The rain continued all night, from midnight with lightining and thunder, to 5am rain showers. The day wasn't starting out very nicely.
And there I lay, despondent over my situation. I stared at my camera, wishing I could just get beamed up and out of this wildnerness. What good was it for me to be out here with no way of recording the scenery?
One thing that kept me from losing all sanity was being able to stay warm and dry enough overnight. The last pieces of clean, dry clothing came in handy!
When the sun finally rose, though, I was in no mood to continue my trek. I couldn't go anywhere with the wet and heavy backpack and my damp clothes. I had to dry out everything I owned, and I needed a place to dry out my stuff in relative privacy.
Oddly, there were few people I met on this section. I packed my tent as soon as I could (risking getting a fine for being too close to the trail). The trail took a nearly immediate ascent, and it was all too much for me. I was heavily weighed down, tired and still in a despondent mood. I opted instead to write off today as a zero day until my gear dried out, but that didn't look too promising with overhead grey clouds moving in.
Twice I spread out my clothing on branches off the trail as I just sat and waited. I had nothing to read, nothing to photograph but the scenery in my mind. Two men came down the trail but didn't say much nor was I in the mood to chat much anyway. When the sky looked like it was going to rain, I packed up all my gear and slowly continued on.
But it didn't rain, and once I was in a level valley with Forester Peak ahead of me, I again unpacked my wet gear and again spread out my stuff to dry. And again it drizzled for a bit (making me quickly get inside my tent) but this time the drizzle was soft and short. I finally decided I had no choice but to move on, to slowly make it as close to Forester Peak as I could.
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