SHOWERS!

By Emily

Today was the shortest day of the year.  Everything is wet.  Last night we spent in Olema at an RV park with showers… SHOWERS! 

Until now I’ve backpacked mostly in dry climates.  There was a week that I backpacked in Washington for my NOLS course, but it was usually only storming in the afternoon and then was mostly sunny the rest of the time, so things had a chance to get dry.  At Point Reyes, everything stays pretty wet.  It sort of gets dry during the day, but the way we planned our trip due to my conjunctivitis incident, we had 6-8 mile days every day.  Which, if you wake up at 8:30am, have breakfast while thing are drying out in the scant sunshine and then pack up and get going by 11:00am you end up hiking until sunset.  Which when you’re approaching the shortest day of the year, comes pretty quickly.  Then when you get into your bag at night after sweating all day with no hot dry desert wind to suck away the stinky sweat before it has a chance to fully permeate your clothing, you get pretty stinky.  I don’t think I’ve ever been smellier than at the end of this four day trip.  And most of the trips I’ve been on have been 8 day trips!  I guess I’ve been spoiled with dry desert backpacking.

So now, back to the story.  We spent last night in Olema at an RV campsite with “free” showers.  When I say “free” I mean showers are included in the campsite fee of $30 to sleep in a truck and make dinner under a tarp set up between a tree, your truck and trekking poles.  I’m not sure I’d exactly call the shower’s “free”.  Let’s just say they were included.  So we showered, and had all the hot water one could ask for.  Blissfull hot water to wash away the stink built up over 4 days of trekking around the coast by the ocean.  We made burrito’s and climbed into our leaky truck.  That’s right, I said leaky.  Apparently the shell we put on the back of our truck is not so waterproof.  And as we learned last night, even if it was waterproof, we’d have to keep most of the windows shut due to the slant of the sides of the shell which means that all the windows get fogged up and we’re wet anyway.  Lame.  So now we’re in Stillwater Cove Regional Park campground with a wet mad pad, wet platform, probably wet climbing gear (which isn’t so bad really), and wet backpacks.  Basically everything is wet.  And we’re heading to Portland, OR which ironically is supposed to be dry this coming weekend to spend Christmas with Kevin’s brother Chris.  Pray for DRY!