Day 2:

Jacks Creek (10.9) to North Fork Savery Creek (26.4) – 15.5 miles

It was chilly this morning and stayed in my sleeping bag till 8am. I had a Nutrigrain bar for breakfast and filled up my water with some very cold water from the creek. It is 7.8 miles to the next water source and hopefully we will leave the snow soon so we can go a little bit faster. 

About a 1/2 miles into our hike, we hit our first patch of dirt trail and within a mile, we were nearly snow free except a few random patches. It felt great to be out of the snow. Now a new challenge came before us in the form of many blow downs. Many trees littered the trail and slowed us down even more as we climbed over them one at a time.

We ran into our first other CDT hiker named Cameron, he has yet to get a trail name and is headed South. After a couple minutes, we were both on our way. Got to our water source and had top roman for lunch and enjoyed the rest in the shade on a nice sunny day. There is a 20% chance of thunderstorms today, which was the same percent as yesterday and we know what happened there.

Crunchmaster took off ahead and was going to wait a a determined location up ahead for me. As soon as I reached the dirt road which we have to follow for a couple miles, I noticed dark clouds rising behind me and to the right. I did not have enough cell service to check the weather, but I was able to get a text message off to my buddy Matt who I can always count on when I need something while on the trail. I gave him my location and checked the weather for me and got back to me with the news. Server thunderstorm warning were issued for the area for quarter inch hail and 60mph winds with instructions for people to get to the lowest points of their homes.

As soon as I turned North up the road, I was about a mile from reaching Crunchmaster and a water source. I stepped up my pace and caught up to him when a truck coming down the dirt road stopped and asked if we wanted a ride to get away from the thunderstorms. We thanked him but declined and kept moving. A dark cell dropped out of the sky and began swirling slowly in circles. You could see the heavy hail trailing it and constant lightning and thunder. I noticed three separate clouds drop out of the swirling cloud and lasted for about five to ten minutes before they went back up and away. It was an amazing sight seeing this cloud nearly stationary moving in circles counterclockwise. As we approached the edge of it, the rain started and then hail and started to get heavy enough to the point where we stopped and put on all our rain gear again. We were fortunate that the trail veered to the left and the storm stayed just to the right sparing us from the worst of things. Another mile ahead and we would not be having fun.

A few miles later, we dropped into the valley to a creek where we planned on camping. Aware of possible flash floods, we knew it was possible but kept far enough from the water we should be safe, and if the waters haven’t hit yet, we should be safe for the night. It was very windy and we helped each other setup our tents to make it easier. We both cooked from inside out tents as it helped block the winds. Under the rainfly, not the actually tent itself. Rice and beans were on the menu for me tonight and I am going to try and get to sleep sooner and planning on getting up early and leaving well before Crunchmaster so I can try and make some good miles tomorrow. My legs are still burned but they don’t bother me too much.

Trail turned into a river

This is our “trail”

Dropping into the valley

The valley we will camp in

Lots of birds

How I filter water

Goodnight