When I woke, there was a lot of condensation on the bug
netting, and it was hanging pretty close to the quilt. When I would roll over, the quilt would
actually touch the bug netting.
Fortunately, the condensation was never bad enough to cause the down in
the quilt to dampen noticeably. During
the rain, I packed everything but the tent and ground cloth (for the vestibule)
into the pack in the vestibule—without getting out of the tent. The rain lightened, and I climbed out, took
down the tent and ground cloth, shook them off, and packed them up. I was using a trash compactor bag to keep my
quilt and unused clothes dry, so I wasn’t worried about them getting wet. I ate some granola and blueberries for
breakfast, along with some dried milk (Peak full fat) and chocolate malt
(Ovaltine) mix. The chocolate milk
tasted like store bought fresh. Then I
started on the trail in my rain gear.
This was the coldest day of my trip; it only got up to 46
degrees according to TWC. I took a
chance and kept my light down jacket on under my rain jacket. I was worried that rain would get in through
my hood and get the down soaked, but it didn’t.
I used rain pants and had a backpack cover too.
My choice of gloves was lousy. I used a light liner glove inside a synthetic
shell glove. At first, this was
fine. I knew the shell wasn’t
waterproof, and so wasn’t surprised with the wet hands. It was a little chilly at first. When I hit the Greenstone, the wind seemed to
be blowing at about 15-20 mph, and it was cold.
It was cold even in my rain jacket and down jacket. But my hands were icy. Finally, I took off the wet liner gloves and
wore only the synthetic shell gloves (they actually have a thin nylon
liner). My hands warmed up! I concluded the liners must have been cotton. I put them in my pants pocket to dry and
never used them again.
The trail all morning was covered in fog. So was the Greenstone. And the wet rocks, especially the large flat
ones, were pretty worrisome. When I came
to the tower, I couldn’t see more than 20 feet away, so I just ate a snack and
then headed down towards Daisy Farm. On
the downward trail, I did slip and fall once.
It was on one of the slanted, large wet rocks. I had become over-confident of my footing,
and I just slipped. Fortunately, I landed
on my pack, so nothing was hurt. But I
was extremely careful after that, and never fell again.
I did encounter two gentlemen coming up the trail from Daisy
Farm. They were just doing a day
hike. I warned them about the cold,
windy conditions up on the Greenstone, but they seemed to dismiss my warnings
and stated they only had a short ways to go on the Greenstone. I think they changed their mind, because the
next day when I went up the Daisy Farm trail to the Greenstone (the way they
would have returned), I didn’t see any footprints indicating passage down the
trail. It was muddy everywhere and you
could pretty much track everyone and everything.
I was looking forward to a shelter at Daisy Farm and the
chance to dry out my tent and ground cloth.
The shelter I wanted was open (the westernmost shelter), so I took off
my pack, put the permit on the door handle, and hung up the tent and ground
cloth on the boards in front of the screen front. The shelters were a bit nicer than I had
expected. I also wondered how individual
hikers had gotten the picnic tables into the shelters on their own. I’m not sure I comprehend the benefit
anyway. I can sit on a floor, especially
with a pad. The pack can be leaned
against a wall (at least with a traditional pack), and you get a very
comfortable way to sit inside. Some
folks mentioned the tables are kept next to the shelter under the front
overhang. That’s true in some places,
but in others, rocks keep the tables out away from the shelters.
I went down to the pier to filter my water, and didn’t see
anyone. But I also didn’t explore the
other sites here to see whether they were occupied. I also used the privy for the first
time. These are nice compared to the
out-houses I occasionally used when growing up.
The metal can and seat lids were clean.
I found toilet paper in all the privies on Lake Superior sites, but none
in the inland campgrounds.
I did some reading before hitting the sack. About midnight a big thunderstorm hit the
area. The flashes and booms were about
as bad as I’ve seen. Two sounded like
they must have hit just feet from the shelter.
I kept hoping no trees would come through the shelter roof! As the thunder and lightning faded, it
started to hail, very loudly. That faded
shortly and normal rain began. I was
glad I wasn’t in my tent. By the time I
awoke the next morning, the rain had ended.
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