1 night
2 crazy rainstorms
1 warm tent
3 snakes (2 brown, 1 green)
7 mosquito bites
no bears
2lbs of raspberries
1 invisible angry lumberjack guy
and previously,
1 lava peanut-butter ice cream cake
That was the summation of Payton’s 24th birthday. He wanted to go backpacking. I wasn’t so sure. I’m usually freezing. Plus, the last time we’d been up there, bear scat and prints were aplenty. I finally gave in and we managed to squeeze it into our last two weeks here. It was awesome! We had such an adventure. It POURED on our way up the pass. The road was covered in mud and rocks and more water continued to rush across it. 2.4 miles onto the gravel, we reached our trailhead.
We ate our dinner while waiting for the rain to stop. Finally, the sun shook off it’s cloudy cloak and kept the temperature closer to 75 F.
The trail was dripping and the trees were probably laughing as they would quiver in the breeze or in our passing and shake drops on our heads. My hair was soaked. The trail left us without much breath as we hauled our packs. Water is heavy! We quickly forgot the pain as I spotted a little bitty raspberry. Then, we just kept finding more. We had to stop the raspberry madness so we’d make it to our site before dark.
It stayed dry until 10:30pm. Until then, we ate snacks and drank a discounted smoothie while talking about what saving faith really means. I gathered a few red raspberry leaves to add to my tea, chewed on some plantain leaf and put the green mush over my mosquito bites, particularly over the one in the middle of my forehead.
When it started to rain, my jeans, which were drying on the rocks that formed the fire ring, promptly caught on fire. Payton rescued them, assuring me it would be a fashion statement. The burn was only on the bottom, so I couldn’t complain….
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