workin the beans

Day 27

Waking up to the smell of coffee outside I woke up as Ian continued to sleep.

After catching up with everyone, and devouring a couple eggs Ian came out and joined. We wound up not leaving till we had a round of scotches then took off.

We were flying. The weather was perfect and spirits were soaring. Then we met the berkmans. An awesome family who treated us to good conversation and a few blue moons. After snapping a photo we were off. Then our sunny day came crashing.

We entered "the burn." A massive area where only two years ago thousands of acres were lost and two firefighters died.

We heard there was a detour to see a couple fire towers and a camp. When we got there it was like something out of a movie. All the buildings were melted. Glass hung like hardened lava and everything metal lay in rust, even a 2009 bMW. After being throughly creeped out we got back t the trail, or so we thought. When we realized we were lost that's when the adventure begn.

We consulted our topographic maps and realized where we had missed our turn. Now the question was how far down the road had we gone?

Still a little buzzed from the blue moons we hadn't looked at our watches and had no idea when we had left. Again looking at what our altitude was, we realized we could bushwhacked and be at the trail in a half mile, or go back and waste time. Realizing we still had fifteen miles to get water Ian began to bushwhacked. Then he disappeared.

That's when the moment of fear set in. We were separated and lost. To feel this kind of emotion cannot be felt unless real. I stopped and called his name. I waited, hoping he would retrace his steps.

Minutes went by. Each one A painstaking, unmoving set of trees.

That's when I began to think. That's not good to do in these situations. You're mind can play tricks on you when your in a panicked state.

Then out of the corner of my eye I saw his foot. He had realized where we had gotten separated and backtracked.

The rest of the hike we talked about what we did wrong. Hoped we wouldn't do it again and kept moving.

We got into a mountain top camp where we got snow melt water and enjoyed our first Californian sunset. We usually get blocked by mountains from them, but tonight was a different story.

We go to bed warm and full, and ready for a few days off with our girlfriends in LA come this tuesday.

-Andy