White Pass

Wow. It was wet, wet, wet this morning, after 13 hours in my tent. It rained all night, with some thunder and lightening thrown in for good measure. When it started to get light I looked out and saw raindrops all around. Not so much falling from the sky but from the trees. When a big one would go splat on the tent, the spray from the moisture on the inside of the tent would drift down. While the fabric kept the outside rain from coming in, it also gathered condensation from my breath and the wet ground. Let's just say, everything was kinda wet. 

Deciding what to do next was tough. Two flexible people, with a tendency to think positive, have a hard time evaluating risk.
Or wanting to intertain the idea of heading south (to the car) instead of the planned trail north. What cinched it for me was the fact that while my gear was damp, L's was wet. If it continued to rain, which was entirely likely, then she would be doubly wet, with the danger of hypothermia lurking near. Plus, I was mostly dry and warm but my own margin of error was narrowed since my "just in case" gear had been offered to L. So I voted for a return to the car and, as it turned out, it was the right decision. 

So we retraced our steps of the day before. The cool thing is that it all looks different going the other way, plus it was more clear and we could actually see the terrain.  It took a bit longer to hike those ten miles today, probably since it wasn't raining cats and dogs, but we managed to get back to the car near 4pm with a new plan of getting a room at the Inn here and drying out all our stuff. 

We did get lucky and got a room, soon to be strewn with wet gear...

And leisurely beers on the deck. 

Now it's time for sleeping and I've opted for the bottom bunk. What could go wrong?