Category: CDT MT Section 7

I woke up at 6 and immediately ate breakfast. Then, I dozed off from 6:30 to 7, and woke again to do some more stitching on the Frankengloves. I suited up, packed up, and was on the road by 8:20.

As per usual, I woke at 6, went back to sleep until 7 because it was too cold. But I didn’t do any repair work first thing because instead I was researching whether I would take the official CDT route through the Haggin WMA, which I had no map for, or follow the pre-2015 roadwalk route. I had pretty well decided to go with the roadwalk just because the official route sounded slower and more difficult and the roadwalk was 7 miles shorter. But I did give myself some room to be convinced otherwise, since I didn’t really like the idea of walking down the side of the highway.

Anyway, that diaper rash feeling didn’t really clear up over night, and I was feeling a little bit sore down there even as I woke up. I started walking a little before 8:30, and felt great going up to the ridge where the long descent started, but just a few switchbacks down, I could already tell it was going to be a problem.

I think I’m developing a bit of a morning routine. I woke up around six and heard the sounds of packing, but managed to doze until 7. Then right away, I set to repairs. A better patch job on my pump sack and another emergency glove repair from where I had ripped a finger open getting a loose seam caught in my tent zipper the night before.

I heard some packing from my neighbor as I was packing the inside of my tent. When I came out at 8, I saw he was the only one of the many people who had camped there who was left. And he was nearly packed. And so was I. In fact, I kept packing while we chatted and we left at nearly the same time.

It was a bit of a strain chatting because his English was very limited. I eventually got across the idea I wanted to know the water situation to the north, which confused him until he figured out I’m nobo. Eventually, I just asked what his native tongue was. He looked Chinese to me, but he said Japanese.

I woke up at 6, then actually managed to doze off and get that elusive eighth hour of sleep, waking up at 7 to start the day. I noticed a couple of my toe nails needed trimming once I emerged from my sleeping bag and saw my bare feet in the light. I did that, and then went to put on my socks, only to notice they both had small holes at the toe seam–which might just have aligned with those toe nails that had needed trimming. So I took out the thread and darned them right up. Socks are mission critical, and repairs to them never wait, unlike my poor ragged gloves. Of which the right one made a tearing sound as I pulled it on–I’d ripped a stitch, and a whole long repair was going to come unraveled if I didn’t act immediately. So I got the thread back out. Sometimes gloves have emergencies too. By the time I finally got to a point I could leave my tent, my back was sore from sitting up inside it.

Even with all that extra work plus filtering the water I had hung from the tree before I could make breakfast, it’s a wonder I was able to leave camp by a quarter to nine.

I woke up around 6, decided that wasn’t a full night’s sleep, and slept in another hour. Or tried to. The attempt was interrupted by both an early morning shower that was brief but intense (and not at all reflective of the day’s weather) and my 6:30 alarm. And of course the dozing was uneasy with that constant nagging feeling there’s a mosquito inside–there were certainly dozens buzzing around under the rainfly. Around 7, I called it and started packing. I hiked out before 8:30, the sun still having not yet reached my tent right up to the moment I took it down and stowed it–a row of tall shaded the whole area.

I woke up at the 6:30 alarm and decided to start the day with stitching up holes in the Frankengloves. After one repair on each glove, it was already a little after 7, so I decided the other 97 new holes and tears can wait. Buff sun gloves have high initial quality, but succumb to attrition quite rapidly. Soon they will contain more thread from my repairs than in the fabric they are made from.