Sometimes you have to go through Hell to get to Heaven

I'm back. I made it. I did not die. I did, however, feel like dying during certain parts of this backpacking trip we took. Looking at the map the trip appeared to be about 6 miles to were we wanted to camp with some steep parts in it. Distance and steepness do not bother me. What we found was the trail had been badly eroded and was full of rocks. I am not talking about little or medium sized rocks every once and a while, this trail was like walking on a dried up river bed. The rocks combined with the constant up and down and the longer than expected distance made the trip there very difficult. At times I found myself regretting that I even went. When we arrived at our destination seven hours later, we collapsed for about an hour when the storm arrived. It was a pretty decent hail storm that lasted about 30 minutes. The hail was about marble size and hurt when it hit. After the storm passed it had hailed so much that it looke like it had snowed. The storm dropped the temperature considerably. That night it froze. It need not to be said that first day on the trail was difficult. The next morning we awoke to the picture above and the picture below. While getting there had been very difficult the scenery was beautiful and the companionship of my family was fantastic. I was able to get to know my brother-in-laws much better. We had a great time in spite of the trail. Often it is the difficult things that bring people closer together. All and all it was a great trip and we are planning on doing it again next year (different trail though). My only real concern is being able to effectively deal with my sleep apnea while on the trail, so if you have any suggestions let me know. I am definitely going to consult my doctor on this subject also. When I was finally able to plug my gps into my computer to check out actual distances and elevation gains it turned out that we actually traveled 8.4 miles and gained around 2000 feet in elevation. In the next post i will share with you all some of my insight and opinions on the gear and equipment that I took with me.

My uncle, John, purifying water in the early morning mist.

Everyone on the trail down, not pictured is my Brother-in-Law Bob.

One final note. My younger sister Allison never complained once (at least that I heard) and was always at the head of the line going faster than anyone else. Way to go Al, you showed all us old men what it means to be tough.