Sleeping peacefully, I felt a disturbance on my sleeping bag. I had to feel it a couple of times before I realized something was amiss. I pulled myself out of my slumber, put on my headlamp, and looked into the eyes of a little mouse that was currently inside my tent. My first thought was that he should not be here. My second thought was, how did he get here? My third thought was, how do I get him out of here? He seemed to have the same thought, because he started chewing at the walls of my tent. That is not good. So I opened the big flap to my tent unconcerned currently if any mosquitoes would get in. He scurried all over my tent using the mesh on the sides to be able to travel on all surfaces of the tent. He finally ended up on the side, found the hole, and ran out into the night. Now to assess the damage. First thing I did was to grab the hand sanitizer wipes that were probably the reason he made his way into the tent in the first place. All of my food was safely stored away in the bear canister, but these hand sanitizer wipes had a strong scent of grapefruit. I was now using these to clean up the mouse poop that was in several places in the tent. That I took a look at where he was chewing. There were five small holes, one of them plenty large enough for a mouse to travel through. I was wise enough before I went to wrap my water bottle in duct tape.
So I took off little pieces of of tape and put them on each side of the tent wall. They seemed to block out the ability for any more creatures to easily access the tent. In fact, they made it the rest of the trip and duct tape proved to be the right solution to the problem. I looked at my watch and it was 2:45 AM. Needless to say, I was rather restless the rest of the night. Just the sight of the mouse and I staring each other in the eyes when I turned on my headlamp was enough to have my guard up for any other critters that wanted to access my personal space. I was happy to get the day started when 6 AM finally came around. I was packed up and on the trail by 6:38 AM. Today was overcast and cool. I hiked with my poofy on for quite some time and even had the thought of putting on the rain jacket.
Along with the weather and the mouse, the terrain was a little more challenging today. It was uphill to start and then I got right into a burned area. Multiple times this area had burned given its proximity to Mt. Adams, I am sure it received its fair share of lightning. Any burned over area was challenging. Today, the sun at least was not beaming down upon me, but there were many blowdowns. I even took a fall when a branch caught me right inside my sock and took me down hard upon my right side leaving me with a large bruise and a bloody cut. I pushed through it though, no worse for the wear, but a little more cautious as I went around the blowdowns. It was kind of a polar opposite to yesterday when I was feeling so refreshed and excited as today I was sluggish and less motivated.
I even got to pull out my rain gear for a little bit, though the rain pants stayed in my pack. I was nervous that I was not going to get those big views of Mt. Adams because this was going to be the big day that I would spend circumventing the mountain. I would still get those big views just with some of the mountain hidden. I was okay with that because I had climbed the mountain a few times anyway. It was one of my favorites, though, so I had been looking forward to this day. Eventually, I got out of the burned forest and the whole way became meadows with wildflowers. The terrain was a little up and down, but not nearly as bad as it could be next to a volcanic peak.
There also seemed to be a significant rise in the number of human beings. There were day hikers around and overnighters. I also saw for the first time a northbound thru hiker pass me. He smelled pretty ripe and I wondered if I also smelled that way to others. I hit Sheep Lake about lunch time and after talking to many day hikers, this seemed to be their destination for the day. This was about the only place where the mosquitoes were bad. After Sheep Lake, the terrain seemed to change a little bit and it was a little less meadowy and a little more volcanic rock with glacial streams.
This included one ford of Adams Creek, which actually turned out to be fairly easy. There were some logs across it, so I did not even have to get my feet wet. I did not get any unobstructed views of Mt. Adams, but that did not mean that I did not get lots of great views. With the overcast weather, it actually turned out to be rather an enjoyable day. I did not have to fight the heat and the sun came out enough on the day to make it enjoyable. Still, I was tired from the mouse visitor the night before. I looked on the map and it seemed Lava Spring would be a good place to camp. It was given approval by many southbound thru hikers who praised the water. I looked forward to it, but before I could get there, I got more rain.
This time, since I was leaving the slopes of Mount Adams and returning to the forest, I got to experience the rain on the huckleberries. The rain was truly nothing significant, but it was enough to get all the plants wet. Those huckleberries hold on to the moisture until your leg brushes against it. Soon it is all down your legs and it was not long before I was soaking wet, especially in the feet. I was very happy to see Lava Spring and its cool water coming right out of a lava flow. I found a flat place in the woods to set up my tent. I tried to hang my clothes to dry, but the moist air and damp conditions would give me no relief. Still, I was able to get to bed early and glad to get some much needed rest.
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