Brittany & I
Luke & Ward
Da River
So when they made me cut devil’s club in the rain I was a little concerned. When I had to haul tree limbs and logs across the mountain I was a little concerned. But now I am sure of it. They are trying to kill me. Yesterday we went on a 14 mile hike. A 14 mile hike! Do you know how far that is? Let me tell you how far that is. Very. And this was no regular 14 mile hike. Oh no. Do not think you can jump on your treadmills at home and walk 14 miles and know what I went through yesterday. Let me take you through a play by play.
First of all we were hiking up a river, which means that we had to wear galoshes. Most everyone’s galoshes here go up to their knees, but Brittany’s and my galoshes go about mid calf. This means that if you don’t want to carry a gallon of water in each boot you have to have very precise stepping, chart every step you are about to take, look for every shallow spot and rocks. So I was doing pretty well for myself and all the sudden I had to jump pretty far, but thought I would be ok since I had just seen Brittany make the same jump. Well I made the jump, but what I did not calculate was the slipperiness factor. So down I went. Flat on my butt in the freeeeeezing cold river. So the next 8 miles I got to walk in my sick squishy boots. Slosh, slosh, slosh.
First of all we were hiking up a river, which means that we had to wear galoshes. Most everyone’s galoshes here go up to their knees, but Brittany’s and my galoshes go about mid calf. This means that if you don’t want to carry a gallon of water in each boot you have to have very precise stepping, chart every step you are about to take, look for every shallow spot and rocks. So I was doing pretty well for myself and all the sudden I had to jump pretty far, but thought I would be ok since I had just seen Brittany make the same jump. Well I made the jump, but what I did not calculate was the slipperiness factor. So down I went. Flat on my butt in the freeeeeezing cold river. So the next 8 miles I got to walk in my sick squishy boots. Slosh, slosh, slosh.
Oh I forgot to mention the pushki. Regardless of the fact that I had already been warned to not touch it, I had a wee bit of a hard time avoiding it being as half of the hike was through thick forest that we were trying to trek through. Somehow or another I got a horrendously itchy arm from this ridiculous Alaskan killer plant. Lovely.
So our destination was this stupid lake and after some 3 hours of hiking everyone finally agreed that it would not be the worst thing on earth if we didn’t see this lake. That night at dinner we found out there is no lake. Yes, no lake. Might I mention that I asked numerous times if there really was a lake, to which everyone laughed? Yes. And speaking of dinner, I should also mention that this hike went on from about noon to 7:30 and I had not eaten since breakfast. Eventually though I am pretty sure that my stomach ate some of my other vital organs because the hunger did go away after awhile.
So our destination was this stupid lake and after some 3 hours of hiking everyone finally agreed that it would not be the worst thing on earth if we didn’t see this lake. That night at dinner we found out there is no lake. Yes, no lake. Might I mention that I asked numerous times if there really was a lake, to which everyone laughed? Yes. And speaking of dinner, I should also mention that this hike went on from about noon to 7:30 and I had not eaten since breakfast. Eventually though I am pretty sure that my stomach ate some of my other vital organs because the hunger did go away after awhile.
But we did see elk.
1 comment:
hey great blog! good to hear about all your adventures in alaska. I had no idea what you were doing up there, but now I know! Anyway, check out mine if you get the chance. Keep on writing!
http://betterwithapen.blogspot.com/
peace and love,
`D
Post a Comment