CDT - Day 133 - Floating Sleeping Pad
When I was planning this hike, I watched a lot of videos and read countless books and blogs. I was expecting to encounter some truly awful weather and conditions, but up until now, none of that had really materialized.
Last night, I woke up to the sound of thunder in the distance, and I could tell the storm was getting closer. Whenever I see a flash of lightning, I like to count the seconds until the thunder to estimate the distance. Within about 20 minutes, the storm was directly above our campsite, and it was intense. Probably one of the craziest storms I've ever experienced. The thunder was deafening, and the lightning was bright enough to temporarily blind me inside my tent.
Eventually, the rain slowed down and I drifted back to sleep.
I probably should have stayed awake.
Around 5:00 a.m., I woke up and immediately knew something was wrong. I could hear water sloshing around, and when I looked beside me, I noticed my stuff was floating.
I grabbed my headlamp and quickly realized my tent had taken on a LOT of water. Looking outside, I discovered that my entire tent was sitting in about four inches of water. My campsite had literally turned into a small lake, and the water had breached the bathtub floor.
Then I noticed my shoes floating away.
Thankfully, my sleeping pad was also floating, which somehow kept me dry. The edges of my quilt had gotten slightly wet, so I tucked myself in, lay as still as possible, and just laughed. There was absolutely nothing I could do until daylight.
As soon as it was light enough to see, we started packing while trying to keep everything as dry as possible. Greg rescued my floating shoes and handed them to me so I wouldn't have to walk barefoot through my new private lake. Thankfully, most of my clothes and gear stayed dry. I keep most of my stuff in Dyneema bags, and apparently they make excellent flotation devices.
We skipped coffee and breakfast and hit the trail as quickly as possible to warm up. Naturally, the day immediately started with a 1,000-foot climb to Goat Flat, followed by an easier traverse toward Storm Lake Pass.
And then it started snowing.
It was snowing at Goat Flat, Storm Lake Pass, and Storm Lake. Surprisingly, the snow was actually a welcome change from all the rain we've been dealing with.
From Storm Lake, we took an alternate forest road toward Highway 1. About 10 minutes into the road walk, a couple in a truck stopped to ask if we were okay. We asked if they could give us a ride to the highway.
Instead, they offered to take us all the way to Anaconda.
Once we got into town, I immediately looked up somewhere good to eat and headed straight to Peppermint Paddy's, where we unexpectedly ran into Pudding! The three of us decided to share a room for the night, and it looks like we'll be hiking together again.
Tomorrow, we'll probably hit the trail sometime late in the morning or maybe even the afternoon.
For now, I'm just happy to be somewhere warm and dry where my shoes aren't floating away.