Rain days are a true test of whether the gear you have chosen to bring with you will make your life better or worse. Having to pack up in the rain, it quickly became evident that the day was going to be very wet. I quickly learned that Gortex rain jackets do not stay waterproof forever, but that there can be treated with a waterproofing to reinvigorate their water repelling abilities; that having pegging your tent and having a tarp are keep the water out; and that having dry feet, even if everything else is soaking wet, it worth spending some money on.
When we left camp, we were all in different stages of wetness. Some had had water splash up under their flies, others still had damp boots from the mud the day before, and then others had been out longer preparing breakfast. Either way, it wasn’t long until we were all drenched to the bone.
I didn’t bring rain pants, but had brought an extra set of pants to
prepare for rain. Really I would still stick with my choice, because I find you
get so hot and sweaty in rain pants and certain rain jackets, that you are more
uncomfortable than if you just accepted the rain. I am happy to report that my
boots were one of the few that kept my feet dry the entire trip, even on our
rainy day. I also packed my clothes and sleeping bag in dry bags so that even
if my bag let water in, the key items would be protected. I did not use a bag
cover for the rain, and probably wouldn’t if I did the trip again, because
those that did still had their stuff get very wet. There was a discussion that
the reason people didn’t use dry bags to store their bags contents was because
the weight of the dry bags were too significant for a hiking trip where you are
trying to pack light. However, when making the decision to go ahead with or
without the dry bags, consider how much heavier your items become once they
become saturated with water. When you do the comparison, the choice to carry
the extra grams for the dry bags will pay off in pounds should it rain on your
trip.
The hike on the second day was the hardest - really hard. We had to travel about 13 km over very tricky terrain. For a few hours we were climbing up hills and immediately back down the hills using ropes to help us pass the slippery and steep routes. The addition of extra muddy conditions, water flowing everywhere and the moisture making rocks and tree stumps more slippery, were just added challenges.
When we stopped for lunch, luckily one of our members made a fire to
help us dry off a bit and warm before continuing on our journey. It was neat to
see how our clothes steamed from the heat of the fire evaporating the moisture
in our clothes.
Day two was also a long day. Apparently we are not the only group to have misinterpreted our location on the map for this leg of the hike. The end never seemed to come. Toward the end of the day, once we had left the forested portion of the hike behind, we were convinced that our campsite would be behind the next bend in the seashore for seemingly hours. The campsite never came. Our feet were all throbbing, peoples’ knees and ankles were starting to give out, we could really feel the weight of our packs, and night time was coming. We were also exhausted from the hiking earlier in the day so our movements were slow in order to try and protect our bodies from injury. When we finally did get to our site, we had to cross through the ice-cold waters of a river in order to get to the camping area. Some people said that they wanted to cry in that moment when they had to take their boots off and cross another obstacle before being able to set up camp. Personally, the ice cold water on my throbbing feet was reinvigorating and probably reduced some of the swelling. I was most concerned with falling because of the force of the water into the river and soaking myself and my bag, or at least whatever parts weren’t already wet. Luckily this didn’t happen.
Since we arrived so late at camp (we had hiked for 10 hours that day), it was getting dark by the time we were setting up our tents and eating dinner. Still we had a fire going on the beach to try and dry our clothes as best as possible. Many too had to dry their sleeping bags before being able to go to sleep.
That night too, was the start of a series of bad events for Adam trip – the soles of his boots were coming off from the intensity of the terrain we were covering, when trying to dry out his boots they were left too close to the fire (possibly by me) and the tongue got burned, his sleeping bag had been sopping wet, his air mattress had a slow leak which could not be found so he had to re-inflate it every four hours during the night and his blow up pillow popped.
Lessons learned from day two were that it is important to know you can have fun in all conditions. I think for some, if not all, day two was the most fun and the most memorable because it was truly a challenge both physically and mentally – something we all were looking for in this trip. Also, that the North Coast Trail really is for athletic people. Everyone on our group is young, athletic and capable and it still took us 10 hours to complete the Nahwitti – Shuttleworth portion of the trip (including lunch). Last, invest in waterproof gear because the dryer you are when it is raining and the conditions are difficult, the more easy it will be to deal with the other elements. We were all saying how lucky we were that we were doing the hike in July when it was at least warm and not a shoulder season where we would have been freezing cold as well as wet.
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