We are all set for another hiking adventure in a few weeks. Our flights, hotels, luggage transfer, and even castle tours are all booked. We’ve been trying to get in longer and longer training hikes to condition our bodies and this is where Mother Nature is throwing a wrench in our plans. After a very snowy winter, we are having a terribly wet and cool spring. Hikes at elevation are snowy and short, and we really need to be ramping up the mileage.
Short training hikes on snow are just not going to cut it for what we have planned, so we decided to get some mileage under our belts by doing the North Sourdough Trail. It’s rather boring, and normally not part of our repertoire, but it will give us increased mileage options without the risk of snow.
We parked the car at Camp Dick, and quickly decided that our SPF 50 sun shirts weren’t necessary and long sleeve, insulated Mammut’s were a far better choice. We changed our shirts at the car, put on our back packs, and set off.
The clouds were low and dark grey, and the air was cool and damp. A good day for hiking as long it stayed dry.
Gradually, the dark clouds led to mist, and then to sprinkles, and heavier and heavier rain. We put on our raincoats, gloves for me, and eventually even rain pants.
It was raining quite heavily at noon when we were ready to eat lunch, so we found a tree to sit under and we tried to stay dry.
The temperature had been hovering around 42 degrees, and after we were done with lunch it even dipped to 39 degrees. By this time we were 5 miles in and about 9700 feet in elevation. My hands were freezing, my gloves were wet, and the rain showed no sign of letting up. We were not quite to the halfway point for what we intended to do, so I made the executive decision to turn around and go back the way we came instead of looping back via the Wapiti Loop.
It was about this time, with freezing wet hands, that I decided to put on my thermal hat, and shortly thereafter I also put on my down vest. I was having trouble staying warm and I had a sneaky suspicion that I was wet underneath my rain jacket. I looked at my jacket, and I looked at Nathan’s jacket, and what I saw confirmed my suspicion. The water was beading up on Nathan’s jacket, but not on mine. My down vest and inner layers WERE getting wet.
Thoroughly soaked, we kept hiking the 5 miles back toward the car. The rain gradually let up, and we were able to enjoy ourselves. The return trip did not afford any views of the mountains; there were only grey skies all around.
Back at the car we quickly got out of our wet gear and dried off the dog. The car ride home was uneventful, and now we have another item to add to the to-do list before our trip – Buy a new raincoat.