[pct-l] Hiking wet

[Bill Burge]

Englishman, wet, warm - I'm thinking wool.

I did a day (day?  we started about an hour before sunrise) hike in  
blowing, freezing rain, wearing trail runners but with pretty heavy  
Smartwool socks.

My feet were soaked.  My feet were toasty.  I think I would have been  
fine until the water either froze or I took on enough water to act as  
more of a heat sink.  To prevent that, keep moving.

BillB



On Nov 24, 2009, at 11:36 AM, Ken Powers wrote:

> I agree about the overgrown trails lined with wet leaves. It is a  
> quick way
> to get really soaked. We've termed them and the dripping trees re- 
> rain.
>
> We hiked with an Englishman during many of our rainy days in  
> Washington. We
> learned from him that it was important to be warm, not dry. He had
> several/many layers of clothing. On really rainy days he eventually  
> got
> soaked to the skin, but still kept warm.
>
> I keep reminding myself of this when I am soaked. I keep wondering  
> what his
> layers were to stay warm. I think my answer is Hike Faster to stay  
> warm.
> Then set up camp quickly at night and get into a dry sleeping bag. I  
> have
> also found that hiking faster dries my synthetic clothing pretty  
> quickly.
>
> Ken
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com" <diane at santabarbarahikes.com 
> >
> To: <pct-l at backcountry.net>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2009 7:01 AM
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Starting Date
>
>
>
> On Nov 24, 2009, at 12:10 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:
>>
>> The river crossings on the other hand can be EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.
>
> Amen! There needs to be a river crossing class.
>
> Seriously, I literally SWAM across some rivers in the Sierra. I was
> there earlier than others. In my opinion, the trail crosses Falls
> Creek in absolutely the wrong place. (But that's not the one I swam).
>
> Also, a rain course would have helped me. Snow was annoying and
> mentally exhausting, but not a big deal even for this snow newbie.
> What I had trouble with was rain and pushing through wet leaves. It's
> so depressing and wet.
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