Miles: 596.6 to 621.9

Mileage: 25.3 (plus 2.2 to get water)

Day: 29

I was really hoping the rain would stop at some point overnight. It didn’t.

We stayed in our sleeping bags and hoped the rain would stop. It didn’t. 

We ignored the alarm, ignored the lightened sky, ignored the water on everything. If you don’t open your eyes, it may not exist. 

Finally we concluded that the only way down off the rainy, snowy mountain was up. We put away our wet sleeping bags and tent, changed back into our wet clothes and started hiking. The first part of the trail today was a climb. Of course. 
And as soon as we gained a little bit of elevation, the rain turned to snow. I don’t have many pictures of the morning because I could ‘t feel my hands most of the time. 

By noon we were off the mountain and could even see patches of blue sky. I was very happy to be out of the clouds because I was feeling mildly hypothermic up there. My poncho is a great ventilating waterproof layer. But the ventilation was also letting all my heat out when I needed it most, like while trying to collect water. 

But the sun eventually cured me of my coldness. We stopped for an hour and a half in the woods with our stuff spread over rocks and logs trying to dry everything.  

 The afternoon was tough. We needed to hit the next water source about 14 miles after our drying break. The trail was all trudging through sand. My shoes have many holes in the mesh uppers so sand gets in really easily. 

We finally made it to the water source, which was two miles off the trail and downs dirt road, just before dark. We set up the tent, made dinner and crashed.