[pct-l] Pacific Nth West Rain

[Bighummel at aol.com (Bighummel@aol.com)]

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! ;-)