Rain...

As I lay on the forest floor, the tangled web of primeval looking roots and branches, moss-covered and ladened with the days rain, dripped periodically onto my forehead.  

Everything was wet here.  Wet shoes, wet socks, wet backpacks, wet food bags...it all got wet eventually.  Every night we set up a wet tent and covered it with a sodden rain fly. 

At the moment though, I was in heaven...blissful even.   Shiny and I were soaking in a hot spring.  The forest around us was almost Jurassic, mossy, larger than life, enveloped in a cloud.  A river rushed passed our steaming pool, and cascaded down a steep, stoney cleft in the mountain side.   Everything around us was dripping and glistening.

This was Goldmeyer Hot springs.  An alternat route out of Snoqualmie Pass, this little detour afforded us this wonderful opportunity and cut off eleven miles of the PCT.  It was a warm beginning to a cold wet four days of hiking.

Somehow we managed to keep the inside floor of the tent, the sleeping bag and a few precious clothes dry enough to sleep in.  Even the rain fly, as soaked as it was, managed to keep the incessantly falling rain off of us as we slept.

All this stuff is dry now.  We have been in a motel room in Skykomish since last night​.  Tomorrow morning we will eat a hardy breakfast, I'll buy my customary beginning-of-trail-cappuccino and we will be off for another 5 days.

My next blog entry will be from Stehekin, WA.  We will be picking up our last resupply preparing for  our last 4 days of hiking to the border of Canada.  It's so close I can almost see the maple leaves!