The Full Story
Well, it started out great. It was Dad, Robyn, Hayden, Colleen and Bryan. (Jenn was sick, Brad was smart) A little late in the evening (8:00 p.m.) but it was only 4 miles on snow packed roads and we were sure to get to the Yurt before it was too late. The trail was marked well until, we got about 3 miles in. All of the sudden there were no more markers and we came to a fork. By this time it was getting late, and we decided our best judgement and took what we thought what was the right trail. We were wrong. The snow was waist deep and we had to pack the snow down to travel. This was very time consuming. It was midnight. The Yurt was a half-mile away "as the crow files". By this time we re-examined the map and our tracks using our GPS. Turns out we had taken the wrong road. The road we were on lead no where. In order to get to the Yurt it was at least 5 more miles. At this point we wad hiked almost 5. At 1 am we decided to cut our losses and just head back to the car and then to our beds. The hike back was terrible. All of were very sleep deprived at this point and getting hungry. We lightened the load of our packs and dumped all the excess liquids we were packing for this 2 day excursion and this helped, but our bodies were ready to give up. Finally at 5:30 a.m. we got back to the cars. The dogs were so tired we had to lift them into the back of the cars. Immediately they started licking their paws, trying to nurse them back to normal after leaving miles of blood drops on the rough icy snow. The drive back was tough and I had to pull over to sleep for a little near Echo reservoir. 7:30 a.m. we get home and bed never looked so good. In total it was 27.5 hours on no sleep. 19 degree temps and nearly 10 miles of difficult snowshoeing with a 55 pound pack. Quite an adventure.
We realized our navigation error on the way back, trust me it was an easy one to make. Next time that won't happen. Would I do it again?...Yeah probably.
1 comment:
yeah, my body hurt for a week after. I never could have made it out alive without your help along with the other boys. An adventure that we will remember. Need to post the pics. Thanks, Kelly.
Dad
Post a Comment