Day 3
The rain quits, and we pack our soggy gear, and take a last look around at Thunder Basin, filling our memory banks with the sights, sounds, and smells that make up this corner of the North Cascades…Even though the rain had quit, we could still feel the effects, as all that brush that we had slogged through, was now soaked!
I only had one change of dry clothes, and no rain pants, so, I put on my wet clothes, and endured the soggy brush, and gauntlet of stinging nettles once again…
Fairly uneventful, until Dave passes a yellow jacket nest along the trail…Guess they didn’t care for me stomping down the path…Anyway, about the time I looked down, and saw them, it was too late…A step later, and they were on my legs down around my ankle, and I could feel them stinging me!
Once down the trail, and safely away from the local terrorists, I was able to count the damage…
I took off running, trying desperately to get away, and swat at my attackers at the same time, but here I’ll add a note of caution to those similarly inclined…It doesn’t seem to work too well, trying to swat pests at your ankles, with a 50lb pack on your back, and run at the same time…I only managed about 3 or 4 steps, before I crashed and burned on the trail, collapsing in a heap…In frustration and despair, I hollered at Greg, “Get em’ off of me!” He was there in a flash, and the two of us swatted at the blamed things, until I could get back on my feet and run…
Once down the trail, and safely away from the local terrorists, I was able to count the damage…A few new souvenirs to add to the tally…I managed to scrape up my other knee now, and sport two new holes, courtesy of the yellow and black bandits…I suppose I should feel lucky that’s all I received, but my mind at the time was only filled with vengeance.
However, given my current track record on this trip, I decided instead to head for camp, lumpy and bloodied again…
We arrived at Junction Camp again, around 2:30, to bright rays of sun, a welcome sight! It gave us a chance to dry our wet gear out, and we took the opportunity to wash in nearby Fisher Creek, boy, did it feel good to get some of the grime from the trail washed off!
By evening, it was cooling down, so we foraged for firewood so that we could have a nice fire, to beat back the chill and the dark of night…This site had a fire ring, so it was a rare chance to enjoy the company of a campfire…
Hello, Rufus, thanks for letting me know. I am sorry for that, but for some reason, all of the comments that I’m now getting are from borvestinkral.com, so I feel bad about that. I will ask my web developer what I can do about that for you, and again, I am very sorry. If I can get this fixed for you, I will send you a reply to your gmail acct. Again, I apologize for this.