Just when I thought my track record for this area couldn’t get any worse, I had to rescue a piece of gear I left at my campsite. To make this mistake even more memorable, rain was in the forecast. The only good thing was that this was not a difficult hike.

As I pulled into the parking lot, I was greeted by a park ranger. We exchanged waves, and he was probably wondering why I picked such a dreary day to hike. By this time, it had begun raining, so I suited up and put on my rain jacket and kilt. This was my first time testing out the kilt, and I was excited to see how it performed.

The Hike In

My trek began at 1:30 PM, where I started off damp and moved straight into wet. As I walked along, I tried to regulate my temperature as best I could. But, soon, I was sweating in the warm and humid conditions. This made my first prolonged hike with this rain jacket difficult to evaluate. Even the most breathable jacket around would have had me overheating.

My feet, however, were not hot at all. The puddles and high wet vegetation quickly soaked my socks and shoes. Again, I was glad to have lightweight hiking shoes and wool socks to keep my feet comfortable. This became more helpful the further I went, as several parts of the trail became a small stream.

Finding My Gear

The piece of gear I left behind was my tarp’s ridgeline. This consisted of a Lash-It line, a Dutchware Hook, and a Dutchware Wasp. With plenty of time to walk in and out to get it, I thought about how this happened.

• I let a bad habit persist and put up my rain fly incorrectly. Instead of threading the line through the tarp loops, I put up the line first and draped the tarp over it. When I took my tarp down, I just slid it off and folded it, leaving the line in place.
• My ridge line is gray and blends in very well with its surroundings.
• I had to hang my hammock a little higher than normal, so my ridge line was well above eye level.

These three factors led me to leave my line in place when I packed up the previous morning. With all the planning I put into picking out my camping area, I had no time locating it again. Luckily, my ridge line and hardware were still fastened to the same two trees when I went back. Since the hardware is titanium and the rope is made of synthetic material, the wetness had no effect on it. I took down my line, looked around for any other gear I had not considered, and was on my way.

The Hike Back

Five minutes later, I was done and back on the trail. I decided to retrace my steps instead of completing part of the loop I hiked the day before. This was in part due to the difficulty I had in finding one of the connecting trails. Plus, even before the rain, there were a few patches of mud that I knew would be far worse after today’s rain.

Since it was the same route, there’s not much to tell except that by this point I was unsure if my rain jacket was wetting out, or if I was overheated. This, unfortunately, made the second part of the hike less fun. But I’m always excited to hike a trail in another direction to get new views and perspectives. It took about the same time, 45 minutes, to walk back to my car. I was all packed up and ready to head home by about 3:15 PM, eager to put my unfortunate series of mistakes behind me.

What went well

• The primary one here was that while this trip should not have had to happen, it was certainly easy to find my camping spot and gear.
• This was the first live test of my rain kilt, and I was quite pleased with its performance. Although I wish I were a little wider, as there was not enough overlap of material, and a section of my leg got wet.
• Even when the trail became a small stream, my quick-drying shoes and wool socks worked just fine.

Even Better If

• I think it was the fact that I was hiking in late July, but I sweat a lot in my rain jacket.
• I think this is the first trip where I wished I had gaiters for my ankles. This wasn’t to keep them dry (nothing would have helped with that), but to keep debris out of my shoes.