Steps in the Right Direction: Fire Creek to James Creek

Today we start in the rain...Well, actually we start with the flood. Kathi and I pack up our tent by first pouring out the water that is in between the ground pad and the bottom of the tent. Kathi and I have breakfast duty this morning. Thankfully Jen just tells us what we need to do. Trying to read the .2 font on the sheet would have not been possible. We make some sort of girts with raisins. I think it was Bob's Red Mill grits. Pretty tastee and smooth. Good camp food.

We roll the wet tent up, strap in on top my backpack and hit the trail. Today we are headed for James Creek camp. 5.5 miles 1503 feet of elevation up and 1686 feet of elevation down. We strike out dressed in our best rain gear.

The hike is filled with numerous log crossings. Some of the crossings were nicer than others. But all were acceptable pathways across the creeks and rivers. The park service, as well as trail crews, have done a good job of trying to maintain a pathway through the ever-changing route due to what the force of water can do. I think we passed over the multiple fingers of the White River 4 or 5 times. The White River runs with a lot of murkiness in it meaning it comes directly from a glacier.

By lunchtime, the morning rains have stopped and we pull out some of our tent pieces to lay over rocks and downed trees to try and dry. We stopped for 45 minutes and were able to achieve a good balance of dryness before packing up and starting again.

After lunch, we begin the hike up to James Creek camp area. This section of the hike is steep. Filled with much huffing and puffing and nothing to look at as any vistas of the surrounding area were filled with fog. In my recollection, just a long walk in the woods.

We arrive at the James Creek group camp area knowing that rain is soon to begin. The group camp looks to be big enough for 3 tents. We have six tents and two kitchen tarps. Using our best tetrus skills we manage to get the situation figured out. Kathi and I are pinned up against a log on one side and the other side has Carrie and Jen's tent both draining into the same one inch of dirt. By the time we finish staking out our tent, it is raining. Kathi, Carrie, and I are using our hiking poles to dig water flow trenches so the runoff will in fact run off. It rains all night and into the morning.

Carrie brought along a "library" of reading resources so we could play a little game of get to know Mount Rainier better. Each person had to read the article and provide a little blurb on the highlights. During this time I was in the tent trying to blow up mattress pads, get out sleeping bags, dry off any possible water that I could by using my quick-dry towel. By this point in our adventure, I should just name my quick dry towel...never dry towel. It just never had an opportunity to dry.

Due to the very tight location of all of the tents, we try to have very little liquid after 5 pm. I have no idea how anyone would be able to get up and out of their tent to go to the bathroom. We were tucked in like sardines. The reading materials on this campsite said the campsite could accommodate 12. We had 10, if we had one more tent, we would not have had room. Due to the downed trees, there was no extra room to try and make additional space to pitch a tent.

Tonight I have the task of putting the food bags up onto the bear pole. It seems like such a simple chore. The bags have a string that you just lift up in the air with the pole and slip over one of the rods on top. But in reality the bags are heavy and while it is raining you are trying to hold this 10-pound bag up 8 feet in the air while trying to fish the loop over the rod. The raindrops keep slamming into your eyes...makes aiming a bit of a challenge. This is a very fun thing to watch someone else do, but not so fun to perform yourself.

The associated privy to this campsite was a long hike away and with the water source even further. I will just say at this point there is just no match for sitting on a privy box perched up on the side of a hillside forest, while it is raining. The box is wet and cold, you are wet and cold and yet there is a peacefulness. Currently, the peacefulness is cold and wet, but peaceful none the less. The wet and cold hiney is not so peaceful.

We all go to bed early hoping for the rain to stop as well as hoping for a full night of sleep without wondering how we would slip out to go the bathroom!

Morning coffee is at 6, we pack up wet and set off on our biggest day.