I set out this morning, breakfast in hand, ready to tackle another long day. I can't say I was ready to face my fear of the sketchy rock hop at Whitewater Falls bridge though.
The day took a strange turn when a friend on the trail shared a hard to believe story from the year before.
Music featured in the video: “Green Leaves” by Jason Shaw, “Isle of Doom” and “Hiking Ogre Swamps” provided by teknoaxe.com, “Down Home Rag” by Wilbur Sweatman and his Jazz Band, and “Covered Wagon Days” by Ted Weems and his Orchestra
Trail Journal
October 14th 2020
Sloan Bridge to Bearcamp (NOT Bearcreek)
14.1 miles
I ate breakfast on the go today. Cheerios and powdered milk: now that’s the real breakfast of champions. I was surprised how well I did at not spilling any of it while I hiked! Another surprise was how great I felt after putting in 15 miles the day before. I woke up in a crazy good mood. Everything looked cartoonishly beautiful. If all the trees and flowers started smiling and dancing down the trail behind me, I probably wouldn't have given it a second thought.
The fairytale hike came to a brief halt at the Whitewater Falls overlook. My coffee break there attracted a whole lot of attention. Some people were genuinely interested in what I was doing, and some wanted me to know just how much danger I was in. All the men who came up to talk to me were really encouraging and wanted to chat about my gear and mileage. The on the other hand ladies were terrified on my behalf. One lady kept asking me if I had better clothes to wear, because it was way too cold out and only going to get colder throughout the week. I wanted to say "Ma'am I'm hauling 30lbs across 76 miles and most of the time I think this tanktop and shorts are TOO much clothes! I can promise you I'm not cold." but the joke might not have landed well, so I just said "Yes, I have a jacket in my bag". Another made me promise before I left that I was "at least going to use some bear repellant on myself"
Just so we're clear bear spray is NOT a repellant, like mosquito or bug spray. It's a high grade pepper spray meant to deter an attacking bear. Do not, I repeat DO NOT spray it on yourself! I'm sure it's the same with any hobby though, folks who don't really know a lot about it usually have the most advice to give on it. If I sound like a know-it-all jerk, I really don't mean to. I'm sure these ladies meant well, just mamas looking out for someone else’s daughter.
Side Note: I followed Taz's directions at the road crossing before Whitewater Falls, taking the vehicle entrance a couple hundred feet down the highway instead of continuing on the trail across the gravel parking lot. Apparently there is no view of the falls if you keep straight… I can't say for sure because I didn't go that way.
I'd never been on the section below the Falls viewing area before today, so all I knew about the gap between the big rock and the bridge came from the dramatic stories of other hikers. With no real idea how sketchy and difficult the jump would be, my brain made up all kinds of scenarios In reality it was probably no more than a two or three foot jump, but in the moment it seemed massive. Praise the Lord, my campmate from Sloan Bridge reached the bridge before me! I probably would have wasted the better part of the morning trying to work up the guts to get over. I passed my trekking poles across, and I took his hand. As I looked down (big mistake) I said "I don’t think I can do-" and in a rip the band-aid off before counting down to 3 moment he pulled me across.
"My name is Marc by the way. Sorry I didn’t introduce myself before"
"Nice to meet you. I'm Jessica."
I had to laugh. Guess you need to rescue a distressed damsel before being properly introduced
Things got much more interesting when we met again by the Thompson River.
"You won’t believe this" he started "but last Summer I was at the Cantrell Homesite filling my water, and when I looked up, there in the tree…
Was…
a gnome!"
I thought "Great, just when I make a new friend turns out he's completely nuts!" Cue that line from the Wedding Singer: “things that should have been brought to my attention YESTERDAY!”
"You've got to see this picture!"
He took out his phone. I stared a minute.
"No way!" I exclaimed
Something was there alright. Something I had to see for myself. I confessed "Just a second ago I was pretty sure you were crazy" We had a good laugh about it.
Before parting ways Marc warned me about one of the campsites coming up. He couldn't remember if it was BearCAMP or BearCREEK, but whichever one he stayed at wasn't very good and I might want to stay somewhere else. I made it to Bearcamp that evening: benches by the fire ring, bear cables, easy river access. It must of been Bearcreek he was thinking about because this place was terrific.
My ongoing battle with my stove continued… At some point in the day my matches got wet making the stems soft. One after another, they broke off as I tried to light them. I was out of fuel tablets, and didn't want to risk destroying any more matches. I had 3 nights to go and only 3 matches left. I had a cold, crunchy, barely rehydrated meal for dinner.
Note to self: Time to pray for a little more trail magic, a lighter left behind somewhere, or at least someone willing to let me borrow one at the next camp.