I want to go home. Last night and today absolutely sucked. If you recall, I’d gotten off the trail early last week to avoid some big weekend storms. When I hiked back up to the trail yesterday, I ran into a lot of people who were coming down and had been caught it in. They said it was awful.
There was rain, thunder, lightning, hail, sleet and snow. They were in their tents for 24 hours straight! That sounded horrifying to me. I knew some rain was predicted overnight last night, but it didn’t look too bad. I was wrong.
Storms Hit
It drizzled on and off between midnight and 3 a.m. Phew, I thought. Nothing too bad! But then it poured from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. Despite tying out my tent’s guy lines last night so the rain fly wouldn’t mash against the tent and wet it if it rained, it did anyway. At one point I was bailing water from a large puddle forming outside one vestibule.
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When I was finally able to emerge, everything was soaked and muddy. And it was cold out. (My Nemo pad did work excellently, I must say.) Unfortunately, I had to climb to 11,000 feet (3,352.8 m) today. UGH.
There was water EVERYWHERE on the trail, plus numerous side streams. My feet got soaked immediately. Then there were maybe eight water crossings. Because of all of the rain of late, I had to wade across instead of being able to step on stones. One crossing was up to my mid-thigh.
Trying to Get Downhill
Around 5 p.m. I finally made it to Green River Pass. This meant I was going to start heading downhill. Yay! But I was so beat I only made it a mile or two before pitching my 
tent.
Although the rain was supposed to be gone, I once again used my guy lines and tied out my tent. Good thing. As soon as I got in to wash up, it began to rain. Then STORM.
We had rain, hail, thunder and lightning. I also think that ripped skin on my arm is infected.
I want to get off this stupid trail ASAP. But the next bail-out point is something like 16 miles (25.8 km) ahead. Not sure I can go that far, especially if the trails will still be flooded and muddy. I hate this.
Snowshoe
Today’s Miles: 12.1 (19.5 km)
CDT Miles to Date: 1,388.4 (2,234.4 km)
CDT Miles to Go: 1,711.6 (2,754.6 km)
