977.  Two groups quit just a few hundred miles
south
> of the border after sitting in their tent for 4 days straight.
>
> My partner and I each had a two man double wall tent so that we could
bring
> all of our gear inside in these situations and it and we still became
> completely soaked through regardless.  The double wall tents handled
condensation in
> this cold rain pretty well and my first edition polarguard bag, though
clammy
> moist still kept me warmer than my partner's wet down bag. We walked from
about
> 50 miles north of Mt. Rainier all of  the way to a day north of Kennedy
Hot
> Springs in the rain, because, well, there wasn't anything else to do;
averaging
> 20 to 25 miles per day.  We took a zero day at Kennedy Hot Springs in the
tool
> shed because it offered the best shelter from the rain that we had found.
We
> hung our tents upside down from the rafters and the sleeping bags over
some
> piles of cut wood in the hopes of drying out but the humidity was 100% (of
> course) and they just dripped the solid water off.  We ran into a couple
that had
> come over from England to hike in the PNW for 7 days in late August.  They
> were walking out as it was their 7th day and it had rained on them the
entire
> time.  They were pretty upset.
>
> On the tenth morning the sun came out and dried our tents and sleeping
bags
> out.  We strung all of our clothes out to dry in the first few hours also.
We
> were camped on one of the high ridges on the north side of Glacier Peak
and
> all of the peaks surrounding us in the panoramic view were all capped in
snow.
>
> Now, THAT was one of the BEST days of the hike!
>
> Best regards,
>
> Strider
>
> P.S. Just remember, the packs were heavier, the snow was deeper, the
deserts
> were hotter, the mosquitos were bigger, the sky was bluer, the passes were
> higher and the rain was heavier in '77! ;-)
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