Saturday, September 08, 2018 – 15.70 miles

Nighttime rain. The sunrise filtered through low-hanging clouds.

The only rain during the day was light drizzle, but I regretted missing White Pass and Red Pass and all the other views. I got one glimpse of an impressive glacier, but that’s all.

Everything was wet, especially in the area around Kennedy Creek, where water was flowing down the trail and streams were gushing down the hillside into the creek. One perk of new boots is new Gore-Tex liners inside, and my socks and feet remained dry except for a few damp spots. The bridge over Kennedy Creek was damaged but useable.

A flood in 2003 buried a set of hot springs in this area, and a sign at a trail junction reads ‘Kennedy hot springs. Closed! Area destroyed. Abandoned. Haunted.’ Tempt me, why don’t you.

There were some steep climbs, but I’m getting used to them. The steep and muddy detours around big logs were the problem today, and I fell during one of them and slid on my bottom down to the trail, bloodying my wrist.

Just beyond, I made camp at Fire Creek. The only site not on vegetation was muddy, but it was too late to go elsewhere. A group of three men was not far behind me and I heard them exclaiming at the sketchy log detour.

The sky began clearing around 6:30 PM (TOO LATE). While arranging items in my tent after sunset, I heard a bright, loud ping. I thought it had come from my headlamp, so I took it off to examine it. One of the Rite-Aid batteries had cracked and was leaking. Cruddy thing! Unfortunately I had stopped carrying replacements on this hike due to not predicting my batteries to explode. I still have my phone for light, but having to hold something is a nuisance. I’ll have to try to set up camp before dark in the evenings.