Day 22
Miles 8.5
Get Away – Get Away! Sophie called out.
Jennie and I leaped out of the tent. Sophie busted out a flood light. It was a bear! She said. Her greatest fear realized, and she faced it down on her own. She chased the bear off by herself. Glorious.
My Mom called her Sophie the Brave. It was the most excitement we’d had on the whole trip.
And I’d missed the whole thing.
I’ve been waiting all night to see you! She said. Her kind face with a soft smile. Meanwhile, Bosco dunked his big old head into Charles’ plastic breakfast food bag.
OMG. I jumped in and dragged his head out of there but almost whacked Charles in the head with my electric fence poles which were hanging out of my pack. We Made and Wrecked his morning. All At Once.
We’ve been waiting to see you for three days! Someone else shouted to us. But there were eight people stacked up behind us by then. Clinging to the cliffside. Nowhere to go. They were forced to wait since we couldn’t get out of the way. And we couldn’t stop to talk to these wonderful new people anyway because they had a dog who wasn’t fond of the goats. And it was messy and my adrenaline was pumping and there were people all over the trail. Runners and mountain bikers and a guy who walked his bike the whole way who said he was no longer mountain biking – just mountain climbing. Day hikers and backpackers and people training to be backpackers. TRT hikers who just started and TRT hikers who were just finishing.
And here comes the Goateo.
We didn’t see any fireworks last night but the flowers today made up for it. Exploding everywhere. BLAM. Flowers.
Flowers Here, Flowers There. Flowers, Flowers Everywhere.
And it was hot and exposed and quite the climb to get to Freel Peak.
Then just enough grass at Star Lake for Salad for the Boys and water groceries for the peoples.
And Sophie the Brave stood guard over us all.