It been almost a month since a posted the first two parts of this story, if you are interested you can review them here and here.

We sat in the shelter and watched the rain come down. The rain was very pretty and we were
delighted that we had avoided getting drenched again. As I sat, I began to cool down. The rain had brought some cooler air with it.

Comfort is not consideration in backpacking. Weight is the issue. You carry everything you will need on your back. The trick is carry everything that you need without carrying anything else. You avoid taking something just in case. Extra batteries for your headlamp, for example. If you don’t use them, you just carried that weight for twenty some miles no reason. You might be thinking, how much could a couple of batteries weigh? Not much. But get enough of these little extras and you have an extra 5 or more pounds on your back. There is a skill to packing your pack. You change your way of thinking. I try to keep my pack under 30 pounds.

For this trip, I knew it might get cold at night. I packed my fleece pants and my fleece jacket, but only my 40 degree bag. A compromise. I could wear all of my clothes into the bag if I needed to.

I put those fleeces on and as I unpacked my gear, the rain slowed to a fine mist. I went to the spring and got some more water. We went out to the picnic table, which was thoughtfully covered by by a pavilion. We cooked our dinner and made some coffee.

As we relaxed and drank our coffee, it got colder and colder. Even with my fleeces on, I was beginning to get a chill. Before too long we got ourselves in our sleeping bags. I fell asleep with out too much trouble, but I woke up around midnight. All that coffee i had drank was ready to come back out. I crawled out of my bag and walked around to the back of the shelter. As I took care of my business, I was aware of the very cold wind that was blowing. A cold front had moved in and blew the rainy weather away. I crawled back into my bag, but I was cold. Even with all my fleeces on. Especially my feet. My feet never warmed up. I spent a long and uncomfortable night. Tossing and turning. Trying to get warm. I could feel, through my wool socks, the line of extra coldness that was were the zipper was on the bag.

After an eternity, morning came. I wanted to cook my dehydrated scrambled eggs and warm up. It was about 35 degrees. A bit cold than I had planned for. We had some trouble getting the ISO-Propane stoves to work in the cold, but eventually got some water boiled. The eggs made me feel somewhat better, but I was still cold. We were running a little late, so I didn’t want to mess with coffee. I used what was left of the hot water to mix up some hot Gatorade.

We packed up and hit the trail. It was still cold, but the sun was shining. It was a good day for a walk. It always is.