Needle Falls Hike Day 2

        When we woke up today, we weren't quite as lucky as yesterday. It was very cloudy, and pretty chilly. It had rained a little the night before, and was threatening rain before we started our hike, so we figured we had better pack everything up and wrap it all up just incase we did get hit with some rain. Which, was a very good thing that we did because it rained on us. All. Day. Long... It was just a light drizzle for most of it, but a light drizzle all day means wet people. Not to mention the trail is frequently used by horse pack groups, so it was very boggy and very muddy. In the beginning of the day we all tried pretty hard to avoid the mud and keep our boots dry. By mid day it didn't matter. They were all soaked, and muddy, so we took the path of the least resistance, even if it meant stepping in 2 inch deep mud puddles.

         We kept our spirits up by making up verses to the song if your happy and you know it, only it was more about hiking in the rain and being wet. For example, "If your feet are feeling soggy clap your poles, (our trekking poles). And so on. It was silly, but it really kept us entertained for a good hour or so in the rain. We didn't take a whole lot of pictures because no one wanted to risk getting their cameras wet. The biggest thing I remember about day 2 was the rain. Lots and lots of rain. And just being wet and cold. I think there were a few patches of no rain, but there wasn't any sun. It was lots and lots of thick clouds. So it seemed really dark outside all day. I do remember what we had for dinner though, Mountain House beef stew. And boy was it delicious. Warmed be up, (mostly), from head to toe. Oh, and we didn't really have a phenomenal source of water at this camp site. It was a tiny little brook that was under ground most way, and only had a few small places to pump from. The water was really hard on our pumps and clogged them up pretty good, (not that the water was dirty, to look at, it just had lots of stuff in it (hard to see stuff) that made it hard for us to pump). It actually clogged up our filter for the rest of the hike. We could pump water it was just a lot of patience and arm strength.

Here we are at the start of day two. Still dry, still kind of happy. And completely unaware that we will be hiking through rain and mud. But hey, we had fun.. for the most part. 

This hike was Brytt's first backpacking experience. He didn't have a pack cover for his back pack, so he ingeniously used his rain poncho as a cover. He looked like a camel all day, but his pack stayed pretty dang dry. 

This is basically at the start of the hike. Some of us are a little wet already. The picture isn't super clear because of the water and moisture in the air. All the smart people are wearing jackets. Then there is me, who hates hiking in long sleeves. I get too hot. So I had just my shirt. Levi didn't hike with a jacket on either. I would rather be wet from the rain, that hot and sweaty wet. 

This is us at the end of the day. If you look closely, most every one has mud splashed all up the legs of their pants. I had it really bad on my legs, and almost to my butt. It was so bad that the first thing that I really did after Paul and I got the tent set up and our stuff out of the rain, was to wash my pants. They look pretty decently clean here. This was after I washed my pants, and after we all had had dinner. We are just chilling by the fire trying to get our hands and toes warm, and the rest of us dried off. The only place we could find to have dinner away from our camp and out of the rain was down in a little dried up creek bed. It was maybe not the smartest idea since there were lots of roots all over the place that could catch fire, but we were smart about it, and triple checked to make sure that the fire was out and no smoldering would be happening. This fire is near our campsite so we didn't eat our food here, (to keep us safe from the bears). And, since we didn't have a hatchet or anything to break the wood, we just pushed the tree logs into the fire slowly as the ends burned off. 

This is Tallus, my youngest brother, scaling a tree to fix our bear bag predicament. He thought he was so bad bum because he was in a tree, that he insisted my mom snap a picture of it.