Aug / 7 / 2017
BEEP!!! BEEP!!!
BEEP!!! was the sound that most of us are greeted with at 4 AM Monday
morning. Most of us just pressed our snooze button until 4:20 AM when
Dwylin woke everyone by walking out of the restroom. It wouldn’t
take long after that until the entire group would get up and get
ready to go. It was around 5 AM when we all hopped in our trucks and
left for our 2 and a half-hour drive up into the wilderness.
Most of the guys
weren’t hungry, because we had enjoyed a massive meal the evening
before. It also didn’t help that we never saw any breakfast places
after leaving the gas station. That was our first mistake because
most of us started our hike on basically an empty stomach.
The drive up was
filled with dirt roads and great scenery and one random guy in the
middle of the road wearing PJ’s and “SUNGLASSES”. Please keep
in mind that this was still around 6 AM and with almost no sunlight.
If you want to read into the situation, go ahead, but we never
stopped to ask him any questions.
Finally, we ended up
reaching our parking area where we left behind our trucks and head
out on foot for 25 miles and 5 total days in “The Bob”.
Remembering that we’re heading into a “WILDERNESS”; all seven
of us grabbed hands and each of us said a prayer. We started with
Matthew went around the circle and ended with Dwylin praying. After
that special time, we headed out… after Nate told everyone that they
should stretch.
We made it around a
mile and a half and something started to happen that we didn’t
expect. No one told us that the path was going to have that much
dust. Most ended up walking beside the path instead of on it.
Another observation was shouted out by Dwylin, from the back of the
group… Dan! I was promised minimal hills.” Dan just laughed, as
we continued UPHILL.
Probably a half mile
later we came upon a sign, welcoming us to the park. Part of the
sign was missing, and Dan said that he’d almost bet anything that
it was a bear. This experience was followed by Matt taking out his
knife, and carving something into the back of the sign… L+M inside
of a heart.
(If
you're not aware. Matt is getting married to Linda Miller just 2 weeks
after our trip is over… and he is very happy about it. In fact, he
ended every prayer on our trip by jumping in at the end of the
prayer, and saying out loud “thank you for making Linda so
awesome”. Even if he wasn’t the one that was praying.)
We continued on
seeing great views and soon enough hiking up and down. Every once
and a while we had to cross a creek and hope we didn’t fall in or
at the very least get our feet wet. Wet Shoes + Wet Socks = Blisters
or in reality Loose Shoes = Blisters.
We kept on hiking,
making good time, as far as we could tell. Making it about 8 miles
before the heat started getting to us, and it got to Dwylin first.
(Lets
go back two or three years before this trip. There was a forest
fire in the valley we’re hiking in now. Many trees are standing
but very charred and with no comfort of shade. We came to learn very
quickly that direct sunlight gets very hot very quickly, and without
sunlight, it gets chilly very quickly. On the bright side, however,
if you still have sunlight. You can dry your clothes on rocks
quickly, because of the lack of humidity.)
OK,
you're up to speed. We finally, for the first time that day, rested
and snacked on some bars that we had brought with us. After that, we
started walking again, but the damage had already been done! Some of
us could immediately tell that our strength and stamina had taken a
hit. We ended up stopping about 3 times by the time we got to the
rangers station 2 miles away (10 miles total for the day). After
resting in the grass by the ranger's cabin we figured out that we
needed to go at least 2 more miles for a good camping spot, but we
weren’t getting any closer by just sitting around. To make matters
worse, Dwylin’s walking had already started to slow. Everyone
knew why he was having trouble... BLISTERS.
Two miles later we
started to receive hope… campsites! It sounds like rest to me! The
only problem was that we had to find a spot cleared enough for a
tent. Boy, were we ever happy for deciding at the last minute to
bring that tent along. Between our tent and the water of the river
was a valley of slippery rocks, maybe 30 feet of it… but if you
asked the guys with blisters it might as well have been the Grand
Canyon. Every step onto a rock you thought was secured and firmly in
place, was instead a cruel joke, probably God’s way of making us
more thankful for the river that we eventually got to.
Everyone got to the
river at some point and got their feet wet, either cleaning their
hair or to get below the water to shock their aching joints and sore
shoulders (the water was FREAKISH-LY COLD). Afterward, some of the
guys went fishing, and others got camp ready, and because of how dry
Montana has been this summer, there was Stage 1 Fire Ban. Basically,
that just means that no one is allowed to have a campfire, but
propane fires are allowed for the time being (no sparks to set pine
needles aflame). It didn’t take long after that for our “Mountain
House” meals to get passed around. If you don't know what those
are… Google it! Amazing for camping trips!
The evening
basically ended with us back down by the water, skipping rocks, but
of course, it turned into a competition. I believe one time, they had
to skip the rock only once across the river, but the rock thrown
could not skip past the halfway point of the river… you know stuff
like that.
The exact time
people started heading for bed escapes me at this moment, but there
was plenty of daylight left. That didn’t matter to anyone,
because we hiked 12 miles in 8 hours. We were spent and we still
needed to walk 8 miles the next day and another 5 or 6 after that.
This, however, concludes our first day of hiking. Until we begin again, you'll just have to sit and wait for it!
