"We have more reasons to love each other based on our common humanity than to victimize one another because of any difference."

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The Narrows 16 Miles Later


Well we survived the Narrows. After 30-40 pound packs, cheese, salami, and bread lunches, and trudging through miles of water and slippery river rocks we survived. At the end of the day I would do it again just not any time soon.


The hike started at elevation 3,000 feet. We got out of the shuttle to discover it was a nippy 60 degrees and we started praying it would warm up before we reached the river. We hiked for two miles through cow pastures and finally reached the Narrows.
We reached the campsite after hiking for 10 miles and 7 hours we were relieved/exhausted/ thrilled. We ate a dinner of mac and cheese, apples, peanut butter, and earl grey tea. It was delicious. After setting up the sleeping bags under a rock out cropping it began to get dark. Ben and I went down to the river to pump water into the purifier (It took forever to fill up 3 Nalgene bottles!)

As soon as it got dark we got out the flashlights. That's when we noticed the ground was crawling with spiders. Huge daddy long legs esk spiders...EVERYWHERE. I was freaking. I slept with a bandana over my eyes and mouth.

That night I remember waking up to the most beautiful starry night I had ever seen.

The next morning we had a back breaking 6 miles still to go, with deeper water, a faster river, and more technical crossings. It was difficult and we ended up traveling as fast as we could go at 1 mile per hour.

At the end of it all I felt happy to have done it and glad I didn't have to do it again any time soon. It really was a marvelous hike.

I've posted some pictures here but check them all out on my flickr site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigsy/sets/72157622070343566/






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