September 16th, 2018
Our campsite last night was amazing. It was so sheltered from the rain that we couldn’t even tell if it was raining or not. Needless to say, we stayed very dry last night. It’s too bad we can’t say the same thing about our hike today–it was our hardest day yet. As soon as we left camp we started a big climb and it started raining. Towards the top of the climb the rain switched to snow, and it was cold enough for the snow to accumulate on the ground. When we thought we were at the top, we had to switch trails because 20 miles of the PCT are closed due to a fire. It turned out that the first couple of miles of the detour took us even higher, and the snow got harder. As we descended, it turned back to rain, but we were so cold at that point that the dryer snow may have been better. We tried our hardest to focus on making it to the village of Holden tonight where we would be able to take hot showers and do laundry. Even though Holden was just a few miles away, we considered setting up the tent and crawling in for protection from the weather. But, eventually we dropped low enough that the temperature rose, the sun came out, and the last 4ish miles of the hike weren’t too bad. When we got to Holden, we immediately put our clothes in the wash, our sleeping bags in the dryer, and took hot showers. We had dinner in Holden before we headed back out onto the trail and found a spot to camp. Ultimately, it ended up being another good day on the trail.
