"The Way West"...Day 21...Tuesday, July 3, 2012

When I wake up, the sound of the rain on my tent is not a "plopping" one, but more like a roar. This tells me that this day will not be a good day.
I lay in my tent, snuggled in the sleeping bag (because it's cold...really cold)...forty-five minutes later, there's a "lull" in the rain. Outside, it's freezing while I get water, boil it and use Starbucks "Via" to make a mug of hot coffee. When I was getting out of my vehicle at the docks yesterday morning, I grabbed a sweatshirt...just in case. This has now proven to be a wise...even critical...decision.
Before I can boil water to "reconstitute" my Scrambled Eggs with Ham and Peppers for breakfast, the rain starts again. So, I don my rain jacket over my sweatshirt and sprint the mile back to the Stehekin Inn. Inside the restaurant, I nurse several cups of coffee over the next three hours waiting for the rain to stop...but nit does not stop. The wind, however, picks up considerably.
And so...it's a day that ebbs and flows...rain and sun...wind and calm...cold and cool (never warm).
I spend four hours at the Visitor's Center in front of the fireplace reading books about the birds of Washington State. Ah...those pesky dive-bombers at my campsite...they're "Stellar's Jays"...big birds with dark blue bodies and black heads...very aggressive these Jays.
I head back to the Inn for lunch...grilled cheese sandwich, a cup of soup and a glass of milk...$14.00...it's not cheap here in the wild.
Late in the afternoon, the rain finally let's up...but it's still cold (low 50's) and very windy. An unpleasant few hours back at camp. I'm half way through White's "The Making of the President 1960"...interesting reading on a nasty evening. I'm not feeling like making dinner...so it's a package of cheese and peanut butter crackers, a Cliff bar and several mugs of hot tea as my evening meal.
Around 6:00PM, it starts to rain again. So...I get into my tiny little tent and read by lantern light until 9:30PM. Then...sleep...and the end to a most unpleasant day.
That's the big "downside" to tent camping. As long as the weather is good, everything is fine. But...if it's raining, there's really no place good to go. At least with "regular" camping, you can climb in the Explorer or the camper and bundle up.