Wednesday, April 25, 2012

North South Trail LBL Hike 2.1

Night Before We arrived at Sugar Bay to restart the hike. I was very nervous and excited! We right away set up tents in the daylight and gathered wood to start a great fire. There is plenty of wood to be gathered thanks to all the storms that have happened in the LBL area. Once it started getting dark we walked down to the boat ramp to look at the stars. They were very pretty. We all headed to bed so we could get an early start in the morning. Of course I had to get up and pee about 3 am, thanks diabetes!! So I walk with the flashlight to the bath house, I looked up and was in utter amazement. The stars were so bright, I almost fell over looking up at them. You could see every star out there! I had to go back to the tent and wake everyone up to see them. So much for sleeping good before the hike! So we finally went fully to sleep. N/S LBL Hike 2.1 Day 1
Day one started out pretty uneventful. We walked around a few bays and saw beautiful views of the lake.
We saw a lot of tornado damage. Massive trees knocked down in huge sections. You could see where the bark had been stripped off. Trees around had the tops snapped off.
Really noticed the poison ivy and oak had sprung up quite a bit in the 2 weeks since I had been here. Don’s shoe started giving him trouble, it began to split... not good. He carried on though. We made it to Golden Pond/Planetarium! I was so happy that was the first goal. Although for me it was to early to stop. Maybe I should have just stopped. We decided that we would go to Wranglers Campground for the night. So I set up for us to go ahead a walk five more miles. It was only 240pm so we had plenty of time. Since we only had a few more miles we took out our extra clothes, dropped the stove and some other weight from our packs to walk even faster. We set up for Donnie and Ana to pick us up. (They were our drivers so we had lighter backpacks and could walk further each day.) We said Fords Bay Road, and then we would head to Wranglers camp. So off we went on a really lovely wide path. That didn’t last long. It turned to a very narrow windy poison ivy filled trail. At one point the color on the trail tags had faded so they were yellow. I was panicked for a few minutes because the tags are supposed to be white. I had to climb over a very big fallen tree covered in ivy! I was so not happy. We were okay after about a quarter of a mile we saw a white tag. It was getting colder, but we were getting closer to where we had set to meet the kids. We got the road, no kids. We tried calling no answer. We have gone 12.91 miles so we are pretty tired. We keep texting and calling. Now the rain begins, so the Trace is only a ½ mile away so maybe they are waiting at the Trace. Don's shoe has busted across the bottom. His foot is hurting now so I head up there. No car! I am mad as a hornet. So then I decide Okay we had told them to hang out at Closon overlook so it is only another ½ mile away. So I call Don and I let him know I am walking up there. No luck. Now I am struggling between being angry and concerned, the Trace is a very winding and hilly road. Are they okay? An hour passes, the cold rain is soaking me. I have left my pack with Don so I don’t even have my jacket at this point. We decide Don should carry both packs up to Colson overlook so we can at least start a fire in the picnic area. We are really regretting taking all the extras out of our pack! We finally get a hold of them basically we were not looking at the same map and Donnie went to the next road the went to Wranglers Campground. It was a paved road about 8 more miles down the Trace. We were only about 3 miles from the campground where we were! We were on a gravel road that did not have signage for the campground. We decided right away we must use the same map!! I was still so frustrated and freezing to the bone that I really had no desire to talk yet. I was sure Don was gonna call it off. We finally make it to Wranglers campground.
They are so nice get us a great spot near the shower house. I let them set up camp and get a fire started while I go shower. When I first walked in I was nervous because it was push buttons showers. Sometimes they do not heat up well. This one did thank goodness. So I stood under the streaming water and just cried. I did however also warm up and gain some resolve! We decided that Don would leave first thing in the morning drive on to a Wal-Mart find some shoes and we would get this hike done. I loved sitting by the fire that night listening to all the horses around us neighing. And watch the wranglers brushing and caring for their horses. One cowboy came ever and was telling us about a confusing area on the trail. We would face tomorrow. I was very grateful that. We ate and headed to bed rain came down all night long. A little leaked in on both tents getting blanket and pillows wet. I woke up once in the night to find Don writhing in pain he had a pressure headache. So I got him meds, it was so cold getting out from under blankets was not easy. I actually put my head under blankets to sleep. At this point we really were so physically and mentally exhausted it didn’t matter we went to sleep. End of Day One!!

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