Changing plans

2328.3 to 2352.2, 23.9 miles

Packing up a wet camp is the worst thing ever, actually the 2nd worst. Every single item is at least damp and there is no chance of keeping things dry. Packing away a wet tent just about guarantees any surfaces that were dry will no longer be. If there is no sun today to at least dry my tent then that will have to be set up wet tonight and it will be a cold damp night – that is the worst thing ever, sleeping in a damp sleeping bag.

And it looks like this weather is here for a bit. Camped up high on a ridge I had some cell service and was able to look at the forecast. Rain, rain and more rain for the next 10 days.

So walking along in the cold and the wet for a second day, walking the same sections of trail I’ve previously hiked, I was really not enjoying what I was doing and decided I needed a change of plan. I’ve always told myself that I can quit a trip, but I just can’t quit it at the time that I feel like quitting. I make myself sleep on it and if I still feel like quitting then it is the right thing to do. So that’s what I’m doing…sort of.

I’ve decided that walking the same sections of trail is pretty boring, especially in poor conditions. It is amazing the detail that you can recall, like that funny shaped rock that is just over the rise, or that amazing spring just around the corner; but walking the same trail a second time round is just not brining the joy that it did last year, particularly in this sort of weather.

So I’m going to bail on the next sections of the PCT I’ve already walked and going to focus on that last 70 mile section from Rainy Pass to the Border that I haven’t done; and use the extra spare time I will have to just have a bit of a road trip across British Columbia.

The small problem I have is that I’m still in the middle of no where, two days from Snoqualmie Pass. I guess I have to keep on hiking on to get there. In the rain.

Snoqualmie Pass was always going to be a place that I would take a day off. Maybe I’ll take a few off and plan ahead. I need to get to Chelan somehow so that I can access Stehekin from the south using the ferry. That way I can pick up my resupply box I sent there and get going to the border.

I’ll skip the whole section between Snoqualmie Pass and Stehekin. It is beautiful country and I’ve done it before in sunny, albeit smoky, conditions. This long term forecast of rain has a high chance of cloud and no views at all; plus walking in the rains, so it’s an easy decision.

This plan does mean that I’ll have to loose a resupply box I sent ahead to Stevens Pass. I’m hoping to call them and have them empty the contents straight into the hiker box for everyone else to pick through.