Getting Ready To Take Off Up The Trail
Night One Campsite
After a beautiful night that included a campfire, dehydrated meals, and perfect sleeping weather, we awoke to another beautiful day. Being my wife's birthday (aren't you ladies jealous of how the Dunns treat the women in our house on their birthday), we celebrated with a banner and birthday card, both made by my daughter Anna before we left for the trip.
Birthday Girl With Kids And Banner
After another delicious meal of dehydrated food, we took off with the information that someone had passed on to us of the possibility of a prescribed burn of some timber up the trail. We knew that it was a chance that we could be turned away from the day's destination of a campsite 7 miles up the trail, but we continued on. As it turned out, 2 miles up the trail we began to see men in yellow suites with flamethrowers on the other side of a valley setting the forest ablaze.
The Forest Being Set On Fire During Our Hike
We commented on how confident and intelligent these men must be with fire, setting a forest on fire only a couple hundred yards from a family of four. Well, long story short, they were not that confident. A fire fighter sprinted through the valley screaming at us to stay where we were. He instructed us to leave the trail and walk straight to the road in the distance, where a park ranger was waiting for us. It turns out they had been searching for us for a few hours. We were informed that we were hiking on a trail that had been closed with signs. Funny thing is that neither us, nor the other 4 groups staying at our campsite saw the signage. The ranger did inform us that it was a last-second scheduled burn, so I have my theory at what really happened. The embarrassing thing was what the ranger said as we were walking away from him, up the road to our car. Even though he was parked on the road, out of sight from us, he said, "At least you got some good pictures". The firefighters must have seen us on the other side of the valley, doodling along, eating snacks and taking pictures like we were completely safe from the fire. I am sure they got a good chuckle out of it once we were safe.
Like I said earlier, this was not great conditioning for my upcoming trip. But, maybe we will benefit from the improvisation that took place. I am sure our trip this summer will have situations that force us to make adjustments and change our plans on the fly.
On a biking note...I did manage to get in around 200 miles or so on the bike over break. Most of the miles were with Kyle, but I also got to share the road with my lovely wife for a few miles. Those were her first miles on the road in almost 18 months. The last time she road outside was a 1/2 ironman race that she did in September of 2008. I think she has missed the feeling of being outside on her bike. She has been through a lot the last year with her cancer diagnosis and treatments. It was fun to watch her enjoying herself again.
Seventy-one days until departure....
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