PCT Day 59 – Water Bed! – ZENLIGHTENED VOYAGER

The thunder, lightening and torrential rain kept me awake for most of the night. I felt as though I’d only just dropped off when I was woken by a very strange scraping noise just out side of my tent. My first thought was bear! Then I hear Butterfly’s voice … “Hollywood is afloat” … WTF?!?

I needed to pee pretty badly and started the rather time consuming process of exiting my tent. Things felt oddly fluid beneath me. I peered through the bug netting and my shoes were gone, they had floated away in the river that now ran through my vestibule. My entire tent was completely afloat. My air mat was floating on the lake that had formed beneath me. Thankfully, ZPacks Cuben Fiber bathtub floor performed exactly as promised. I was high but amazingly still dry. The odd scraping noise turned out to be Butterfly digging drainage trenches around my tent with his ice axe!

I was not the only one to wake up in a lake, but not everyone had managed to stay as dry as me. Once again, I was really impressed with the performance of my ZPacks Solplex tent. I retrieved my shoes, scouted the area for a drier pitch and then drank coffee and waited for the water to subside. Thankfully the storm seemed to have abaited for now and we were blessed with clear blue skies and a much needed opportunity to dry things out. I moved to a pitch with a slight slope and better drainage. Although the weather seemed fine, there was more bad stuff on the way. We decided to sit it out and take a trail zero.

Right on cue around noon, the storm clouds gathered again and we all retreated to our tents. I caught up on last night’s missed sleep and napped through the hail and rain. The extra day on trail would leave me precariously low on food. Any further delays and I would be in real danger of running out completely. I figured that sleeping was the best way to conserve energy.

Throughout the day more hikers arrived with horror stories of a freezing night spent at higher elevations and tents collapsing under the weight of snow. We kept a camp fire going throughout the day to warm the exhausted arrivals. At 8 o’clock I went to bed hungry and desperately hoped that the bears weren’t !!

8 thoughts on “PCT Day 59 – Water Bed!”

Catching up on your blog and you have me cheering you on… I’m happy you have gathered with some good people.

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I would like your permission to re-post a journal entry or two on a website I maintain about the PCT . . . http://www.pcttrailsidereader.com. It is a labor of love for me . . . and I have enjoyed your journey and writing thus far. I would give you full credit and refer them to your website in any post.

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zenlightenedvoyager says:

June 24, 2016 at 03:34

Hi Rees. I would be honoured, please feel free to re-post.

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1. Rees Hughes says:
  
  June 25, 2016 at 03:27
  
  I will post an entry on June 30th . . . and perhaps more in the future. Best wishes as you make your way north.
  
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Hail and rain and bears, Oh my. Hang in there. I see nothing but positive outcomes.

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This is a thrilling read! Seriously Lesleywood, hang in there, we’re all cheering you on. The photos are spectacular, by the way. I am traveling vicariously along the PCT, all from the comfort of my Laz-E-Boy chair.

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