I Did It!

I survived!

My first backpacking trip ever is over and I made it out alive. I questioned if I was going to make it out alive at about 3 miles up the mountain.

Geo was a good one to go with though. He told me we could turn around if I wanted to. (My hip was hurting really bad.) I said we should just go ahead because I'd feel bad if he didn't get to see the top, and I didn't want to like ruin the whole trip for him. So, on we went.

Really, on they went. I stayed a good 20 or more feet behind them at all times.

(This was took as I was walking, not stopped. Can you even see Geo up there?)

This happened because...

1. The eye doc took my glasses from me to get a stronger prescription, so I couldn't see the stumps unless I looked closely. And...

2. I was scared I was going to re-sprain my ankles if I tripped on a stump or rock. It does look better than it used to:

But it is still really sore and tender sometimes. And I wore this to keep from rolling it again. So, I rolled it a couple of times but not bad at all. The brace kept it stable. Mostly. 

3. I'm just a slow walker. I don't think I used to be, but now I'm really cautious after the accident.

4. I got really distracted by the trees and the leaves and the noises, but everyone else just trekked on through, just staring at the ground. That probably helped because at every moment, they couldn't see the constant, steep, uphill trail that we were on.

5. That knowledge of the constant, steep, uphill trail just made me go slower because I knew it would be a while (as in 4 hours) of constant, steep uphill. 

6. I kept an eye out for bears stalking us, so I had to constantly be turning around. You could say that I was paranoid of bears.

Okay, so anyways, it was really fine that I was in the back the entire time. It was nice to be able to go my own pace and not be rushed by someone walking on my tail. And I got to think about whatever I wanted to without being disturbed by others. I thought about why "shoe" makes the "ooo" sound when no other word with an "oe" ending makes that sound. Think about it: toe, moe, doe, foe, woe. But we discovered: canoe!

[Disclaimer: Geo really did try to wait on me. He would stop until I caught up, and then about 30 seconds later he'd be ahead and have to wait on me again. He's a very fast walker.]

We got to the trailhead, which was 3 miles and over 3 hours past the camp site. We started walking up it, only .5 miles left to the top. The entire time we hiked, I really wanted to turn around, and I didn't even care that we were almost there. Geo came to my rescue. His legs had been cramping for almost the entire trail up, and they got so bad at the almost-top of Gregory Bald that I could see them convulsing, and we turned around! 

Although I felt bad for him, I was so ready to get back to the camp site where it wasn't so cold, I could take off my brace and SIT DOWN. We got down the trail in less than an hour probably.

Here began my favorite part... A fire, some food, sweatpants, hot chocolate and a chair.

We ate some food out of a bag. It was chicken teriyaki with rice. All we did was add some boiling water and let it sit for a few minutes and it was done. We didn't let it cook long enough, and the chicken was crunchy from the freeze-dried-ness. I was hungry and ate it anyways.

I barely slept because I kept hearing bears all night long. I prayed a whole lot. I woke Geo up, and he told me that it was just Derek snoring. That was a relief.

I was relieved when it was daylight and time to get up. I got a good amount of sleep, but I woke up a lot and was very stressed out that I was awake in the middle of the night and could hear all the noises. 

We drank some spiced tea, and enjoyed the guy's fire and then packed up for home. The two miles back to the car took forever, and this site was a joyous moment:

The car!!! 

We had a beautiful ride home and stopped at Pizza Hut which was amazing! We were so hungry. We got home and I was so glad.

Overall, it was a good experience. It was kind of like Haiti--when I was there, I didn't want to be there; but now that I look back on it, I wouldn't mind going back.