Well, it rained again last night. So much for having dry gear. I packed up all my gear as quickly as I could and went down to the warming shelter where I ate breakfast and waited hoping that the rain would abate. After a while, I decided that I should go and fill my water bottle from the river, and while I was out there I realized that the rain wasn't as bad as I thought it was. I think that my ears were playing tricks on me again.
When I finally set out there was still the light rain and a bit of a breeze. After hiking for awhile and getting warmed up, I stripped down to my normal hiking attire for the trip (shorts and t-shirt). Today was the first day that I didn't have much extra heat. Usually when I would stop, it would take a few minutes for me to cool down to where I might get cold, but today with the wind it didn't take any time at all.
I was surprised by the amount of hills coming out of Happy Camp. The trail went up for a fair bit going around Deep Lake which I wasn't at all expecting. The last little bit before Deep Lake campground it started descending again though, and continued to do so all the way to Lindeman.
Once again, when I got into camp (Lindeman) the sun came out. It was nice to get my stuff all dried out. While the sun felt nice and warm (particularly when I wasn't standing in the wind), the thermometer at the warming shelter there said it was only 55 degrees. I expected the temperatures to be higher since we had moved into the interior, but that night I think was the coldest my whole trip. It was only 40 degrees when I got up, after the sun had already been out for probably a couple of hours.
Only four other people stayed the night at Lindeman, although several other people spent a few hours that afternoon there. A couple from Holland, and two guys with foreign accents. I was told by another hiker that one of the guys is from Germany, and the other Canada (I am guess that he was French-Canadian from his accent). The German and Canadian had recently been in Sitka. They managed to be there on one of the few sunny days and hiked up Verstovia. They said they were impressed with the view, one of them hiked to the main rocky peak, the other felt it was too dangerous. I think that they were probably there the day that I spent sitting up on top of Harbor Mountain.
It was interesting hearing these people talk together. They certainly had a much more European viewpoint. They were talked a little about the economies in Europe and how expensive things are in the boonies of Alaska and Canada. After having spent part of my summer in Paris and London last year, I didn't think that they were too cheap. Compared to the boonies of Alaska and Canada, London and Paris probably weren't too bad, but compared to the kind of prices I have become accustomed to while at college in Idaho, they were pretty spendy. The people there at the camp told me that in Paris how much things cost depends a lot on where you buy them. They also said that London is expensive.
As the evening wore on, the wind started to die down and I found out how nice the wind was. The mosquitoes came out. The next day, I had mosquitoe bites on my feet, legs, and even my belly, all of which had been covered by clothes. Nasty vicious things.
I wandered around the campground that evening (it was fairly big). They had a tent filled with stuff about the history of the trail and some books with history and natural stuff. They also had "You hiked the trail" certificates, so I filled one out for myself. One of the most interesting things there was a graveyard up on a hill. There were several graves that had been put up during the gold rush. Most of the grave markers were made of wood and had been worn down quite a bit. The graves were fenced off with wood as well. What I liked so much about it was the way so many plants were growing out of the graves. Most of the area immediately surrounding the graves was barren rock, but the graves themselves had small trees, cranberries, and (I think) crowberries.