AAWT Day 3: Stronach to Red Jacket, 72.4km (21.8km today)

The rain battered down all night and the wind roared in the tree tops above. At times trees groaned and croaked rubbing against each other in the winds. The thought of something coming down had to be put aside. Thick drops splattered down onto my tent, with deluges at times as the accumulated rain on leaves above were shaken loose. I was warm but come morning I thought there was not way I would be dry.

I woke to the call of nature finding the tent sides a few inches from my face. At first I couldn’t work out what was going on. Had the ground become so sodden that the stakes had worked loose. It was still raining hard outside but I really needed to go. Knowing I’d be soaked there was nothing for it but to get changed into my day clothes and shell layers in the now coffin confines of the tent. Every bodily movement changing clothes brushed against the sides causing condensation to spatter down and further dampen everything.

On exiting the tent I realised immediately why the tent side walls had collapsed. It wasn’t rain I was hearing, it was snow. Thick slushy snow. It should have been able to pick the sound, distinct from rain but hadn’t. It had accumulated overnight weighting the tent walls down. Great. Nothing like dacks down in the snow to get the day started. Invigorating.

I was cold already and knew it was going to be a miserable first half of the day. In my urgency to reenter tent I tripped on the main guy line, pulling the stake from the ground and bringing the whole tent down. In a panic I grabbed the stake and first large tree branch at hand and pounded that sucker back into the ground as hard as I could. At the same time I also learned that my pitch site is in a wide shallow depression that had been collecting water all night. My tent was basically sitting in a pond.

I threw breakfast down and was very keen to get moving. The pack up just as quick. Everything was wet so it didn’t matter how things went into my pack, apart from my quilt, thermals and puffy jacket. These were my life line and although damp, they were not saturated and carefully placed in a liner bag to be protected from the wet at all costs.

I was on the move in a flash. Hands freezing in the cold air, I grabbed both windbreaker gloves and shell gloves. The slushy stuff kept falling from the sky and I was keen to descend elevation and get out of the snow zone.

From the camp site the track was absolute rubbish. Undefined, overgrown, with lots of fallen timber. I stumbled my way forward for 2km before coming out onto a logging road.

The snow had ceased but the precipitation kept coming. It is times like these I love that I brought my umbrella along for the ride. Many people think it weird hiking with an umbrella but I tell you it has come in so handy on many a journey, whether that be to block the sun on a hot day or take shelter from the rain. The beauty of the brolly is it covers the top of my pack and head area so well that I can have the top of my jacket open for ventilation and don’t have to have the jacket hood pulled over, which can be stifling walking up hills even on a cold rainy day. It also stops water running down between my back and pack.

Most of the morning was on roads and in the rain. The odd spot of sun shone threw but was eventually out done by the cloud and rain. Every time I thought it was clearing, I would strip my shell layers off only to have them back on soon after.

I passed the Easton Reservoir and soon had to cross the Thompson River. The bridge, a fallen log across the river. Hand railing had been constructed on top of the log spanning both sides. But a large branch had recently come down and had mashed up the bridge a bit. Still crossable.

Then it was straight up Easton Track. The sun was out and I was glad as this track was a steep mofo and I’d be sweating rivers climbing it. I was a kilometre in up the hill and stripped to base layers again when before you know it rain started falling again. It didn’t stop from the then for most of the day. Umbrella out again and rain layers on, pounding up this steep hill was horrible. I was bound to be just as saturated inside with sweat as I would from the rain. I couldn’t have that. So it was slow steady work, backing off my pace considerably and taking baby steps.

Finally at the top of Mount Easton it was time for lunch. I was looking for the most sheltered spot I could find, out if the wind at least and possibly the rain when I saw a giant of a messmate with a massive hollow at it base. The perfect spot for one for lunch inside.

The rest if the day was much the same, walking on roads through the rain. Late in the afternoon the skies started to clear and I caught a 10 minute break of sunshine. Just enough to dry my tent and sleeping mat. No sooner had I had gear packed away the rain started again.

The only real thing of significance for the rest of the day was the very, very steep descent down Jasper Creek Track. A knee cruncher if there ever was one. My pace was very slow down the descent ever conscious of protecting my knee. Eventually after about 3km it ended as the AAWT met with the Jorden River and contoured its way to Red Jacket, an old gold town that was eventually abandoned in the 1930’s, after the fires I think.

I had reached camp and the skies had cleared. With enough light left in the day I spread all my gear out in the sun to make sure it would be dry tonight.