Building character...

Day 240
11-2-2006
Started: Middle Fork of the American River near French Meadows, CA
Finished: Circle Bridge in Tahoe National Forest, CA
Today's Miles: 31.5
Total Miles: 3858.9

The wolf that we enjoyed listening to as it howled at the moon early last night quieted down and ran for cover when the clouds rolled in and the rains began to fall. The rain started light but as the night went on it got heavier and heavier. Our tent was a shallow pool when we woke up this morning. We attempted to get an early start, but with the rain still falling we didn't find it to difficult to stay put for an extra hour of sleep. While packing up all our wet gear we discussed the fact that we were fortunate to have made it through the weather window that seems to be closing a bit today. We are back down in somewhat lower elevations compared to the exposed ridgeline we hiked yesterday, and considering we were clouded in all day with light rain all morning and heavy rain all afternoon we don't think yesterday's fabulous terrain would have been quite as enjoyable today. The lower elevation trade off is warm and wet, well actually cool and wet, but at least it's not cold and snow, which cold be the case up where we were hiking yesterday. We managed to put in a pretty big mile day today over some rather difficult terrain. Our rainy day hike was a day of dropping into and climbing out of Canyons. Steep and deep, wet and muddy Canyons. We imagine we hiked past some spots where we would have had amazing views of the Canyons, but the dense clouds didn't allow very much visibility. The only thing more dense then the clouds in the sky were the trees in the forests. The forests of Tahoe National Forest are very thick and cover the mountainside on top as well as the riverside in the bottom of the Canyons. When we were just getting started this morning we came upon a gentleman who had been doing some fishing on the Middle Fork of the American River a short distance upstream of the French Meadows Reservoir. His name was George Brannon and he shared a few stories from his life that he felt would be motivation for us to get through the rainy day. He knew that for us to have made it this far across the country that we must know a thing or two about endurance and resilience, but his experiences in Vietnam and his careers as a logger and a boxer also tell a story of resilience. He gave us a book he had authored as a gift and after our conversation we felt it had a very ironic and very fitting title. The book is called, "Backbone" and it tells the story of George's life and the hardships he has stepped up to face. While we both feel like there is nothing in the world that could keep us from making our way to the Pacific at this point, even if we have to crawl, it was still a very appropriate day to discuss tolerating tough conditions. We are in Gold mining country now and in the area of some famous mining towns like Last Chance and Deadwood, towns that knew a thing or two about tough conditions. There are no original structures in the old towns, but we wouldn't have been able to see them anyway, we didn't see much more then clouds and the first few rows of trees all day. We did hike through some clear areas, clear from dense forest anyway, because this area was hit pretty hard by wildfire recently. Because of the slick conditions we didn't make it through Deadwood or Michigan Bluff, two Gold mining boom towns, but instead took some local advice and made our way to a National Forest road that wound us through the Canyon of the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the American River. As we were approaching the bottom of the Canyon a Forest Ranger pulled up from behind us and cracked his window. He looked at both of us, dripping wet from head to toe, and said, "You two must be doing all right!" We quickly said, "We're doing great", our usual honest reply to the question, "Are you two doing all right?", before we realized that he hadn't asked a question, but instead he had made an observation. He followed our responses up by saying, "You both look really happy!" The way he said what he said was almost as though he was surprised that two soaking wet hikers who woke up in the rain and who would be going to sleep in the rain again tonight could be so happy looking. Our smiling faces was all he needed to see because after telling us how we looked really happy he rolled his window back up to keep himself dry and drove on, disappearing into the clouds in the Canyon. We had to avoid rock and mud slides as we dropped closer and closer to the River and the steep drop offs on the sides of the narrow road were a bit intimidating when literally walking in a cloud. We ended up having to do a few more miles then we would have liked because the terrain was so steep that we couldn't find a decent tentsite. Because it's not really all that fun to sit around in the rain we didn't take very many breaks today and when we did stop it was only for a very short amount of time so by the time we reached the Circle Bridge that goes over the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the American River we were both more then ready to call it a day. The only problem was that the Circle Bridge, which is shaped like a big half-circle, crosses high over the water and the Canyon walls are rather steep on both sides of the Bridge. Sheri's look of disappointment when we reached the high bridge had Randy wanting to eat his earlier words, "if we can just go a few more miles down to the River we will find a flat spot near the water to camp". In an attempt to bring a smile back to Sheri's face Randy told her to stay put for a second while he checked out their options. After a little investigating Randy found a very small spot, barely big enough for our tent, on the rocky ledge under the bridge. It actually turned out to be a perfect spot because we were completely covered from the rain and we were able to hang all of our wet gear on the rafters of the bridge and not have to bring it all in the tent with us. The only drawback was that we certainly wouldn't want to go roaming around outside of the tent during the night because we did have about a fifty foot drop just outside the tent door. The rain is coming down very heavy tonight, but the tent is staying dry and we're safe and sound in our warm sleeping bags. Between the cover of the bridge and the thick rain clouds there is no sign of the moon or the stars and down here in the bottom of the Canyon it is so dark that we have to double check to make sure our eyes are actually open because we can't even see the tent walls that are only inches from our face. We hear tomorrow is going to be another wet day so tonight we are mentally preparing ourselves for the chore of waking up and putting all our wet gear back on so we can do it all over again. Don't worry, we know nobody said it was going to be easy, some days are certainly more challenging then others and we're sure a beautiful, sunny California day will come along one day soon. These are the challenging conditions that build character, these are the days when we find out if we have any "backbone"!

Your Friends on the ADT,
Randy and Sheri
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