Date: 2007-08-30
From: Chairback gap Lean-to

To: Carl Newhall Lean-to
Miles today: 9.9
Weather: light rain

We both had a great night¢s sleep. No mice or squirrels, no moisture condensing inside the tent, no noisy neighbors, just a great night¢s sleep. Good thing too! We had a tough day ahead of us. Not long after leaving camp we had a really steep descent down Chairback Mountain. It sure was a good thing we were doing it in dry weather¢¦I can¢t imagine trying to navigate some of that terrain in the rain. We had another river ford today¢¦no problem this time. Stacy¢s shoes are just about dry now. We met a lot of hikers at that river crossing. Turns out there is a parking area not far from there. We met a bunch of folks in the area for a family reunion and they were out for a day hike up to Gulf Hagas. We also met a group of college kids from Colby College. They were out for an orientation outing for incoming freshmen. When they got to the river a bunch of them just waded right across with their hiking boots on. Stacy and I both commented that they would probably regret that later. Stacy and I had a nice long break there at the river then packed up and started hiking on. We still had about 5 12 miles to go. Well, we hadn¢t been on the trail for half an hour when the skies darkened and the winds picked up a little. Stacy asked if we should put our pack covers on and I said, ¢no¢¦these storms usually start slowly with a light sprinkle leading the way¢¦we¢ll have time to put them on before the big stuff comes.¢ About 5 minutes later we started hearing thunder off in the distance and the winds started to whip pretty violently. I said, on second thought maybe we should put our pack covers on. We no more than had the covers in place when the bottom fell out. Fortunately it was still pretty warm so we didn¢t have to layer up with our rain suits or other clothes¢¦we just hiked in the rain in our hiking clothes. It rained as heavy as any rain I had seen during my 6 months on the trail, but the thing that scared me was the lightning. I tried not to let Stacy see how concerned I was, but I was praying as I was hiking. It was definitely the worst lightning storm I had gotten caught in during my entire trip. I knew a couple of things were in our favor. One is that we were only at about 700 feet in elevation when the storm hit and we had 2,500 and 3,000 foot mountains around us. Another was that the storm was moving very fast and I was pretty sure the lightning would move on through pretty quickly. Fortunately it did and we were just left with rain¢¦which I¢ll take all day long if it means avoiding the lightning. Pretty soon we caught up with the kids from Colby College and Stacy and I both couldn¢t help but remembering those kids that waded across the river with their boots on. I guess they knew what they were doing after all, because we all had soaking wet boots now. I also couldn¢t help but remember that Stacy¢s boots had finally gotten almost completely dry after having slipped in the water during a river ford a couple of days before. Not so now! When we finally got to the shelter we had planned to stay in, it was full. So¢¦we set up our tent during a lull in the rain. We also had time to cook supper before the rain started up again. But¢¦once it started again, it rained pretty much the entire night. Our tent didn¢t fare too well in such a moisture-rich environment. It was almost as though it was raining inside our tent, especially when someone accidentally bumped a tent wall. However, in retrospect, it wasn¢t really all that bad. Our sleeping bags and clothes didn¢t really get wet, so the tent did a decent job under the circumstances. Still¢¦if I were tent shopping for a hike on the AT I¢d probably get something a little heavier and more water resistant. Cheers¢¦357 Magnum