Day 29 (30 April) - Mile 301.19 - 309.97

Deep Creek Campsite to Campsite Under Rainbow Bridge

Even with 9 people camping in the same area it was a peaceful, quiet night.  My tent site felt perfectly level making for a great night of sleep.  Plus, the temperature was cool, but pleasant.  I got out of the tent around 7:00 AM to gray skies.  Within 5 minutes it started raining.  It is quite a bummer trying to keep all your stuff dry while breaking camp in the rain.  Plus, you now have to put away a wet tent which is also a bummer.  Brad decided to stay i the tent as long as he could.  i tried to do little things between rain showers.  One of the things was to filter water.

My friend Dave Grassie helped me figure out this water filtering system that works pretty well.  Cheers Dave!

Grassie-Kail water filtration system

After filtering water it stopped raining long enough to pull down the tent and get my bag packed.  By this time Brad finally decided to leave his tent and pack up as well.

Throughout the morning we said goodby to David, Jason, and the Grist Family until we were the only ones left.  It took us 2.5 hours to leave for today's hike...maybe a new long record.  I'm sure we will beat in one day.

As usual, here is the pre-hike picture.  Not usual, we have Wildcard and Ron joining in on it.

Wildcard, Ron, Brad, & I ready to hike

As I stated yesterday, hiking with Ron is very interesting since he points out all the wild flowers.  Today i was inspired to take a couple of flower pictures.

Beautiful flower on the PCT

Hillside of purple and yellow flowers.

The hike today continued along Deep Creek, mostly staying high above, but occasionally coming down to the riverfront.  Here I am crossing a bridge...it is amazing how much effort went into building this trail.

Mighty Mouse crossing a bridge

We saw Wildcard on and off all day.  We would stop and she would pass.  She would stop and we would pass.  Here she is on the other side of the trail.

Find Wildcard.

I could have taken a hundred pictures all day of Deep Creek below us, but I knew pictures can't do it justice.  Here is a try anyway.

Amazing Deep Creek

It was such a treat for Ron to join us today.  Here is my view of Ron for the day.

Ron hikes.

Today we had a special treat.  At mile marker 307.95 is Deep Creek Hot Springs.  This is a hot springs in the middle of nowhere that locals make a weekly pilgrimage to, to spend the weekend.  We happen to hit it on a Saturday when the parties were in full swing.

As soon as pulling up to the hot spring, a local welcomed me to the spring and offered and handed me a beer.  How incredibly cool.  Especially since he had to carry it down here along with all his other stuff including tent, food, drinks, blankets, etc to make it through the weekend.

Of course Ron, Brad, and I jumped right into the hot spring.  Wow, did it feel great.  We stayed there for at least 2 hours until we finally had to say our goodbyes and head back out on the trail.  Wildcard was enjoying herself so much, my guess is that she is still there right now spending the night.

Enjoying a beer with the hot spring behind me.

When we left we had one more view of the hot spring from the other side.

View of Deep Creek Hot Spring

At this point we only had 2 miles to hike until our planned campsite for the night.  We took our time and arrived at camp around 5:30 PM giving us just enough time to set up our tents so that they could dry out before getting into them.  Remember...it rained this morning making us pack away wet tents.

After setting up tents, we ate dinner and were able to hang out longer than usual because it wasn't cold.  We are down to 3,233 feet tonight, more than 1,000 feet lower than last night, so it is a bit warmer.

As I am lying here getting ready to sleep, there is the sound of frogs croaking and water flowing.  The sounds of the PCT...ahhhhh.

Tight quarters tonight with Ron and I.