So then we broke camp and we were getting ready to leave when I went to the bathroom (well the tree anyways) and discovered I got my period. O joy O rapture unforseen. It was all over my underwear and my longjohns and my shorts. At least it wasn't heavy or anything (sarcasm). I guess the altitude change made it that way.

I slipped back to the group and all eyes were on me. I told them I had a "little problem". Kara guessed out loud and they all exchanged a look. It was a wee tad embarrassing. Then one of the guys said, "so that's why yesterday happened." and Kara said "I knew that wasn't you".

Markian and Sara left the campsite first, for this was to be a day with us hiking alone. I worked very hard that day and was doing excellent. Ally was not. The very first 1/4 mile she couldn't make without stopping, throwing off her pack and refusing to go on. I knew it was going to be a hellish day for her. No exaggeration, she took a breather about every 20 feet.

Then it happened. We're all hiking along and Ally is in the rear. I turn around to say something to Kara, who I notice is about 100 feet in back of the rest of us, stopped with Ally. I told the group to hold up, and I went back there where Ally & Kara were and I asked what was going on. Kara said Ally had started hiking in the opposite direction!!! Ally then tells me she is going to find a highway and hitch a ride. Kara was screaming, "Ally, you can't do that!!!!! You just can't!!!!" And they argued back & forth. Finally I was so frustrated I went to back where the rest of the group was waiting furiously and bashing Ally. We couldn't go anywhere. We were supposed to meet Markian & Sara at a certain time, but we would never make it.

Ally & Kara were out of eyesight, and we were all just trying desperately to relieve the unpleasantness of the situation so we're just sitting there cracking jokes. All of a sudden, Sara comes out of nowhere and demands to know why we left Kara to deal with Ally by herself. Then Lee starts teasing Sara about hiding behind a tree and spying on us. She forgot about being pissed off and threw a pine cone at Lee, laughing.

After a while, Markian showed up as well and we filled him in on the situation. He was mildly upset (sarcasm) and he and Ally had a grand screaming match (better than ours had been). She demanded leaving the course and Markian said the only possible way for her to do that would be for her to leave at resupply the next morning. He said she had absolutely no choice, she had to continue until resupply, and also that she was being extremely selfish.

We ended up eating a full fledged lunch while they argued and then we watched some more. Ally said she knew she was being selfish but at that point she just didn't care. We were there for about 21/2 hours. To be quite honest, everyone was just sick of her at that point and we wanted her to catch the Silverton train. (the Silverton train runs from the small town of Silverton, CO to Durango, CO. It's a little cute passenger train that goes all thru the mountains). Finally Ally conceded to at least continue until we got to resupply the next morning.

Markian and Sara told us they would meet us at our next planned checkpoint and took off again. And off we were as well. We came across the weirdest scene....it was a huge heard of sheep out of nowhere. Lee had a little conversation with two of them.

Travis' knee was getting worse and worse and his pain was becoming intolerable. So at one of our checkpoints with Markian & Sara, we found a road and Sara and Travis hitched a ride out to the nearest city (Silverton) to take Travis to the doctor. The thing that Travis was most upset about was the fact that his stepfather was going to give him $40 if he finished the course successfully, and he was upset about not getting the money. He almost refused to leave because of that, because he was worried he would not return. Lee said something like "yeah, just break all your bones and lose all your limbs, but stay on the course just to get $40!!" -- but it was funnier the way he said it.

So, we continued, minus both Becky and now Travis. Our little group was slowly dwindling. Another hail storm began and we hiked through it until we met up with Markian. From there we hiked with them another of couple of miles until we reached our campsite for the night. We were going to stay alone there that night because Markian and Sara had a meeting with the other instructors from all the other patrols at the resupply site that night. The campsite was 2 miles from resupply, which they told us we were supposed to meet us there at 8am the next morning. Markian was a little apprehensive about leaving us alone. He warned us about bothering other campers we might see, and he told us to be very careful with the stoves, and specifically mentioned we could not have a fire. (Hmmmm...I saw Lee's face light up).

Reluctantly Markian left our group (down to 6 of us without Becky and Travis) and we quickly got rolling. Kara and Mark started setting up the tarps, and I started filling the stoves with fuel. Lee and Trevor were busy doing something else. Anyway, we were freezing so we were working frantically. Mark and Kara were having problems with the tarps, and I was having major problems lighting the stoves for these two reasons: 1) we had no lighter anymore because we couldn't find it, and 2) so we resorted to matches, except everything was wet and the matches wouldn't light.

So we were all having trouble and we were just frantic and I look up and notice Ally is sitting on her pack, with her head curled under her hands. Kara noticed at about the same time and we looked at each other. Then I screamed, "Ally, what the hell are you doing???" (we were all busting our butts to get things rolling). She looked up innocently and told us "What? Oh...I'm just meditating". I almost hit her, really. Kara and I still joke about that to this day.

Right about then, Lee comes running over and asks if we have anything "for the fire". Boy did that get our attention!!! Woooohooooo!!! I gave him some used Kleenex and Ally gave him some unused Tampax (the guy needed paper, ok?). So he started this little fire (after about 50 matches) and we all went and got these little sticks, which Lee doused with stove fuel and nearly killed us all. It was a great fire and we were all in the highest spirits. We took off our wet boots & wet socks and dried them by the fire.

That night we sat around the fire and really got to know each other. First Ally started talking about her ex-boyfriend, who had helped gang rape another girl. (oh really?) Then she started talking about porno movies and didn't we watch them? (not usually.) She said her favourite porno star was Tracy Lauren. (hmmmmm...) So we were all exchanging glances the entire time, of course. Trevor and Lee added the sound effects like "umph" and other gratuitous grunts.

Next, Lee told us about his former drug addicted life and boarding school and running away and getting arrested and spending the night in jail. I looked over at Kara and noticed she was trying to look calm and cool, but I could tell she was about to pass out from shock. I was amused. (Did I mention that Kara is a practicing Mormon?)

That was the very best night of the entire trip. We all missed Becky and Travis very much, though. After we put the fire out, we decided we had better get to bed since we had to get up at 5:00am to get to resupply by 8:00am. Kara & I got set up in one tarp, and Lee, Mark, & Trevor went to the other tarp. Ally was the only one not in a tarp yet. Then she brought all of her stuff into the guys' tarp and boy, did they get upset. Mark switched to our tarp, and Lee begged me to switch with him, but I grinned and said "nope". Lee was so pissed and we were laughing our asses off. :o)

Day 7


Return Home // About Me // Poet's Corner // Occupational Therapy // My 80's Web Forum // My Feline CRF Forum // Cool Links // Sign Guestbook


You are outward bounder , sail on!