Still feeling yucky, I set out to do just 6 miles…to the last water source before the 6 mile ascent over Georgia Pass…or what the data book said was the last water source. I arrived at the stream by 11:30 and found Mike there tending to his battle wounds – blisters from wet shoes and socks. I informed him that he needed a trail name since I’d been leap frogging all morning with a section hiker whose name was also Mike. He brushed it off so I dubbed them Mike the Thru and Mike the Section. No confusion.

We sat talking by the stream. Mike the Thru offered me a PBJ. Not just any PBJ, but a Goobers PBJ! Not much food has been appealing to me the past few days but that sounded good. It was! I offered to filter water for him. no need. He just scooped the water straight from the stream. No treating it whatsoever. Wow. He must have a stomach of steel. There’s no way I’d want to chance getting giardia on this dream-come-true trip. So I got busy filtering my own water…enough for the rest of today and tomorrow morning. I was moving on, heading up to Georgia Pass. I’d find a place to camp somewhere along the way.

Mike the Thru moved on and Mike the Section and I sat chatting for a bit. I noticed him take something from his pack and light up. At first I thought it was a pipe. Since I like the smell of pipes and the different flavored tobaccos, I asked him, “Whatcha got?” His response: “weed”.

Oh geez. I was not about to stick around while some strange guy got high. Time to move on myself.

Keeping a steady snail’s pace, I climbed, and climbed, and climbed. Two hours later, thinking I had to be close to the top, I looked at my GPS. i had only gone 1.5 miles. I’d be lucky if I made it to the pass by midnight at this rate. Ate a snack and then resumed hiking, stepping up the pace a bit. An hour and a half (and several water sources!!) later, I’d made it to the top, just in time to get set up and crawl into the tent for an evening downpour. After the rain let up I stuck my head out of the tent and Mike the Section walked by, saying he was going to keep going for a couple more hours. Whew.

As I settled back in I started hearing the rumble of thunder off to the west. I stuck my head out of the tent and saw lightning and rain in the next valley over. I watched it for a half hour and it drifted slowly around me while directly above me was clearing up. Then thunder rumbled off to the east. That system seemed to be heading north also. Still safe. About 15 minutes later, a storm developed in the valley south of me – where I had come from. Looked like was headed northwest so it should miss me and southwest and overhead were still clear. Still safe. Then, all of a sudden all three systems started to converge on me. A loud crack sounded right outside the tent and lightning was making it’s way up the valley toward me. HOLY $^&!!!!! I pulled up the two tent stakes, folded the tent in half with everything still in it, threw my water bottle in my pack, leaving Cassie’s pack and some miscellaneous things laying on the ground, hoisted my pack over my shoulder and made a mad dash down the steep bank over into the next valley. Found a level spot among the scattered trees and set the tent back up. Should be safe here as long as the storm doesn’t make it’s way to this valley. Ten minutes later there was a flash of lightning in the valley. OHMIGAWD!!! Uprooted again and made another mad dash a 1/2 mile down to treeline. By the time I set up the tent for the third time, it was raining hard. This was as safe as I could get in a tent. I sat there tense, watching the flashes of lightning and listening to the thunder. No use counting the seconds between the two – it was all happening simultaneously.

I looked at my watch – 7:15 PM. This is a huge storm. It surely can’t last that long. It’ll just pass through and then I’ll get down to supper and reading. At 10 pm the thunder and lightening finally started to settle down with the hail tapering to a light rain and I fell asleep shortly after.