July 8
"Rain" and "hail" are two more four letter words.
Woke up at my usual 6am, rolled over and the next thing I knew it was 6:30. It was the train whistle that woke me up.
There was some sun and some clouds this morning. The hike was easy as the climbs are more gradual and not as high. Washed my socks at the first stream I came across. Turns out that was a mistake.
As it neared noon the sky completely clouded over. Even a few claps of thunder.
At noon I stopped at a spring to eat lunch and have a cup of coffee. As soon as I took my pack off I felt a few drops of rain. They didn't last and so I ate. As I started to drink my coffee it started raining. I got my rain jacket and pack cover on. Wasn't going to throw out my coffe so I drank it as I walked. It soon was hailing.
The hail only lasted 10 to 15 minutes, but the thunder was continuous. When it started to rain again I decided to try on my Tyvec skirt (I was too cheap to buy rain pants so I made a skirt out of Tyvec pants). As I was leaning on a tree and trying to get one leg into my skirt I saw a flash of lightning that was followed immediately with thunder. Scared the you know what out if me!
I just kept walking quickly. Mainly to keep warm. After awhile I caught up with Pink Lady whom I had been leap frogging all day. We were both cold, wet and in search of a campsite. Finally found one next to Mule Ear Creek. The sun even came out while we set up our tents. Foster and Morher joined our camp. It was nice not to camp alone.
Oh, the Tyvec skirt worked. My shorts stayed dry and my upper legs warm. Also, the mistake in washing my socks earlier is that I now had two pair of wet socks and two pair of wet liners.
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