May 14

Beach day

We reluctantly left the safety of the shelter, and headed out into the morning rain.  Everything was soaked.  Tinkerbell and I were in pretty good spirits in spite of the weather.  Today was beach day.  We hiked all day rockin' our shades.  We had our full rain gear on, but underneath, I was just wearing my synthetic undies, and Tink was sportin' her bikini.  I didn't want to hike in wet shorts again, and they ended up drying pretty well in my pack throughout the course of the day.  Hiking in rainpants was hot and sweaty, but at least my shorts would be dry for tomorrow.  Although the material of the shorts is 'quick dry' the waistband never seems to dry out.  From the weight I've lost, my pack hip belt, and my shorts, don't fit very well, and in the constant days of rain and sweat I've been getting some nasty chaffing around my waist from everything rubbing against my skin all day long.  Even though the weather was nasty, it wouldn't phase us.  This is our beach day, haha!  I didn't take many pictures, and we didn't take many breaks due to the weather.  Around lunchtime the rain finally stopped.  We thought about stopping at Jenkins shelter for an short day to dry out, but we heard there was a problem bear there, so we pushed on.  At mile 580 we crossed an nice footbridge over Laurel Creek.  My shoes were still soaked, so I walked right out into the creek with them on to wash off all the mud.  Everyone else did the same.  Bandana baths.  My Dr Bronners soap did an okay job washing the funk out of my socks.  They still stink, but have a slight peppermint odor.  Haha.  We set up our tents at a really nice site, just a few hundred feet north on the trail.  The rain started back up again.  Sigh.  We still managed to get a roaring fire going despite the rain and wet wood.  That's 'cuz we're awesome!

Laurel Creek.