Date: 2013-09-14
From: still in 100 Mile Wilderness

To: Cooper Brook, Passed Jo Mary Road?
Miles today: 14.7
Weather: clear sky

Getting closer and closer to my Blueberry! I think of him with every step.Woke to the blitzingly, blinding white sky, so lacking in color and personality...it's blandness irritates me: Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! It's pointless and never changing. We walk in a cloud all day. It is getting colder too. Last night our tent leaked, one big leak over my face slowly dripping cold water on my cheek. I wiggled and squiggled but it always seemed to find me. Actually given the torrential downpour we were surprised at how dry we stayed over all. Even though the bottom gets wet our air mats keep us dry except for the places where our bags hang over. We usually sleep with our feet on our bags so that extends our dryness. I'm a light sleeper so the noise of the heavy rain wakes me though the girls snooze right through it. When I can't sleep I check the time. We usually get in our bags at 8 pm, hiker midnight, and get up around 6:30am. That's a lot of hours laying down. My hips usually remind me of this fact. I fell asleep somewhere after midnight and woke again at 3am with the most vivid dream. Why do I tell you this?...well sometime in that range of hours Mini visited me. She was the Matriarchal woman of our Shul who I worked for as a companion for several years. In the dream she talked to me about all of the places we used to visit together. At the end she looked me in the eyes, holding her face close to me, and said, "You are my sunshine girl. You will always be my sunshine girl". She used to always call me that. In the morning I was so shaken I told the girls about the dream. I said "I think Mini died and that she visited me on the way out. I know she would have been pleased to die between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur." There is a mythology that the gates of Heaven are opened for very special people to pass through between these two significant holidays. The girls looked at me like I was a nut case! All day I couldn't shake the dream. I thought about Mini all day. She was a tiny woman with a huge personality. I tried all day to get a message to Blueberry about where we were for our rendezvous. I had no service and was frustrated. Suddenly I looked down at my phone and Blueberry had sent one line....ready for this?!...."just wanted to let you know that Mini passed away at 1am last night". Ahhhhhhh! I started screaming! Badonkadonk started twitching"What? What? Is there a spider on me?" She said.Ahhhhh! I kept yelling. Finally I told them and we all yelled. To put it simply we freaked out! I think I had goosebumps for hours! How amazing is that?! We spent the day telling Mini stories. Also since it was Yom Kippur we talked about what it means to us, reflecting on our past mistakes and emphasizing renewal. That's a large part of why we are out here. We have taken time to think and consider and to begin again. We are loving our time with the adorable Buddy Backpacker and family. The guys took off around 8am. We messed around all morning. We hate leaving Sherpa and the pull of the red jeep. We hiked out at around 10am. I think it is the dread of putting on wet socks that smell like circus animal smells, truly, and soggy boots.We had our scariest river crossing thus far...deep and dark with a swift current. We couldn't understand how Buddy did it. Later we found out that a line of thru hikers had formed a chain across the river. They passed Buddy one to the other. When he got to the other side be said, "Wow! That was so easy!" The girls plunged in ahead of me but got hung up. I tried to cross quickly so I could dump the pack and get back to them but the rocks were mossy and varied in size which made foot placement difficult. It is exactly what whitewater rafters say to NEVER do...put your feet down into the rocks with a current rapidly swirling. You can wedge your foot and get pushed down by the water. The water was to the girls waists and then mine. Badonkadonk got flustered but pushed through and made it. Cub got on a rock with the current pushing strongly against her legs and body causing a wave to rise against her. She froze. Every time she lifted a foot the current pushed her down so she would quickly replace her foot in the original spot. She could not move. I yelled over the roar of the current, "Are you okay?" The look she shot back with the little hopeless shake of her precious head chilled my heart. She looked like a deer in a set of headlights...suspended and shocked. I was up passed my waist in the cold, black water holding onto a big rock for support. I stretched my free hand out towards Cub. We were inches apart but she just wouldn't commit to reaching for me over the rushing water. I kept calmly talking to her. I knew I wasn't going to let her get passed me and if she did fall I knew I could get her out. Thank goodness for my years and years of swimming because I feel no fear of water. Finally Cub lunged for me and I grasped her arm and pulled her onto my back. She clung to me and used my body to crawl out of the river. We joke that I am the "Mommy ladder". Our legs were on fire, they were so cold. They were white and frozen like a cadaver's. Laughing with relief we slogged onward, no towels, no dry stuff...just hike on as isLuckily the mountains today were mere hills from our perspective of hiking over 1300 miles. We had a lot of very well groomed trails, not what we expected from the Wilderness at all. The trail was very wet of course. We just plowed through the mud and water because our boots were already wet. Time saving at least. It was also muddy beyond description and we had a scattering of mossy wet planks to cross but altogether easy and nice.We got to Sherpa around 3:30 - 4:00pm determined to continue on and hike until dark. Yet Sherpa had already hung out our wet tent and dried it. A blue sky broke out suddenly. The temptation of a dry tent and sleeping bags appealed to us plus the good company of friends so we stayed. Buddy asked us ever so politely if we would please stay so he could play with Cub. He loves her stories. Who can say no to Buddy?!As I filled our water containers Buddy and Cub threw rocks with glee. I shot them with our water syringe. Of course Cub and buddy plotted and got the syringe. They joyfully chased me, squirting and laughing hysterically. Badonkadonk set up both tents on a perfect pine needle pad right next to a white water river. It looked like a Big Agnes commercial. We have the exact same tents. The sun lit them up in a golden glow. It felt homey and warm. We were glowing ourselves with contentment and joy. We tried to light a fire but the wood was too wet. We just sat around the empty stone circle laughing and telling stories. Good friends and natural beauty...life doesn't get much better.