PCT day 59 – All by myself
It rained most of the night and when my alarm went of at 5:30am it was still raining. So I turned it off and went back to sleep. I shouted over to Growler to see if she was packing up but she was still in her sleeping bag. We were happy in our warm dry worlds, so we went back to sleep until 9:30am when eventually a call of nature got me out my tent. I was immediately surrounded by mosquitoes again and, having counted 13 bites from yesterday, I was not happy. I packed up my stuff as quickly as I could and stuffed my wet tent fly on the side of my bag. I left Growler to pack up her stuff and guessed she would catch me up.
We knew today was forecast to be terrible weather so we decided that if bad weather came we would put up our tents and seek shelter rather than being cold and wet.
I walked through the morning and past 1000 Island lakes which was beautiful but the storm clouds were starting to build.
I met lots of southbound JMTers who were all very friendly today, I didn't see anyone heading north though.
A couple of hours into the walk it started to drizzle and I debated whether to set up the tent but I decided to put my waterproof on and carry on. It wasn't heavy rain. But it continued to rain for the next couple of hours and when it showed no sign of stopping I set up my tent at 2:30pm in a little wooded area. I was tired of being wet and I was getting really cold, struggling to feel my fingers and feeling a bit ill. I had made it over Island pass ( which didn't really feel like a pass at all) and I was 2 miles and 800ft away from donohue pass but I just couldn't face it.
I crawled in my tent and ate a bit of food then fell asleep for and hour or so. I don't know where Growler is, when I woke up I panicked that she had passed me without me realising. I got out my tent and walked down the trail a bit, I looked for her footprints - I couldn't see them, I made sure my tent was visible from the trail and when I had set up I left my poles right next to the trails I she couldn't miss them. I hope she hasn't passed me. She can't have passed me. Can she?
The weather had brightened up a bit but I didn't want to carry on walking in case it rained again. I was back in my warm dryish world.
I've been peeking out my tent periodically to see if I can see anyone. As of 7:30pm no one had passed - not that I had noticed anyway.
So I was all on my own. It's boring on your own. I counted my bites - I think I have 27 from yesterday and this morning. I also have 4 bites on my bum where I had to go to the toilet in the mosquito infested camp.
Day 59 and it's my first night alone on the trail. Here I am in my tent trying to look happy about it...
I managed 6 miles today, I lost my friend and I got cold and wet. All in all, not the greatest of days!
Here's hoping I don't have my first bear encounter tonight...