June 6, 2015
TRT day 5
9.6 miles to meadow below Twin Peaks

I slept in til almost 7.  We planned to leave town around 2 so it was a pretty relaxed morning. First it was back to Rosies for a big breakfast. How can I eat so much after only hiking 4 days?

The biggest item on the agenda was buying food for the next 90 miles. I am somewhat picky about what I eat and if possible I like to mail my food. We had decided to suck it up and just buy. It is much easier and there is no pressure to get to town when the PO is open. Today it’s Saturday and the PO here is closed. We would have had to wait till Monday. Rockin was fun to shop with. We like similar food. Safeway had some good stuff but it wasn’t organized to make finding it easy. We kept comparing what each other had found and decided to split some things. Wired, on the other hand, said “after seeing what you eat, there is nothing we can share!” Ha, ha. It sure works for her.

Some actions have unexpected consequences. We used up most of Rockin’s fuel when we melted snow yesterday. She had to buy a new canister which is significantly heavier than the partially empty one. She wants me to help her out and use up some of her fuel. Hot dinners and hot coffee!  Yippee! I don’t carry a stove because I don’t want the extra weight. Plus I often hike until it’s almost dark. By just soaking my food in cold water for an hour or so I can eat as soon as I set up camp and then go to sleep. It works great but hot food definitely tastes better. These 2 ladies I am hiking with are much more civilized than me. We are stopping way earlier in the evening.

We are camped near a meadow with a gorgeous view of Twin Peaks. As we were looking around for a possible place to camp the sky darkened and we knew we needed to set up fast. None of us are on flat ground but we did all manage to be inside our tents when the rain hit. It was a pretty intense 20 minutes of hard rain, thunder and lightning. Some way closer than we would like.

Once it stopped I borrowed Rockin’s stove. The hot dinner was awesome. I still had a home dehydrated dinner because we had gotten to town early. Packers Potatoes from Linda Yaffe’s book Backpack Gourmet. It’s one of my favorites, made by my sister and was leftover from last summer’s PCT hike. It feels like cheating but I am always willing to help out a friend.

It just started raining again. With all this new moisture plus being so close to the meadow we are sure to have condensation in our tents in the morning. Unless we get a breeze….