It rained all the time on the Appalachian Trail when we hiked that back in 2011. So it's just another day on the AT. We ate a little breakfast in our tent and began to pack up. By the time we had got to breaking down the tent we were pretty wet. We were camped halfway up a pass of about 9,000' and still in the trees. Now packed up we started up the remaining miles of the pass. We got above tree line and the winds were 40 mph plus. It was pouring rain and it felt like it was only in the upper 30's for temperature. We were freezing. That's not all. We could only see 15 to 20 feet ahead of us because of the extreme heavy cloud cover. My sun hat which this morning I used as a rain hat kept whipping into my face because of the hurricane like winds. That made it very annoying and frustrating but it did keep some of the rain off my face. To top this off we are only carrying light weight rain jackets because 'it never rains out here in California'. Now we know how wrong we were. We reached the summit of this open pass soaked to the bone and freezing cold. I found a boulder where I hid from the rain until Balance arrived. Just then another hiker whom we hadn't met yet came hiking up and looked to be in as bad of shape as I was. Balance then arrived and the three of us just stood behind this one huge rock taking refuge from the elements. We were all to cold and wet to stay long so we made a break for it down the pass in hope of some trees for shelter. Just as we moved from the boulder the winds were still there, stronger than ever. I was now shaking uncontrollably. I felt as though I was in trouble. I have never felt this before but I knew I was in trouble. I caught up with Balance and found her in the same shape I was. We needed help. This is the early stages of nemoania. Both of our hands were numb. I couldn't move my fingers in which I wanted. Believe me I tried. They just would not cooperate. Not good, not good at all. I started making weird shivering noises tromping down the pass just praying there was an answer to this and quick. At this point the other hiker has moved ahead as he tried the running method to warm up and he was gone. He had a very small ultralight pack and was able to produce something of a jog. Our packs are larger and it wouldn't work for us. Neither of us were in any shape to begin jogging down a very steep, rocky pass when we could see but a few feet in front of us. We did move fast, as fast as we could given the situation.
We made it down to tree line but in bad shape. Just then I noticed a tent and went over to it. It was "Safety Hat" a hiker we met yesterday. I told him are situation and told him to stay put and that we were not well. He told me that there is still one more exposed pass to hike coming up. Not the news I wanted to hear. I told the shivering Balance the bad news and we just looked at each other. We have to keep moving we said to each other. We're freezing cold and wet head to toe. We started up the trail and I could see the opening through the trees to the next pass. I said to Balance, "we can't go, it's not safe". "We are both in danger here and this is serious." I am nervous for our well being and safety here. Lets set up our tent here in the trees and take shelter. We talked about it from a minute as neither one of us wanted to do that, but we had to.
We found a flat ground and began setting up the tent. The problem was we couldn't use our hands. They just wouldn't work. It felt like I had lobster claws for hands. I was all thumbs. Our fingers just wouldn't work. Now what?
Piece by piece, one by one both Balance and I worked as a team to erect our tent. A usual one man 2 minute job took us a painful and very wet 10 minutes to do. It was painful to do and even more painful to see just how bad of shape we were both in. Now everything is soaked, well not everything. We are lucky and smart enough to have our essentials in a dry bag. Our sleeping bag and our spare clothes. We hop into the wet tent. Yes even the inside of the tent is wet because in took us so long to put the fly on. But it's shelter. Shelter is the first step to our safety and now we have it. Still the both of us just can not get warm. We start taking off our wet hiking clothes and put on our only dry layers. Long johns both tops and bottoms, sleeping socks and our wool hats. Balance pulls out her sleeping bag and we both get in it. Body heat will help we figure but its just to tight for 2 people in a single sleeping bag. I then pull out my sleeping bag and we slowly begin to warm. It is just so raw and cold and windy outside that even in our dry sleeping bags with dry clothes we don't warm that much.
The shivering begins to fade and we are at peace with our decision to seek shelter. I would hate to think what would have happen had we pushed on. We only made it 3 miles today but it was the scariest day of my life, at least my hiking life. What happens if one of our bodies shut down and couldn't operate anymore. There is no help here. I don't even have cell service here. Things could have been worse and I'm so happy we made the right decision to stop and make shelter. It just may have saved two hiker lives.
About 2 hours after being set up in our tent. We hear outside our tent "Hey Y-Knot, Hey Balance." It's our hiiking friend Sizzler. We thought he was ahead of us. But instead he had gone into the small village of Kennedy Meadows North to get more food and we did not. We couldn't believe it. He just came over that same pass as we did but was in better shape then us. He said the wind gusts were 40 mph and was also very wet. We were so happy to see him but he was pushing on 6 more miles to a road crossing where his wife and kids were meeting him. He asked if we wanted to go with him and they would give us a ride to town. It sounded awesome but we couldn't. For one, we were far from ready to hike and for two, its his family that he hasn't seen in 2 months. We didn't want to crash that party. We are now safe, dry, and fairly warm.
The biggest problem now is that between us, we have only a cup of water. So if we are held up here over night, we would go thristy quick. I want to make hot tea but am afraid of using the rest of our water. I came up with an idea that if I put my water scoop bottle under the tent fly, we could catch the rain water off our tent fly. So far after 3 hours holed up we have caught only an ounce of water. Better than nothing. This has not been our best day but I do hope it's our worst.
Balance desperately trying to get warm by burying herself in the sleeping bag. To be fair, I did the same thing. This photo was taken 3 hours after coming off the pass this morning. We are still currently holed up here as the rain and wind haven't passed. We are hoping the sun comes out and we can put on our wet clothes and hike more today. Time will tell if it safe to do so.
After 6 hours taking shelter it cleared enough for us to make an attempt of hiking more. It was a hard decision but we don't have water and our food bag is very low. We needed to make miles. The winds were still high but we were getting off and on sun which was a lot better than the freezing rain earlier. We also warmed up as we climbed the second pass of the day. We met many other hikers also holed up in their tents or packing up. They had the same idea as us. We ended up doing 15 miles which was really good despite the weather. Just 10 miles to Highway 50 where we will hitch into South Lake Tahoe. Resupply and rest is in order. What a day out on the PCT.
En route to our second pass of the day after the storm.
The sky is still threatening a storm.
Balance at the top of our second pass which is called Carson Pass.
So happy to see some blue in the sky.
Back in the valley and looking for a campsite. The late afternoon cleared up nicely.
