A Lesson In Being Cold and Wet
Disclaimer: The pictures I took are really bad. This forest is dark, dark and I haven't figured out how to get a picture to come out yet. Sorry for the blurry mess. 
My pictures can be found here: http://www.soundsofthedesert.org/cranberry2007.htm
My journey starts early on Friday morn’ of Sept 14th. I woke up at o’ dark thirty to a cool, cloudy day. A five hour drive to the depths of
I showered, although, I’m not certain why as my drive home would leave me wondering if I had showered at all the day previous.
I got the last of my food together; all two days worth. “Why so much food?” I’m wondering now…. I check the weather one last time and see that my 40% chance of t-storms has gone to 90% thundershowers. ‘Tis normal for Cranberry wilderness, it seems.
Close to this time last year, Spindle and I paid a visit to this same wilderness area. It rained from the time we hit the trail until the time we left, with a few hour reprieve on the 2nd day.
So, for once, the weatherman was accurate. Dammit. After a 5.5 hour drive to the trail head, I pull in to the parking area and sit and wait for the rain to let up. It was a foggy, rainy drive from
I pulled into the parking area after what seemed like a drive that took forever. It was pouring rain. I sat there for about a half hour, ate a couple of Snickers bars for lunch and decided it was do or die. It was obvious the rain wasn’t going to let up, so I just had to do it. I got out, quickly grabbed my pack and threw it on. Put my poncho on over everything. This would turn out to be a half-hearted attempt to stay dry.
So, I started in on the North-South Trail, filled out the permit with my information and route and headed in. My original plan was to do a 24-mile loop of the Cranberry Wilderness, but the rain, that wasn’t letting up, changed my mind. I’d decided to hike in about 8 miles to a campsite to Hell For Certain creek which runs into the Middle Fork. Right. I was going to Hell For Certain. 
In this area of the forest, about 4500’ elevation on top of 
The rocks below are completely covered in a thick moss. The roots line the trail making interesting trip lines. Wet, moss covered rocks and wet roots are nearly as bad as the PA rocks alone.
I hang a right and start heading north on the North Fork Trail. The trail is very well defined, covered in pine needles and lined with trees. I’m on this for nearly 2 miles until I finally meet up with the Middle Fork trail where I start heading west to meet up with where the Middle Fork of the
Again, this was an old road and is very well graded. It gradually descends about 1000’ for 7 miles. I had tunnel vision this day due to the heavy rain, which would just not let up. I was starting to think the Gods were against me. Turns out, they were.
As the rain continued to fall, “I just started thinking, just get to camp, put the tent up, get into dry clothes and assess the situation tomorrow.” I got to my first stream crossing about 6 miles in. I changed into my crocs because I’m terrible at rock hopping. I’m glad I did, too. Turns out, there weren’t many rocks to hop today. The stream was up. In fact, it was up to my knees in a couple of places and it was swift. Thank goodness for hiking poles. I didn’t look at my map as the rain had picked up again, but instead, quickly changed back into my shoes and trudged on up the trail.
By now, my plan had changed to just finding the next campsite and setting up. Screw Hell For Certain.
About a half mile and 15 minutes later, I was at my next stream crossing. I knew this one. Spindle and I had been here last year and there was a campsite we stayed at right across the way. Dammit, if I had known that the crossings were that close together, I would have stayed in my crocs. C’est la vie. I did this stream crossing that was even swifter and was also up to my knees.
My hopes were that it would stop raining soon otherwise tomorrow could be risky business; especially solo.
I got into camp, quickly took my pack off and grabbed my tent. I don’t think I’ve ever set up so quickly before. Still, my pack was soaked for the little time I had it uncovered. Tent was staked down and all I had to do was slide the pole in. Problem. Why couldn’t I get the damn pole in the grommet? ARGH!!!!! My hands kept sliding and I couldn’t get a grip on the pole. Finally, I gave up, stuck the pole in the ground and said “good enough”. I’ll fix it later after I’ve warmed up. That never happened. 
It was 5:30’ish. I crawled in, made sure all my gear was sufficiently covered from the rain and changed into my thermals. I also had a bit of mopping to do. Seems I couldn’t keep the inside completely dry. After getting into dry clothes, I dosed off and on. But, I was still sitting up. I hadn’t lain down at all. At about 6:30’ish, I decided I needed to eat something and get my food bag taken care of. I didn’t want to have to worry about it later when I was ready to go to sleep.
Since it was still raining cats and dogs, I decided a hot meal was a no go. I wasn’t cooking inside my vestibule. It just isn’t big enough for that, nor did I want a hungry bear coming into my camp in the middle of the night. So, I opted for one of my lunches. A tortilla with pepperoni and string cheese; simple and no mess.
Then it was time to dawn my wet clothes again so I could hang my food bag and use the facilities, as they are, one last time at around 7’ish. I had a long night ahead of me. I crawled back into my tent and got back into dry clothes. I was being careful as to not get my sleeping bag wet, so I waited to get that out until the last of my camp chores were finished.
I altered between listening to my mp3 player and listening to the roaring creek outside. That creek would get louder and louder as the night progressed. I started wondering what I had gotten myself into. The rain didn’t let up, and in fact, it seemed like I got harder on a few occasions. I looked out the front of my tent and could see some puddles forming. Shit. Thankfully, it would calm down and the puddles would magically disappear.
My night’s sleep went like this: Sleep an hour, wake up for 5 minutes listening. Sleep another hour, wake up for 5 minutes listening. The entire night was like that. If you think you’re hearing something outside of your tent while sleeping next to an angry creek, you’re wrong. It’s only the creek. Really. That thing played mind games with me the entire night. Oh, I think I talked in my sleep a bit that night and that managed to wake me up a couple of times. I was having very vivid dreams that I can’t remember anymore.
I also forgot how dark that forest gets. Seriously. Anywhere else I’ve been, I could see out the little window thing of my tent. Here, there was no doing. All I could see were the glowing zipper pulls of my tent. It was pitch black.
The rain continued until I last looked at my watch, around 03:00. I woke at 05:00 and my alarm went off at 07:00. I needed to see what the damage was. So I walked out to take a look at my friend, the creek.
It looked brown and foamy in areas and was extremely swift this morning.
I knew of at least 2 more crossings I had to do and didn’t know what they had in store for me. Being solo, I decided to stick to what I already knew. I was cold and couldn’t get warmed up for anything as it was this morning, so I made a decision to hike out back to my car and head home a day early.
I think it was a smart move on my part. I took my time getting things together this morning and eating. I made another half-hearted attempt at drying gear. Yeah, right. At about 09:15, I had loaded up all my wet gear into my wet backpack, donned my crocs and started making my way back.
This time I was smart about it. The creek was definitely high. Where it was knee high yesterday, it was thigh high today. And angry. Very angry. I made my way across and kept the crocs on until my next stream crossing. Same thing here. Thigh high pools.
Halfway across, I saw a group of 4 people coming my way. Once I got across, I said to them there would be no rock hopping today. They either didn’t listen to me or didn’t care. They got halfway across, relatively dry, but they got to the area where it was thigh high and I saw 3 of the 4 just sort of jump in, boots and all. The last guy at least took off his boots to try and keep them dry. Oh well…
I put my shoes back on here and took a very short break, as I started to shiver. So, I heeded that message and got up and started walking again. I took a lot of pictures today as I didn’t have the ability to do so the day before. I saw things today that I didn’t yesterday as well….
….Such as a really cool campsite with a beautiful waterfall and rhododendrons lining the way. It was on the small’ish side, but if I had seen it the day before, I would have stopped there instead of doing the creek crossings. Plus, it was sufficiently up and away from the main creek.
I continued on and passed a couple of guys checking out the trail on a dayhike for a group they were bringing in a couple weeks from then. The one guy was wearing jeans and it was in the low 60’s. I warned them of the 2 creek crossings. They only had fanny packs with them, so hopefully they didn’t try and do the crossings. They didn’t know of all the rain the area got the day before. 
The rest of the day was uneventful. I hiked the 7 miles out, 1,000' elevation gain in 3 hours. I was cruising today, trying to stay warm. I got back to my car, and decided that I’d take my time getting home. It was only 12:15 and I had a 5 hour drive home. I stopped at the pullouts on the way home taking in the views of the Monongahela NF. This area is definitely pretty.
I also altered between heat and cold air the entire way home. So, today, I sit here, one day short of my planned adventure, nursing a headache and a low grade fever. Bah.
Things I learned:
~The creek will play tricks on your mind… all night long.
~My preparation for this trip was spot on. All the clothes I packed, I used. 1 pair of mid-weight thermals, convertible pants, short-sleeved shirt (worn on day 1), light weight long-sleeved
~Being concerned about bears and alone makes you wonder what kind of company you actually keep. I was ready to kill myself 2 hours into this hike.
~Gear isn’t going to dry in 2 hours.
~When it rains this hard, even the Blue Mudbugs try to stay dry.