Paradise Park to Muddy Fork

Day 2, Paradise Park to Muddy Fork: 7.5 miles

Shortly after we went to bed, the wind kicked up. It was swirling and loud. The temperature was in the mid-fifties but with the wind chill I wished that I had put up my rain fly. I slept fairly well and was awakened in the morning by the thru-hiker stomping through our area – it seems he was having trouble locating the continuation of the trail, which was odd as it was pretty obvious to me. Karen and I got up and started breakfast. I went to the creek to get more water and saw Ryan still asleep under his tarp. Well, actually I saw a collection of dust that looked something like a marble carving of a man in a sleeping bag. Ryan had set up his tarp to optimally collect the wind and volcanic dust. The campsite was officially dubbed Camp Dust Bowl.

Ryan finally got his lazy butt up and soon we were on the trail. We hiked through the rest of Paradise Park and soon rejoined the PCT. The plants along much of the trail were quite dust covered from the dust the wind had kicked up. We continued down into the Sandy River canyon which was the second crossing that was potentially hazardous. There were a couple of logs placed across the river so it wasn’t too bad. We stopped for a while to admire the butterflies. Soon a couple of men who had also been camping at Paradise Park came to the river. As the first was crossing he fell into the river and I valiantly rescued him.

The excitement over, we headed up the trail to a “confusing” trail junction. Karen and I went the correct way while someone who shall remain nameless went the other way. Karen and I soon got to the pretty Ramona falls, which, as it can be done as a day hike, was teeming with hikers. We took photos and went off in search for Ryan’s letterbox there. We found the box and headed back to the falls where we found Ryan reading his book. The group back intact we headed up the Timberline trail. I think it was somewhere around here that we lost one of the Janes. The funny thing about the Janes were that they weren't very talkative but when they did the occasional utterance, boy would it be foul!

Along the way we passed an older man with a younger girl who told us that there were some campsites this side of the Muddy Fork. They had started at Lolo pass and had camped there last night and would be doing so again before heading back to Lolo to complete their trip. We found the campsite and it was nice and near a clear creek so we decided to make camp there. Karen went down the trail away to scout the crossing of the Muddy Fork, which was the last of our potential hazardous crossings. She came back with a report that it was really scary. I decided to check it out too, and while it looked a little tricky, I didn’t think it would be that bad, especially in the morning when the level would be a little lower. We set up camp and et dinner and then headed down to a dry canyon to watch the mountain as the sun went down and to play scrabble. For those wondering why I keep saying “et” it is all a set up for the report on the scrabble game. I had already amassed an extremely large point lead over Karen in the game when I had the opportunity to play “zeal” on a triple word square. To play it though would also make an “et” on the board. I went ahead and played it and Karen challenged it. As a surprise, I had brought a scrabble dictionary with me and “et” was in it and defined as the past participle of “eat.” Karen was furious and had some choice words about the quality of the dictionary. But the play stood and I wound up beating Karen 392-34.

During the scrabble game, the older man and younger girl came to the canyon to watch the mountain too. They began to give each other back massages. Sexy massages. I would have taken pictures but the pictures would be illegal in most countries. The sun went down and we headed back to Camp Lololita. Lololita and the muddy old man started up a campfire and Karen stole the scrabble dictionary from me and took it over and threw it in their fire to end our second day.