August 17:Mt. Adams

We were told that the ride was leaving for the trail around 7:30am. Half the group got up early to head down to the cafe in town for breakfast. We were up and ready to go when they returned, but somehow we got stuck in the second group to be taken back up and ended up about an hour behind them.

The day began with a 2000 ft climb up the shoulder of Mt. Adams. It was fun to be back there since we had climbed on Adams twice, summiting once.

We spent the day navigating around Adams, and we had some incredible views! Regardless of the clouds, it wasn't fogged in, and we got some up-close views of the glaciers tumbling down the north face of the mountain as we crossed glacial creeks. The creeks were so silty, they were impossible to see through. I even had to ford my first creek since the Sierras (I think). Mark found a rock to hop across, but I wasn't confident and couldn't find a different way across, so JZ and I walked through it, which was a little disconcerting since the water was opaque, not clear (you can't see how deep it is or where the rocks are). Luckily JZ went first and the creek wasn't very wide so it all went well.

The forecast for the next 5 days or so was "chance of scattered thunderstorms," but it held out all day until 5 minutes after we set up our tarp for the evening.

It was another mosquito-filled day, and we actually set up the bugnet and squeezed four of us underneath it for our first break. It was awesome! I love that thing everytime we use it.

Most of our crew had planned to camp 20 miles in at Lava Spring, but we didn't want to stop that early, so we (and JZ) hiked on another 4 miles or so to a campsite near Midway Creek. We set up our tents and had them up not more than 5 minutes when the first rain drops started to fall. Then the thunder and lightning started, and we just prayed that it wouldn't be a repeat of the last storm we were in around Mt. Jefferson. Luckily it never really downpoured on us, and the ground was more absorbant, and we stayed dry as can be all night long.

Total Miles:2262.4
Miles Today:24.5
Camp 112:Double Thunder(storm)