Day Three of the Hike

I was so proud of myself! I cooked breakfast early without using any camp fuel. Even though the forest was soaking wet, I found some dry tinder under some fallen spruces. I even found a way to dry socks, well almost. I was overzealous and melted Angie's boot. She reported that it still felt fine. I felt pretty terrible as I realized how much of a handicap a bad boot would be at this point.

The two packages of oatmeal seemed pretty filling and energizing. I think I was becoming hyper aware of my caloric expenditure. I was already daydreaming about food. Not hamburgers, not milkshakes, I wanted my home garden veggie saute. Go figure. We had to cross another valley to get onto the ridge that would drop us right down into Yellowstone National Park. Consequently, that trail would also cross the state line from Montana south into Wyoming. We got turned around and lost the correct trail and added a few miles to our day. The first day I came to terms with fear. The second day I had mainly excitement. As I tried to think of how I would remember the third day, all I could think of was confusion. Angie is a brilliant conversationalist. She's compassionate and interesting with a Queer independent perspective. But, we were mainly silent. Find the trail, don't find the trail. Upstream, downstream. It didn't really matter. We were there just to soak in the wilderness. I was finally getting in the groove. I didn't have to put my thoughts into language for anyone, not even myself. No matter what, we would walk, so life was good.

As we headed south, not really sure about the trail, we saw the beginning of the mountain lion tracks. First of all, I didn't realize how huge their feet are. We followed the same trail as a predator plenty big enough to kill us. I joked that I would probably survive since I was bigger. Somehow, neither of us found that funny enough to laugh at.

I inwardly marveled that Angie did this sort of thing alone. I was so grateful when she agreed to take me on this trip. I knew I wanted to go on an extended trek, but I was just too chicken to attempt something of this magnitude alone. When I told her, she shrugged off the compliment, maybe embarrassed and said, "I didn't know you'd be Mr. Wilderness Survival Man." That made me pretty proud. So I was pulling my weight! Good.