Day 103: easy miles, and an epic river!

Monday 7/30/12
Miles 1235-1255 (20 miles)
Elevation 3228'

Gosh today was some epic easy hiking. It's interesting, prior to doing the trail, many past thru-hikers say the sierras were their favorite part. Personally, I'm having way more fun now than I did in the sierras. The sierras were super epic, don't get me wrong. And I was super stoked about the lack of snow. But I think the trail and the overall experience has been so much prettier since leaving the sierras. I don't think I'm a fan of elevation. Lol. I operate fine in it, but I don't like it as much as I do now, climate-wise. The air is completely different. It's been a lot more humid the last few days, which I love. And there are still a ton of trees, which I love too.

Sorry I didn't take many pics today. Sometimes I just space out and forget. We crossed an epic river today, Middle Fork of the Feather River. That's the pic I have. The guy in the photo is G. He's pretty cool, we first met him at the Peter Grubb hut the day we left Truckee. Me and Kyle were at that very spot for a few hours. Whee! Hiker Trash bath! Lol. I kinda did some laundry too.

On a completely random and unrelated note, Kyle reminds me of a puppy sometimes. Lol. My friend's dad trained a search and rescue dog for the fire department. He said the way they taught the dog to climb a ladder was by putting peanut butter on the rungs of the ladder. Kyle *loves* peanut butter. I've been wanting to take Kyle rock climbing. I was imagining how to teach him to climb. Id set up the anchor and rappel down and put peanut butter on all the hand holds. Then I'll have Kyle on top rope and just make him go from peanut butter blob to blob, all the way up the wall. Haha :D. There used to be a golden retriever I would always hang around. I called her Gold Puppy (he name was Bell). She was my epic littlw adventure buddy. One day she got into the trash and I found her on the kitchen floor licking clean an empty jar of peanut butter. When I watch Kyle eat peanut butter it always reminds me of Gold Puppy licking that jar. Haha. :D. Actually, Kyle is a lot like Gold Puppy. They're both blonde. And they like to sleep. A lot. They're really good at hiking. Yet they can both lie around for hours and do nothing an be totally happy. And they like peanut butter. A lot. Lol :D

We camped by another river shortly after the Feather River. Saw Jeff there, he saved us a spot. Thanks Jeff! Sleeping next to a bubbling creek when there are no mosquitos around is one of the most epic things in the world :)

Day 102: slow start, mellow day

Sunday 7/29/12
Miles 1220-1235 (15 miles)
Elevation 6,454'

So, we woke up this morning and it was wet inside the tent. Condensation. WTF. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of having a double walled tent? Ok maybe I should explain so you all know what I've been complaining about the last few days. Lol.

So, 4 season tents are double walled to protect against really bad weather. Like a snowstorm or a crappy rainstorm. Its much warmer than a single walled tent (what most tents are). And it also prevents condensation from dripping all on the inside of the tent. With a regular single walled tent, whenever it's really cold and/or moist outside the tent and really warm inside the tent, condensation will develop on the inside wall of the tent. And if you get enough condensation inside the tent, it starts dripping, as if it was raining inside the tent. Which really sucks if you have a down sleeping bag, like both of us do. down does not insulate when it's wet, and it doesn't just automatically dry like a synthetic sleeping bag does. Down weighs less than synthetic bags do, hence they are popular amongst thru-hikers. So basically if you get a down sleeping bag wet, you're screwed. Therefore it's nice to have a double walled tent, so it will condensate on the outside layer, not the inside layer, and theoretically you stay dry.

So we woke up this morning and the inside of the tent was wet in some parts. Blah!! >:( doesnt that kind of defeat the purpose of having a double walled tent? Arg. I never got this much condensation in my notch tent!! Because it was not enclosed so it wasnt ever warm enough on the inside for any major condensation to occur. Arrrg. So I gotta figure out how to ventilate the tent while avoiding too much condensation. Blah. This tent is such a pain in the ass. It's *really* cool yet really annoying. Its great if i was camping consistently in snow. Thank goodness im not. Plus it's bright frickin yellow. I suppose people that buy 4 season tents use it primarily for that 4th season, otherwise they'd just get a regular 3 season tent. And maybe people that camp in snow like to have a very visible tent. It just is annoying for me as a thru-hiker because I like to be subtle. Plus, stealth camping is now out of the question. Oh, for any future pct thru-hikers, make sure you get a tent that is earth-toned. At some point you will probably have to stealth camp, ie camp somewhere you're not supposed to. Having a tent that blends in with the earth is nice. Unless you cowboy camp, but if the weather is crappy, cowboy camping will suck. So get an earth-toned tent. :)

Ok, enough whining about the tent. Lol. We didn't get going today til about 1pm. Blah. We still got 15 miles in though, so that was cool. This morning we were camped by a dirt road. A bunch of jeeps rolled up, it was so cool. 2 CJs (on the right) and a YJ (on the left). They were all white. I took a pic. Baaaaah. I miss my jeep. :(. Especially with all these epic jeep roads we've been passing the last couple weeks. I have a white yj like the one in the pic. Except mine has no top and its not as white and has more rust holes. Lol. Other weekend car campers rolled by too. One of them had a super cute doggy!! :) Must be a popular area. But yeah, it took a while for us to leave. It was just one of those days...

All day today we were leap frogging with this one guy named Jeff. He is so cool, really great energy and attitude. We first saw him at Red Moose Inn. Anyhow, a couple weeks ago he was hiking with Hee Haw, Problem Bear, and Kindergarden Cop for a while. That is such an epic combination of hikers. Lol. Anyhow, one of those guys pointed out what a rag tag bunch of hikers they were: an ex cop (Kindergarden cop is a retired LAPD officer), an ex convict (Jeff was previously in prison), a hillbilly, and a hobo (problem bear kinda looks like a bum lol). Those guys are so funny. Wish they were around, they'd be so awesome to hike around. Defintely some of my favorite hikers on trail. They are so awesome and they all have such a great and mellow attitude, and are hilariously funny. But k cop and problem bear haul ass. It's funny, Jeff was saying, Problem Bear looks like he's just lumbering down the trail when he hikes but in reality, he walks really fast. Looks like the PCT Men's Support Group has some new members. Lol.

Does anyone know what that fluorescent green moss on the tree is? I took a pic of it. It is all over the trees in this area, since Tahoe. Seems like a parasitic thing, since a lot of the branches of a tree that the moss is growing on look dead, whereas branches on the same tree without the moss look much more healthy. Hmm.

Day 101: cool views!

Saturday 7/28/12
Miles 1200-1220 (20 miles)
Elevation 6,500'

Dang. Today was pretty rad. The area we are in right now is called Sierra Buttes. And the mountains are just that. They're not pointy and jagged like they were in the high sierras, they are more rolly and flat now. This area is super popular amongst locals. It's Saturday today and there are tons of people everywhere. There is a whole network of jeep roads that run all over the mountains here and so there are 4wd vehicles, dirtbikes, quads, and stuff everywhere. I've noticed that a really popular thing out here are those Rhino vehicles. Or whatever you call them. They look like beefed up offroad gas powered golf carts. There are TONS of those everywhere. People just strap camping gear to those and run around all over the jeep roads. That's so cool!

Oh!! This place is also hugely popular for mountain biking too! The trail came out at some parking lot and there were about 50 people with bikes milling about. DROOL!! Oh my gosh I wanna ride!! One of the guys said there was a mtb race next week so people were practicing. Cool!! I tried to get one of the bikers to trade with me. Lol. I told them I'll take their bike and they can take my pack and I'll meet them in Belden. No takers. Damn. Lol!! :)

By the way, if anyone out there is affiliated with a bicycle company, Kyle and I are looking for gear sponsors; we want to ride the Continental Divide. Or at least the USA part of it. It's a cross country trail like the PCT that goes from Mexico to Canada, but over the rocky
Mountains. I think the northern terminus is Banff in Alberta. Anyhow, if anyone wants to sponsor us, I will advertise your gear like no other. Plus, I'm good at blogging :D. So people all over the world will be exposed. Seriously. Someone please sponsor us, you won't be disappointed, I promise.

We've been hearing gunshots all day. And vehicles too. Its funny how un-remote this trail is, at least the whole portion I've done so far. I mean, before I started, I thought I would be alone by myself in the middle of nowhere. And a lot of times you kinda feel like you are, but you're not really that far away from civilization. Which is both good and bad. Good, because you can resupply often and not have to carry a ton of food, bad because there are just tons of people everywhere. Seriously, I thought I wouldn't see people on trail other than maybe other pct hikers. But there are SO MANY PEOPLE! Lol. And you constantly hear planes going overhead. Even in the high sierras. That's one of the reasons I really want to do the continental divide. People say its a lot more remote and you don't see ANYONE. So youre pretty much on your own. Super cool :D

It's so awesome, just overall, the change of foliage as I progress north. The trees and plants look so different now from just 100 miles go. And yet some plants are still the same from when I was in the desert! Lol. It's so cool too, the change in foliage as we go up and down in elevation. I wish I had some plant knowledge, it would be cool to know what I was seeing. Lol. I suppose I could always carry a plant guidebook. But that's too heavy.

The views today were so cool. We're not really that high up (we're around 6,500-7,500' elevation), but the valleys are deep, so it feels like we are a lot higher than we really are. It's cool. Feels like I'm on top of the world. I like that feeling :)

Day 100: perspectives, and 1200 miles

Friday 7/27/12
Miles 1197-1200 (3 miles)
Elevation 5,500'

Yeah, I was in a real pissy mood last night, if you couldn't tell. Lol. Ultimately it was the fact that I was still seam sealing my tent at 9 and I needed to do a million other things. Ah well, a small price to pay to insure that the tent won't leak when it's pissing rain. Lol. Plus I was just irritated because it's taken me 1,200 miles to figure out exactly the bare minimum amount of stuff I need to carry in order to be happy, and changes in gear tend to throw a wrench in the whole thing. Ah well I'll get over it. I was pissed when I first had to carry the bear can too. Lol :)

The engineering and design behind the tent is really cool. I wish it had 2 side doors like my Notch does, instead of one front door. Especially with a 2 person tent, it really helps. Plus it makes it a lot easier getting in and out of it, especially if you're in a cluster of trees. A lot of times I'd pitch my Notch in a tiny spot surrounded by brush, but it didn't matter since there were doors on both sides so it was still accessible. This new tent only has one door on the end which is not too efficient. As with all ultra lite gear, there is a learning curve to using it initially.

Anyhow, we left Sierra city today. Stoked! I really wanted to stay, Bill and Margaret are so freaking awesome. But there were also a ton of hikers who came in today so the place was crowded. I wasn't in the mood to be around that many people. I took some pics of the exterior of the Red Moose Inn. It's such a neat establishment.

Leaving Sierra city we had a 2700' climb. We didn't leave til late so we only got about 1/3 of the way up before it got dark. Hence the low mileage today. But we hit the 1200 mile mark!! Whoo hoo!! :D

It's funny how so much has changed since hiking in the desert. I carried 3L of water out of Sierra city because I wasn't sure we were going to get to a water source before making camp. And oh man that sucked, my pack was sooo heavy! But in reality, it's still lighter than what it weighed in the desert. Lol.

Oh! Random thought. I forgot to mention yesterday, but we took a shortcut off the trail and basically walked right into Sierra City. We passed a really awesome campground (like, the kind you drive your car up to). If any of you want to go camping in northern California, I highly recommend it. It's called Wild Plum campground and it's so pretty. All the campsites have a water spigot, bear box, and there are outhouse facilities. The whole campground is located next to a really awesome river, so it's a great place to bring kids. Plus it's nearby a lot of cool places like mining towns, epic mtb trails, hiking/equestrian trails, and there is a grocery store in Sierra city which is about 1 mile away if you forget stuff. I think it is $21 per site.

Another really epic campground accessible by car is the Onion Valley campground. This is the one we passed a while ago (mile 785ish). It is off of hwy 395 about 12 miles up the mountain above the town of Independence. It is also very beautiful and well-maintained. There is a creek and waterfall that run though there. The campground host there is named Michael and he is so amazingly cool. Great guy. I think sites there are $14. This is a great place to stay if you're vacationing around the hwy 395 area. There's also a lot of epic places to go and sights to see and things to do in the area. World class fishing, rock climbing (bouldering), death valley, schatz bakery, all the hwy 395 towns, etc.

So yeah, if you want to go camp but don't want to walk 20 miles/day with a pack on, those two campgrounds are really cool and possibly the prettiest I've seen thus far, as far as car camping goes :)

Holy fuddy duddy batman! :D

Ok, so there has been a couple of negative reactions to one of my recent posts; as society generally goes, when one person voices something, there are usually a whole cluster of people that feel the same way, who chose not to say anything. So here's my reply to those who feel offended.

1)I don't take life very seriously. I don't take *anything* very seriously. Including myself. Therefore neither should anyone else. Taking life seriously may lead to premature grey hairs, wrinkles, ulcers, and constipation. :D

2)Squizzle says: Snot rockets are more environmentally friendly than using facial tissue. Not only are you "saving trees", you're also saving all the resources and energy it takes to produce and package the facial tissue. Plus, boogers decompose better than processed paper (ie facial tissue). Therefore, as part of the green movement, everyone should blow snot rockets. Don't forget to use hand sanitizer! You dont want to get giardia. Giardia sucks. Just ask all the hikers who are/were off trail (temporarily or permanently) because of it...

Aloha!
~Dancing Feet
Hiker/engineer/sociologist/dancer/artist/ostentatious-ninja extraordinaire

Day 99: Sierra City!

Thursday 7/27/12
Miles 1183-1195 (12 miles)
Elevation 4,185'

Wow it's toasty! We're back in lower elevation. Feels like the desert again! Saw a rattlesnake today. It was doing a cool little dance. Dang, I thought I was done with those guys in the desert! I guess not. Lol. Anyhow, we got into Sierra City today. I got my new poles from Black Diamond! Yaaaay! Thank you!! My other pole fell apart 30 miles ago, I'm stoked!! :)

Also got a new tent. My mom and dad sent me their 2 person 4 season tent. It's a Stevenson Warmlite tent. Thanks mom and dad!! :). It's a cool tent, however I think it's totally impractical for thru-hiking. The poles are freakin heavy. And they're curved. They're collapsible, but still curved. Not good for thru-hiking. I wonder how long it will be before I break those poles. The tent is also frickin huge. Which is nice for a 2 person tent, but excessive. It's comfortable tho. However, in my opinion, if comfort is that big of a deal for you, you shouldn't be thru-hiking. Oh, seam sealing it was absolutely ridiculous. It took 2 of us over 2 hours to seam seal it. Holy crap. Btw, don't seam seal your tent on the trail. Make sure you do it at home. You will be pissed off if you have to seam seal on trail. Trust me. Not only that, but it probably wont be as good of a job a if you did it at home. And it won't fully dry, and you will have dirt and all kinds of crap stuck to the silicone.

Anyhow. Maybe I'll like the tent a little more later on. Bah. I'm just annoyed I have to carry tent poles. It just seems like complete dead weight. Wish they would just go up with my hiking poles like my Notch. I love that tent. It is so epic, simple, and efficient. That new tent is stuffy as hell too. Bleh.

Anyhow, the Red Moose Inn in Sierra City is absolutely amazing. Bill and Margaret are two of the coolest, kindest, and most selfless people on earth. Right up there with the Saufleys and Ziggy and the Bears, etc. Yay for epic trail angels!!! <3. Thank you soooo much for all you guys do for us hikers. You are beautiful souls and an amazing aspect of humanity. Epicness times a million <3

Day 98: just cruising... :)

Wednesday 7/25/12
Miles 1163-1183 (20 miles)
Elevation 7,000'

That hut had a cool book in it called Outhouses of Alaska. It's funny. :) I also took some pics of mine and Kyle's trail register entry. G drew that really cool dragon. I think it took him about an hour last night to do that.

The landscape and terrain is so different. If you look back at the scenery pics from a couple weeks ago, til now, it's like night and day! Before I would look in the distance and the mountains are so pointy and tall and jagged, now I look around and it's soft and rolly. The terrain is consequentially a lot more mellow too. Hence doing 20 mile days isn't too bad even in the 5 finger shoes.

Gosh I love those shoes. I don't understand how or why people want to hike in boots. They are like bricks on the feet! To each their own :)

So I got sick the day after leaving Tahoe. Not sure how or why, but I'm feeling good today finally :). Man the first few days sucked, my throat hurt so breathing also hurt. Which sucked because breathing is kind of important. I also have tons of boogers. Kyle said I should save it and when a day hiker comes by I could blow a huge snot rocket. Which is a great idea!! Except everytime I had enough boogers to shoot an epic snot rocket, there were no day hikers around. Tragic. :(. Haha!

Oh! Squizzle now has a wizard name too! He is Squizzard. I need to find a small piece of tyvek to make him a little wizard hat.

Dang there are so many day hikers. Arrrrg it's kind of annoying. Lol. After doing the PCT for a while, I think we all find day hikers and weekend hikers annoying. Lol. I thought it was just me and Kyle being self entitled pct assholes, but apparently all the other hikers have the same sentiments. Lol. It's not individuals that we don't like, it's just the idea of them, I think. If that makes any sense. I dunno, the other pct hikers are generally so cool, the only time we're run into pricks and goobers were either the day hikers, JMters, or dockers (that's what we call weekend hikers). Lol. So, since mt.whitney we've been trying to figure out ways to scare day hikers. I think that's how the wizard suit idea came about. Lol.

The hikers in the pic are Swanson, G (the two dudes we were in the hut with) and Trooper who is the tall dude. They're funny, I could hear them coming down the trail from a 1/2 mile away. PCT hikers are so fascinating :)

Day 97: epic morning, epic trail, epic hut

Tuesday 7/24/12
Miles 1156-1163 (7 miles)
Elevation 7,851'

Oh my gosh, Tom made us an AMAZING breakfast. He made us scrambled eggs and sausage. Then he made us homemade sourdough blueberry pancakes. Oh man it was yumballs! He drove us to the trail afterwards. THANKS TOM!!! <3 he is definitely one of the most fascinating trail angels I've met. Wish I coulda just hung around all day with him. Ah well. Time to put in miles. Or so we thought. Lol!

Near the trailhead, there is Donner Ski Ranch. They have a bar/cafe there at the ski lodge that they opened up in the summer, and they give PCT hikers beer. I heard about this and Tom confirmed it, so naturally we went there. We ended up staying for almost 4 hours. Oops. Lol. The bartender was really cool. She also runs the kitchen and the whole place, singlehandedly. They had one of those margarita machines, and I had li hing mui powder, so I introduced Kyle to the epicness of a li hing mui margarita. Whoop whoop! :) the bartender lived in Hawaii for a while so she knew exactly what I was doing. Lol.

We didn't get on trail til after 4. Lol. Oops. :) hence we only did 7 miles. gosh it was a pretty hike. We went to this random cabin called the Peter Grubb hut. It's such a badass cabin!! Owned and built by the Sierra club. I took pics of it. There's actually electricity in there (just lights), powered by a solar panel. There are 2 wood burning stoves too. It's a huge cabin! There are 2 rooms in there and a loft upstairs. That's where the ladder goes. There's also an outhouse.

We were there with Sam (G) and I forgot the other guy's name. They are super cool. It was a fun evening. This cabin would have been an epic place the night of the thunderstorm. Lol :)

Trivia time #3: United States lakes edition

The PCT goes right by the 2 deepest lakes in the USA. Name both the lakes

To Kyle's friends and family

Some people have asked where and how to send Kyle care packages. Here are some addresses and *specific* instructions. We're not being anal, it's just that if packages are not labeled and sent a certain and specific way, there is only about a 60% chance it will arrive; part of that depending on whether the postmaster on both ends is in a good mood or not. So here we go.

If you can send out the package by this Friday (7/27/12), send it to here, addressed exactly like so. Please send it as *priority mail* to:
PCT Hiker Kyle Dahl
General Delivery
Belden, CA 95915

If you cant get package out by friday, send it here. Next address after Belden:
PCT Hiker Kyle Dahl
General Delivery
Old Station, CA 96071

On the box, please write Kyle's last name in large ostentatious print on all sides of the box. If you're mailing Kyle a box, please let him know, because he needs to know a box is there in order to pick it up.

Also, Kyle's been wanting to get a travel-sized classical backpackers guitar. Martin Guitar Company makes a lightweight classical backpackers guitar. So if one of his friends wants to start a get-kyle-a-guitar fund, awesome. :D Kyle doesnt read my blog. So shhhh don't tell him I'm shamelessly pimping him out. LOL! :). He's a really good guitar player, incase you didn't know. It's pretty epic to hear music on the trail. There's 2 other PCTers I know of that are rocking travel guitars, Jason Phelps (AKA Hee Haw) and Kristo; Kristo has a blog, dunno about Hee haw. Yay for PCT musicians! :)

Oh. Not sure if you can mail aerosols, but at some point in the near future I'm going to shave a mohawk in his hair. I need orange or pink or some other loudass hairspray paint, so I can color his Mohawk. :D

Day 96: thunder! lightning! rain! hail! Whee!!

Monday 7/24/12
Miles 1140-1156 (16 miles)
Elevation 7,101'

Today was probably the most odd overall day of hiking. Lol. So, the whole day it was a mixture of thunder, lightning, rain, hail, and intense sunshine. Lol. Reminds me of Hawaii. :) Except we don't get hail. Except for that one time earlier this year.

Anyhow, weather was nutty. I was SO STOKED I had my umbrella. Of all the miscellaneous pieces of gear I have, my chrome dome is my fave. It saved me through the desert, and now it's saving me from precipitation. Kyle just had his rain jacket and when he was getting pelted with hail, he said it hurt. Ouch. :( Umbrella-1, Precipitation-0, HA! :D

We pretty much walked through the back side of the entire squaw valley ski area. Holy crap it is a HUGE resort! It reminded me of Wrightwood, because over there the trail also went through the top of the Mt.High ski resort. It was kinda neat.

Anyhow, at Donner pass we hitched into the town of Truckee to get more fuel. Kyle also got a pack cover. Ive had mine since day one, and today is the first time ive used it. So stoked on the lack of rain! Hiking in precipitation sucks. Lol. Ugh, washington is gonna totally suck balls...

There is an all you can eat sushi place in Truckee, too. :) for your reference, Truckee is about a 30 minute drive due west of Reno. it's not as epic as Sushi Pier tho. Oh my god if any of you are in South lake Tahoe, you *need* go to there. Seriously. Theres one in Reno too.

Anyhow. A *super awesome* trail angel picked us up in Truckee and let us crash at his epic 3 story house with his dog and cat! THANK YOU TOM!! Trail name Freeloader. Lol. Tom is so cool. Definitely one of my favorite top 3 trail Angels, next to Shepherd (SoCal), and Tom and Tori who picked us up outside of Bridgeport. Iwe dried our sleeping bags and gear at Toms house. By the way, don't dry your sleeping bags in a household dryer! Holy crap it put a couple holes in Kyle's bag and melted some of the fabric. WTF?!? We've dried the bags so many times at laundomats with no problems. It was set on low heat! Both our bags were in there. Mine didn't get holes in it, Kyle's did. F**k that really really frickin sucks. Uuuuuugh... >:(

Anyhow, Tom is so unbelievably COOL. I dunno how to describe him. I could have easily sat there all day and had conversations with him. He is such a character!! Lol. Thanks so much Tom!

The section of trail from Sonora Pass to Donner Pass is probably my favorite chunk of the PCT overall, thus far. The only reason Yosemite isn't #1 is because of the mosquitos. Scenery-wise it is my favorite tho. But yeah, good lord this past section of trail is incredible!!!! <3

Anyhow, Sierra City here we come! :)

Day 95: dancing feet, wheeee! :)

Sunday 7/22/12
Miles 1120.5-1140 (19.5 miles)
Elevation 7,500'

Dang, today's 20 miles was so much more epic than yesterday's 20 miles. The terrain was a lot softer and comfy. We made pretty good time. And the feet felt a lot better.

At Barker Pass, there was an epic anonymous trail angel. We were running very low on fuel, and this person had a bucket sitting on his car by the trailhead filled with heet, denatured alcohol, duct tape, ziploc bags, a large trash bag for trash, and other random things hikers need. Thank you so much, mysterious trail angel that drives a light blue Prius with Nevada plates!! Wish you were there so we could thank you in person! We left a thank-you note though.

So, this evening, in the tent, Kyle saw flashes of light outside. And like idiots, we didn't really think anything of it. (Kyle commented, "am I on drugs or something? I keep seeing flashes of light...) around 1am, a thunder and lightning storm just let loose right above us. Holy fricking crap!! It was loud. Lol. It was intermittently just pouring rain too. Damn I am so glad the rain was not continuous. In Hawaii, when there is a thunder and lightning storm, there is also a shitload of rain; as in, parts of the island get flooded. So glad it's not like that out here. Damn. Yeah, my solo tent doesn't work so well in the rain with 2 people in it. Because the way it's shaped, when there's 2 people under it, the groundsheet and sleeping pad corners are sticking out the sides. Since I'm only using the tarp portion of the tent, the water was dripping onto the sleeping pads and both our bags got kinda damp before we were able to rearrange stuff to keep it under the vestibules. Damn. :/ This was the 3rd time I got rain on the trail, Kyle's 1st. My bag got way more wet the first time I got rained on (because I was cowboy camping, which is no-tent) so I wasnt really worried. But yeah, we're switching to a real 2-person tent at our next resupply stop, since im sure NorCal/OR/WA will have more precipitation...

Anyhow. I was stoked we were in a valley and not on top of a ridge. That would be a crappy place to be camping during a lightning storm. I was also super grateful the rain was intermittent and not continuous. Whew! :)