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If you are interested in seeing how we can work together to increase your readership, please let me know and we can set up a time to discuss this in more detail.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Best,
Ashley

First, I think I know why this was the one and only pack trip with the ex… :-)

Second, my “no fly in the rain” story. I was in Alaska with a group of high school and middle school kids, including my oldest son and my daughter. We were there to backpack the Chilkoot Trail which starts near Skagway and ends up in Canada. (The trail was originally constructed by turn-of-the-century prospectors who used it to sledge huge amounts of equipment that the Canadians required all miners to carry.) I found out – the hard way – that Alaska weather is nothing at all like typical California weather. On the final trail night of the trip we camped at alovely lake. As the sun set at around 11:30 or 11:00 p.m. (!) the sky was beautiful and clear. Being an experienced Sierra Nevada backpacker, when my son and his tent-mate asked if they should set up their tents, given the fine weather, I said to go ahead and set the tent up for bug protection, but to not bother with the fly because it couldn’t possibly rain.

In the middle of the night I began to have strange dreams about wind and some odd tapping sounds. I snuggled down more deeply into my sleeping bag and worked on sleeping. Finally, near dawn, I awoke to find that the inside of my tent was awash and that my down sleeping bag had soaked up a good amount of the water. The “dream” had been provoked by the sound of steady rain! It was too late to do anything but put on rain gear and pack up. As I did so, I looked over at my son’s tent and noticed that they had added a rain fly in the middle of the night. I asked why they hadn’t awakened me to tell me about the rain – and the reply was more or less, “We figured you knew what you were doing and we didn’t the wake you.”

They have since come to understand that sometimes waking me is a very good thing…

All was going well until shortly after dinner just as the sun was setting…into a bunch of dark clouds. It started to rain…heavy, big drops. At first we tried to stick it out…until we noticed puddles forming inside our tent…rain proof it was NOT without the rain fly.

With a now unhappy, wet, cold, and miserable wife, we chose the only survivable option (and the survivability likelyhood was was not due to the weather conditions), we packed up the now soaking wet gear, and hiked back out to the car, followed by a very quick, silent trip home…

I’ll add one other don’t leave home without it – your tent’s rain fly (if it has one)!

Please remove my name from your subscription list!

;^p

Steve, you are right about the effect on backpackers. I get spoiled by the less-wet and warmer winters and have, on occasion, been able to cross some high passes w/o axe/crampons in July. But I don’t think that is going to be the case this year. To compensate, I think that we’ll perhaps have some stunning and long-lasting wildflowers this season right on into August. (And if I don’t do it first, someone will point out that this means we’ll also have stunning and long-lasting mosquitoes during the same period!)

Patrick, the thought that this could be part of global circulation changes has crossed my mind. It isn’t possible to predict from a single season, but those who study such things point out that the effects of global climate change that involves warming do not necessarily lead to warmer and drier conditions in all locations. On a more short-term basis, some of the folks who try to predict a few months out are suggesting that we might have a rather warm late summer and fall.

Dan

Patrick

As much as I want the high country to open, the late melt promises a long, green summer with lots of wildflowers!

Dan

IOW, not going to be open for Memorial Day weekend. :-(