Hiking With Gadget Girl

08-16-22 Wonderland Trail:
Day 14, final day on the trail for Jayne and me. To our dismay, Jayne's airpad deflated last night due to a weird cut on the material. Haven't a clue what caused it. It was a cold night and she did her best putting all her extra clothing underneath the airpad to help insulate from the ground. Wasn't sure if a patch would work due to how long the cut was. We talked about it and even though we had an extra day option (Karen and Jay were able to get one more night permit), we decided to finish our trip at Longmire. It actually made it easier for all as we drove Karen and Jay's van around to Box Canyon and left it there for them to collect when they finished on the 17th. Oops, getting ahead of myself here. The hike to Longmire only had 449 feet of elevation gain but a big drop of 2,546 feet. Clockwise backpackers informed us that the bridge was out over Kautz Creek. How bad could it be? Well, it was our most difficult crossing and navigation skills came into play as a large section of trail had been washed away.

After bushwacking though dense trees we finally found the trail again and headed to Longmire. As other excited WT backpackers passed us on their first day on the trail, we could smell soaps and deodorants. How fresh they were! We must have smelled like the city dump after going for 14 days without a proper shower! Once again the wall of people and cars was a shock to the system and made us yearn for the isolation of the trail. But it was time to go home, and we missed our husbands. And, I had a house to build!