We hiked all day with the river on our minds but nature got in the way at the end. In the early evening we left the hills and entered the huge Kern plateau – a wide open canyon bordered by ridges on the east and west. We turned north and headed for the river. Before we’d gotten too far we heard thunder from a nearby front that we’d thought was far enough away to not bother us. A minute later we heard more thunder and felt a few drops of rain and then suddenly it was pouring. We were caught completely out in the open – 15 minutes earlier we would have been able to take shelter in the trees near a creek, 15 minutes later and we would have been in the pines. As it was all we could do was crouch down next to a juniper shrub as the rain changed to sleet and the thunder broke right over our heads. We were lucky that we at least had our umbrellas open when it started since we didn’t have time to dig out our rain gear.

Eventually the rain let up a little and we started hiking for the pine forest up the trail. Moving helped us keep warm and got us closer to a protected campsite. The sun was close to setting and we knew we needed to make camp soon before it started to get cold. In a matter of minutes we went from thinking about swimming in the river to worrying about hypothermia. Luckily our sleeping bag and clothes were dry in their plastic liners. It was very damp out and the tent dripped on us all night. At least we’ll reach town tomorrow and can dry everything out.

– Posted from the PCT

Location:Pct mile 696