Sunday, October 14, 2012

The Hike from Heck

 Forgive us, this post is a little overdue.  While home in Montana for our second wedding reception, Mom convinced us that we should all go on a fun little day hike... 

(Caitlin's comments are in green..)


The weather report assured a warm, sunny day in the 70's.  (Who needs a jacket or long pants in the Montana summer heat?) (Warm is clearly a relative term. I was cold before we got out of the car with the heater on.) We drove to the trail head, just the 6 of us--3 people and 3 dogs.  The morning was gorgeous!  We saw 4 or so waterfalls in the first 2 miles, hadn't run out of candy yet, Caitlin hadn't tripped or anything, all was truly going perfectly!


We even stopped and took some time to add our own little rock formation to the sea of balancing acts!  It was a fun Montana-y adventure for Caitlin! (Except my rock formation was awful! I have zero architectural skills, unless it is building sand castles.)

There are no more pictures from this hike.

Let me tell you exactly why there are no more pictures. (This is where the "heck" part comes in! haha) There are no more pictures because we decided we wanted to hike off the main trail--on a very steep, narrow single-track--to see a waterfall to which we had never before ventured.  (Totally not my idea!) We had made it almost to the top of this mountain side (we could hear the waterfall somewhere near the top), when the weather conspired against us!  Out of nowhere, the hardest, coldest rain ever began pelting us!  We sought shelter under a small pine tree, but the broad (yeah right!) pine needles just weren't getting the protective job done for us!  

Drenched to our undergarments, we decide we have to move down the mountain, despite the rain, when we see the mud sliding down the mountain side above us.  Just as we begin moving, however, it begins hailing.  At this point you think I am embellishing the story, but I assure you there have been zero exaggerations so far! (I can confirm this. He is not exaggerating, unfortunately.) Next, the mountain lion dropped on Caitlin from the ridge above, snarling viciously!  (Okay, that part was fabricated.)  The dogs are now utterly uneasy though from the hail and water, and we try to collect them all under another tree.  The hail was breaking off small branches at this point, diminishing the overhead coverage, and leaving us as the unimpeded destination for the icy bullets.

We were wet, welted, and freezing after over a half hour of this!  There was no visible end in sight for the weather, and I know that at least one of us was beginning to really not enjoy the hike (and legitimately worry for our safety as well, as the entire mountain surface was sliding down around our feet).  Finally, Mom suggested that we say a prayer for help. (Moms always know what to do!) Within 5 minutes of the prayer, the weather calmed enough for us to slide back down to the main trail (after crossing several shallow rivers that did not exist on the way up).  Relieved, we hiked the 3 or so miles back down to the car (thank goodness we still had some of those chewy peanut butter candies or I would not have made it) , toweled off the disgusting puppies, and drove home.

Caitlin will never go hiking again.  :)
(Truth.)



No comments:

Post a Comment