Three Entries before Canada
Heat and 128 Back Massages! - Jessie Faith
I have a thermometer/compass/ altimeter/barometric-pressure/ watch, and am often asked "how hot is it right now?!" At one point I kept checking and it was consistently reading 102.3 degrees - or so I thought. My dad questioned that when I said it still read 102.3 and yet it had cooled off and was raining. It was then that I realized I was reading the barometric pressure and not the thermometer whenever someone asked how hot it was. In any case, it had to have been 100 degrees even if I didn’t know how to read it.
When we started the trip, it seemed like there was water around every other corner, but now that we are 2/3 of the way through the summer, water is scarce and we are planning our days according to where streams or sprin
gs are and the extreme heat is drying those streams up quickly. At the moment dad is sitting outside looking at a zillion different maps and planning our days so that we can get to water at night. We are doing a good job working through it, but it meant a couple of long 21+ mile days this past week.
We heard while listening to the little weather radio we carry that 300,000 acres of Montana have burned this year in eight different wild fires. The sky is really hazy from it and at times we can hardly see across the valleys to mountains on the
other side. National Forests are currently in a full on fire ban. so for now we can no longer bake bread in our wonderful coal fired dutch oven. From the ridge tops we can see a fire burning up in Glacier National Park where we are headed. We’re hoping the fire crews have it under control soon and that we’ll be able to continue through to Canada, which is starting to feel close – we could see it today!
I need to stop writing now in order to receive one of the 128 back massages I just
won from my dad. In a game of 20 questions yesterday I had selected Jaime Foxx as my item for him to guess. Of course he failed and then whined that it was impossible (maybe my answers were a little confusing). In any case, "he who is always right" claimed that NO ONE would be able to get it, and for example, if mom could, he would give me a back rub every night for the rest of the hike. Well, he offered, so we tested that theory straight away. Mom nailed down Jamie Foxx in 13 questions and I’m sitting pretty with 128 massages coming my way!
Trail Angels - Cody
This week for part of Jess’s and my Sunday school s
ession Dad asked us to journal a little on some of our recent "Trail Angels" which he defined as "those who’ve illumined the Divine" Here are just a few of those we listed...
Cody & Jess
Grandee...for her prayers and flow of ideas that help us get down the trail in good harmony each day.
Kerry and Vance...for being great new friends who we met in a re-supply campground while we’re away from our friends at home!
Morgan...who stepped in and went on a section of the trail so that Mom could recover; and who together with his brother Lyn has been willing to drive around and make sure that we have what we need at
our re-supply points, cooked us great food at the trailer, and made us laugh!
Norm Johnston...who sent us on our way with a really helpful selection of Bible passages on "safety".
Nona...a 60 year old woman, we keep running into while on the trail who is so sweet and friendly.
Friends in BV...getting the emails from home sure does make the re-supply days fun.
Pop (&
Nana)...for getting us off to a great start.
Bobby
The Trucker....ice cold bottles of water from a broken down, tattooed trucker along a fire road in 100 degree heat!!
The Girls ...the sleepy smiles from Cody & Jess in the morning that say "it’s okay; I’m happy to get up and hike another 15-20 miles today because I trust you that it’ll be worth it in the end"
Natalie...the touch from Natalie on my shoulder while I’m cooking breakfast that says, "I love you."
Maree...the ranch news, assurances all is well, and boxes in the mail from a friend.
Judy Barker & Steve Hayes…put up our whole crew (6 people and a dog) for a weekend, fed us, entertained us, shuttled us and kept Deso on as a boarder for 3 weeks for his feet to get some rest.
Mellanie Swingley (sled dog musher and racer and wife of Doug Swingley – 4-time Iditarod winner)…when hiking through their home town of Lincoln, MT, we called to see if we could buy some dog booties for Deso’s worn out feet. Mel brought us a goodie bag
with 6 sets of booties, 2 sets of padded booties, foot salve and dog biscuits – no charge!!!
Natalie
My Family... A few weeks back I fell and was injured, causing me to take some days of rest and recovery time. When it happened, the tenderness and solicitude expressed by each of them melted my heart.
Bobby came to me and held me, comforted me, helped me get to a vehicle, and then hiked his tail off the days I was resting such that we would be ahead in our schedule and when I was able to rejoin them we could hike fewer miles per day for the next section.
Jess lay my head in her lap (I was laying on the ground) then read
me some Bible verses she had been thinking about that had to do with our inseparability from God and His tender love for us. She then also hiked her tail off with Bobby doing 20+ mile days to get us ahead of schedule.
Cody volunteered to take a few days off with me to be my assistant. While it was difficult to get around, she
(this was "wear horse hair lichen to dinner night :) would drop whatever she was doing to bring me whatever I needed or wanted. She ran countless errands for me and was kind and gracious the whole time.
The Bible says, "perfect love casteth out fear." My wonderful "Trail Angels" cared for me and helped get rid of the fear. In the presence of such love, injury wilted away. I made a beautiful recovery and am grateful to be out on the trail again.
These are a few of the many "Trail Angels" that we wrote down, but to sum it all up we have been really blessed on this trip so far, and appreciate all of the support from friends and family.
Huckleberries: Falls Creek Montana, mid-August – Bobby
Fall came on like a runaway log truck here in the northern Rockies. Scorching 100+ degree heat plunged 80 degrees and left Deso with a puzzled look as he stared at the frozen water in his dog dish this morning. Down parkas and wool hats are back on around camp; aspens are turning gold along the tree line; flowers are going to seed and giving way to a bounty of berries.
Strawberries, raspberries, thimbleberries, grouse berries, kinnickinick berries, rosehip, twin berries, elderberries, holly berries, juniper berries, and yes, huckleberries. While picking
raspberries along the trail we were informed by a passing local that huckleberries and not raspberries were the thing to pick in Montana. Just days before another local had informed us while we were racing frogs down a steam that "cricks in Montana were exclusively
for fly fishing." Today a rancher gave the donkeys a less than pleased sidelong glace as he passed by astride a sleek quarter horse. Honestly people we are trying our best to fit it, but it just doesn’t seem to be working all that often.
Some, I know, regret the passing of summer. But being a believer that autumn is the finest of all the seasons I’m in heaven. Four months of fall on the trail the way I figure it – August in north Montana, September & October in Colorado, and then November in New Mexico. Could it get better? While sitting with a steaming mug of Lapsang Souchong last night watching the sun slip over the ridge above I was pretty sure it could not.
We’re in Glacier Park and just a few days away from Canada!!!!! Half way!
Have you ever been in blazing heat and had to endure it while working really hard? If not, picture this……..the sun is beating down, it’s close to 100 degrees even up on the Divide, and you are dripping sweat climbing up a couple thousand foot grade
on a rocky, dry
hillside. You are super thirsty and a bit nauseous, but know that you can only take mini sips of your water because you need it to last till the next stream crossing a few hours up the trail. Your dad gives you the "isn’t this fun!" look and you about throw up but don’t, and then timidly remind him that not everyone in the family was in the Marine Corps and thus the close relationship between suffering and fun in his mind is not is not quite as clear to the rest of the family. That’s been our scene this past week on the trail.
I have a thermometer/compass/ altimeter/barometric-pressure/ watch, and am often asked "how hot is it right now?!" At one point I kept checking and it was consistently reading 102.3 degrees - or so I thought. My dad questioned that when I said it still read 102.3 and yet it had cooled off and was raining. It was then that I realized I was reading the barometric pressure and not the thermometer whenever someone asked how hot it was. In any case, it had to have been 100 degrees even if I didn’t know how to read it.
When we started the trip, it seemed like there was water around every other corner, but now that we are 2/3 of the way through the summer, water is scarce and we are planning our days according to where streams or sprin
gs are and the extreme heat is drying those streams up quickly. At the moment dad is sitting outside looking at a zillion different maps and planning our days so that we can get to water at night. We are doing a good job working through it, but it meant a couple of long 21+ mile days this past week.We heard while listening to the little weather radio we carry that 300,000 acres of Montana have burned this year in eight different wild fires. The sky is really hazy from it and at times we can hardly see across the valleys to mountains on the
other side. National Forests are currently in a full on fire ban. so for now we can no longer bake bread in our wonderful coal fired dutch oven. From the ridge tops we can see a fire burning up in Glacier National Park where we are headed. We’re hoping the fire crews have it under control soon and that we’ll be able to continue through to Canada, which is starting to feel close – we could see it today!I need to stop writing now in order to receive one of the 128 back massages I just
won from my dad. In a game of 20 questions yesterday I had selected Jaime Foxx as my item for him to guess. Of course he failed and then whined that it was impossible (maybe my answers were a little confusing). In any case, "he who is always right" claimed that NO ONE would be able to get it, and for example, if mom could, he would give me a back rub every night for the rest of the hike. Well, he offered, so we tested that theory straight away. Mom nailed down Jamie Foxx in 13 questions and I’m sitting pretty with 128 massages coming my way!Trail Angels - Cody
This week for part of Jess’s and my Sunday school s
ession Dad asked us to journal a little on some of our recent "Trail Angels" which he defined as "those who’ve illumined the Divine" Here are just a few of those we listed...Cody & Jess
Grandee...for her prayers and flow of ideas that help us get down the trail in good harmony each day.
Kerry and Vance...for being great new friends who we met in a re-supply campground while we’re away from our friends at home!
Morgan...who stepped in and went on a section of the trail so that Mom could recover; and who together with his brother Lyn has been willing to drive around and make sure that we have what we need at
our re-supply points, cooked us great food at the trailer, and made us laugh!Norm Johnston...who sent us on our way with a really helpful selection of Bible passages on "safety".
Nona...a 60 year old woman, we keep running into while on the trail who is so sweet and friendly.
Friends in BV...getting the emails from home sure does make the re-supply days fun.
Pop (&
Nana)...for getting us off to a great start.Bobby
The Trucker....ice cold bottles of water from a broken down, tattooed trucker along a fire road in 100 degree heat!!
The Girls ...the sleepy smiles from Cody & Jess in the morning that say "it’s okay; I’m happy to get up and hike another 15-20 miles today because I trust you that it’ll be worth it in the end"
Natalie...the touch from Natalie on my shoulder while I’m cooking breakfast that says, "I love you."
Maree...the ranch news, assurances all is well, and boxes in the mail from a friend.
Judy Barker & Steve Hayes…put up our whole crew (6 people and a dog) for a weekend, fed us, entertained us, shuttled us and kept Deso on as a boarder for 3 weeks for his feet to get some rest.
Mellanie Swingley (sled dog musher and racer and wife of Doug Swingley – 4-time Iditarod winner)…when hiking through their home town of Lincoln, MT, we called to see if we could buy some dog booties for Deso’s worn out feet. Mel brought us a goodie bag
with 6 sets of booties, 2 sets of padded booties, foot salve and dog biscuits – no charge!!!Natalie
My Family... A few weeks back I fell and was injured, causing me to take some days of rest and recovery time. When it happened, the tenderness and solicitude expressed by each of them melted my heart.
Bobby came to me and held me, comforted me, helped me get to a vehicle, and then hiked his tail off the days I was resting such that we would be ahead in our schedule and when I was able to rejoin them we could hike fewer miles per day for the next section.
Jess lay my head in her lap (I was laying on the ground) then read
me some Bible verses she had been thinking about that had to do with our inseparability from God and His tender love for us. She then also hiked her tail off with Bobby doing 20+ mile days to get us ahead of schedule.Cody volunteered to take a few days off with me to be my assistant. While it was difficult to get around, she
(this was "wear horse hair lichen to dinner night :) would drop whatever she was doing to bring me whatever I needed or wanted. She ran countless errands for me and was kind and gracious the whole time.
The Bible says, "perfect love casteth out fear." My wonderful "Trail Angels" cared for me and helped get rid of the fear. In the presence of such love, injury wilted away. I made a beautiful recovery and am grateful to be out on the trail again.
These are a few of the many "Trail Angels" that we wrote down, but to sum it all up we have been really blessed on this trip so far, and appreciate all of the support from friends and family.
Huckleberries: Falls Creek Montana, mid-August – Bobby
Fall came on like a runaway log truck here in the northern Rockies. Scorching 100+ degree heat plunged 80 degrees and left Deso with a puzzled look as he stared at the frozen water in his dog dish this morning. Down parkas and wool hats are back on around camp; aspens are turning gold along the tree line; flowers are going to seed and giving way to a bounty of berries.
Strawberries, raspberries, thimbleberries, grouse berries, kinnickinick berries, rosehip, twin berries, elderberries, holly berries, juniper berries, and yes, huckleberries. While picking
raspberries along the trail we were informed by a passing local that huckleberries and not raspberries were the thing to pick in Montana. Just days before another local had informed us while we were racing frogs down a steam that "cricks in Montana were exclusively
for fly fishing." Today a rancher gave the donkeys a less than pleased sidelong glace as he passed by astride a sleek quarter horse. Honestly people we are trying our best to fit it, but it just doesn’t seem to be working all that often.
Some, I know, regret the passing of summer. But being a believer that autumn is the finest of all the seasons I’m in heaven. Four months of fall on the trail the way I figure it – August in north Montana, September & October in Colorado, and then November in New Mexico. Could it get better? While sitting with a steaming mug of Lapsang Souchong last night watching the sun slip over the ridge above I was pretty sure it could not.We’re in Glacier Park and just a few days away from Canada!!!!! Half way!
posted by The Lewises at 11:11 AM
