We hiked to a spot where a group had their horses out to pasture and our big group scared them, I guess, because they kept moving down the trail further away from their masters camp. We stopped moving so they would stop moving and Levi and Paul took their packs off and tried to calm a few of them down and keep them from moving further away. Eventually we sent someone to the camp of the horse people and had them come and get their horses so we could continue our journey.
By the time the sun actually hit us, we were grateful that we started so early in the day. We didn't have a lot of time before the sun came up, but the time we did have was nice and cool. Now that the sun was up we had to take more breaks and drink more water, but we made do. We eventually got to the bridge where we stopped the first day. Supposedly this was the half way point. Thinking that it was just that, we were all happy and feeling pretty good that we were at least half way done with the day. But the last "half" of the hike seemed to drag on and on! Maybe it was because we were hiking in the hottest part of the day, on our 7th day of hiking, and not in much tree coverage since we were walking through a burn area. Boy was it rough. We did fairly well at keeping our group together until this point, then we all started to spread out and thin out. Paul went ahead with the front of the group. I felt like I needed to stay behind with my mom and Kess. Kalena stayed back with me for quite some time until she needed to just "get-er-done" and left me. Kess was having a super rough time getting through the end because she was hurting pretty bad. I did my best to distract her and keep her mind off things. I had her tell me the plots of the last few books she read and she was able to chat and chat, and keep up with me pretty much until we got to the end. It was almost surreal coming out of the trees and seeing an outhouse, the closest thing I had seen to civilization in a week! When we got back to the cars, most everyone was there. There were a few stragglers, but not many. We all took our packs off, took our shoes off and basically celebrated! We had finished, and we were all alive! Tired, sore, hungry, and in need of a shower, but alive nonetheless! We all gathered for our annual foot picture, said our goodbyes to our cousins, (because they were going a different way), and loaded up our car.
We stopped in Augusta to get some ice cream. We all needed something since we really hadn't had lunch, we had just snacked all day, and at this point it was about 3 in the afternoon. We got ice cream, and then got in the car to drive 2 hours to Helena. Once we got to Helena we booked a cheap motel room, showered, and went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. Paul has been there before, but I hadn't. I don't know if it was because we had only eaten freeze dried meals all week, or if the food really was as good as I remember it being, but holy Hannah, it was yummy! I feel like I stuffed my face way more than I should have, especially since most of the week I had been eating much much smaller portions. After dinner we sort of just relaxed in a real bed, with clean clothes on. It was nice!
My dad called my Uncle Tim to make sure that him and Brytt got out of the mountains alive. If you remember, they left us yesterday morning before we napped to try and get all the way out of mountains. Tim said they made it, but only barely. They ran out of water 3 times, and either had to ask someone they met to help them get water, or just drank it right out of the stream without pumping it at all. They said they were so tired that they were delusional, and hallucinating, but they managed to make it to their truck. I am so grateful they were safe, but I am also a little bummed that I missed the hallucinations. Coming from those two characters it would have been pretty stinkin funny!
Another hike done and under our belts. And as always, it was a blast. An, I can't believe I actually thought that was fun sort of deal. But of course, the bad parts are either funny jokes now, or forgotten, and only the fun, exciting, and true bonding moments remain. Man, I love hiking!
Day 7! Yay! Us stopped for a mid day snack at our supposed half way point.
I wanted to get a picture of the burn area, but I also wanted dad to pose so it didn't look so empty. He kind of posed, a little bit.
These fun purple flowers were all over the place in the burn areas. It was fun to see the contrasting purple and greens with the dead trees surrounded by them.
This is us at the end!! We made it out alive!!! Yay!! Kessla's face seriously shows how she was feeling at that point. She was SO ready to be done and off her feet and not moving any more.
The sisters! We are happy because we don't have our packs on! We are free!!!
Our poor feets! After getting blisters for the first time ever, I decided they are really not that fun, and that my hiking boots of 4 years from DI probably need to be replaced with some newer better ones. Paul too. His boots we shoe goo-ed back together before the hike, and after 70 miles and him melting have of the glue off of them, they are basically toast too. But our feet survived without any permanent damage, so thats a good thing I suppose.
Yeah, by this point we were all a little delusional, but thats okay!
Our foot picture!! Only the cool people have wraps on their feet! No just kidding. Only the people that have horribly mangled, bruised, or blistered feet have wraps on. I would say though that that is a pretty good looking group of people though!
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