View Full Version : Is 2004 the worse wet weather year?
Flash Hand
07-29-2004, 18:06
Hey all,
Have been watching news weather channel tv from time to time. I noticed more and more rains are still coming and soak the half east of United States while the half west of the United States are burning up.
Wondering if hikers out there suffer the weather? river crossing in Maine would be a great problem? Pennsylania rocks in the wet weather? It keep me wonder how hikers can handle this situation. The lastest news is that flooding is everywhere in Lancaster, PA, only several miles south of Appalachian Trail.
My question is, have there been history in the past, if the weather is worse this year and then would there be the worse weather next year?
Any of you think that this year is the worse than in the past? We also are in hurricane season right now and we haven't seen any major hurricane yet. It would create more rain in the state already saturated, especially those Appalachian Trail states. I do think this year, a fewer northbounders accomplished than in the past.
Any discussion or thoughts about this?
Flash Hand :jump
magic_game03
07-29-2004, 18:12
this year was cake. class of '04 has no idea what hardship is like. A dry day last year ment you stayed at a hostel. :banana I'm sure i'm gonna catch flack on this one.
Footslogger
07-29-2004, 18:35
Revisit the journals from 2003. Rain 21 days in a row in May and darn near that many in June. The AT corridor is being blasted at the moment but from what I've seen overall they haven't had it as bad as some previous years ...mainly 2003.
'Slogger
AT 2003
Living very near the Smokies, I can say that last year was far worse in the way of rain than anything we've experienced thus far in the '04 season.
Of course, last month while hiking in Virginia, I was about ready to locate Noah and get him to build me an ark.
tarbubble
07-29-2004, 18:44
pass a little of that rain out west. every year just gets drier and drier out here...
Moose2001
07-29-2004, 20:15
April, May, June 2003 were the wettest 3 months on record for TN, NC and VA. I swore it was NEVER going to stop raining!!
Jack Tarlin
07-29-2004, 20:19
I cannot think of anything in the past seven years that compares to last spring; if there was a worse stretch of weather on the A.T. since 1997, I sure don't remember it.
DMA, 2000
07-29-2004, 21:17
Do people still complain about that when there's more water available in PA and NY?
magic_game03
07-29-2004, 23:38
they have to. It's not that the sources dry up, their just not there to begin with.
Mountain Dew
07-29-2004, 23:44
I thru-hiked in '03 and experienced the rain. Horrible ! To this day every time it rains I think of my hike. The first time it rained after I was done with the trail I had the same old sinking feeling in my gut untill I remembered that all I had to do is walk inside ! I just smiled and laughed.... :sun
lots of rain or not, a thru-hike is still an amazing accomplishment. I'm sure every year presents its own challenges. With that being said, last yrs rain brough tremendous challenges, especially from mid-april to the end of june. I could count the rainless days on one hand for that stretch. I must say July in maine for the most part was completely splendid. Glad I finished when I did since it seems the first half of August was a washout too, from the journals I read.
Kerosene
07-30-2004, 00:35
Hey, it's still better to be out there than sitting behind a desk. I endured 22 out of 26 days of rain and temperatures averaging about 50 degrees (ranging from 95 down to 30) on my SOBO Long Trail thru-hike in August 1979, but I still have a lot of great memories about that hike. That said, my whole soul perks up when the sun comes out and starts shining through the trees.
Flash Hand
07-30-2004, 02:17
I guess I wasn't used to eastern USA's weather. I lived in Arizona for 10 years. I miss Arizona!!
Flash Hand :jump
Tim Rich
07-30-2004, 07:57
Wondering if hikers out there suffer the weather? river crossing in Maine would be a great problem? Pennsylania rocks in the wet weather? It keep me wonder how hikers can handle this situation. The lastest news is that flooding is everywhere in Lancaster, PA, only several miles south of Appalachian Trail.
Flash Hand :jump
We just got back from a Maine section from Rangeley to Monson. Based on what we had read and heard about the fords we crossed, the water was only up about a foot or so from normal levels.
Blue Jay
07-30-2004, 10:00
Poor, poor babies. Rain water is much better than sweat, less chaffing. The colors are brighter. You see many more animals because the rain knocks down your scent and the sound of your foot steps. You don't have to carry much water, there is a stream every few feet. It is an absolute joy to see all the sardines packed into the shelters, peering out like there is a monster out there, pissing and moaning like the world hates them, then running into town for a shower. Just get over it, you've been wet before, it does not hurt you. Simply change the way you think about it. I used to hate up hills until my knees started to hurt, then I started to hate downhills and look for uphills. When I realized what that meant I decided to like them both. What happens to you is not always in your control, your responce to it is. :banana
SavageLlama
07-30-2004, 10:14
2003 was way worse. Props to the class of 2003 for swimming to Katahdin.
Bear Magnet
07-30-2004, 10:51
I remember one day from last year where the sun finally came out in the morning after several days of rain. I took my shirt off, tied my socks to the pack to dry, and really enjoyed my hike.
I stopped off at a shelter and took a long leisurely lunch and a short nap. Hiking out to the next shelter, I felt like things were finally getting better.
Until it rained that afternoon for the last 6 miles of the hike and I got wet again.
Last year was really wet. It should provide lots of good stories for when I am a crotchety old man; stories that I don't even have to make up. :)
Bear Magnet
Jonathan Amato
walkin' wally
07-30-2004, 18:16
My wife and I gave Wildflower (?) a ride to Stratton Me. from Caribou Valley to rest a sore leg. She said that she hiked in rain 85 out of the first 90 days on the trail last year. She thought that more people than normal quit the trail because of the rain. In Maine I don't think we have had a lot more rain this year but the weather has been dull and dreary though compared to most years. Lots of clouds.
If the rain keeps up it will catch up to last year. :-? Anyhow we need the rain. I remember the drought here as well as in Georgia back in the fall of 2000. Had a few DRY camps and long walks to find water that October.
Pencil Pusher
07-31-2004, 00:25
We've been having great sunny weather for the past couple of weeks here in Seattle. I'm glad you all are getting the rain. I just gorged myself on blackberries today, along the bike path. That may as well be our state plant, if it isn't already. Those things grow like crazy here and you can pig out for free, yet the grocery stores still sell the stuff for $2/pound, go figure.
trailangelmary
07-31-2004, 05:53
Two years ago there was a drought in P.A. Last year it rained for something like 48 days straight in P.A. So two years ago hikers taked about the plan to make sure they had water. Last year the talk was about the best way to get your boots dry. And most hikers said that once you are wet o well it is from sweat or rain and they hiked anyway. Recently I am hearing about hikers having a lot of rain days to hike through in the northern states but it is great here. Raining hard occasionally but mostly overnight. Most hikers I have met this year take a zero day when it rains but I guess that is why I meet them. They are not hiking through :-?
Flash--
I spent June hiking in Arizona (Catalinas, Santa Ritas, Chiracahuas, then Grand Canyon N Rim), then returned to the East to spend 6 d on the AT, ME-NH. Wow! But the AT (Grafton Notch-Pinkham Notch) was free of fires, floods or major blowdowns, in fact quite passable throughout, despite puddles, moss and mud. As an aside, Arizona was in the midst of a West Nile epidemic, 60 human cases when we were there. Not what one expected in a drought-stricken state.
Walt
I guess I wasn't used to eastern USA's weather. I lived in Arizona for 10 years. I miss Arizona!!
Flash Hand :jump
Flash Hand
07-31-2004, 20:31
Flash--
I spent June hiking in Arizona (Catalinas, Santa Ritas, Chiracahuas, then Grand Canyon N Rim), then returned to the East to spend 6 d on the AT, ME-NH. Wow! But the AT (Grafton Notch-Pinkham Notch) was free of fires, floods or major blowdowns, in fact quite passable throughout, despite puddles, moss and mud. As an aside, Arizona was in the midst of a West Nile epidemic, 60 human cases when we were there. Not what one expected in a drought-stricken state.
Walt
I should have been clear on this... I lived in the valley, not outside the valley. We expect drought... that what we love. Summer Monsoons are the only wet weather that brought us the relief. So, environment in the Flagstaff looks like Maine. They do have snow or rain like out in the east. Once I said Arizona, I meant Phoenix. Yuma is nearly the same as Phoenix but extreme hot.
I was surprised about West Nile. There weren't any case of west nile since until I left Arizona for the thru hike.
About wildfire.. I am not surprised because it is always outside The Valley. Phoenix don't have much trees to feed the fires.
All about the extreme heat, drought or west nile, I would prefer hiking in Arizona over AT under rainny season.
Flash Hand