Reading the Forest and Granite Chief

Day 10
Miles 10
We are playing Learn to Read the Forest.
The crows started cawing up a storm and soon we saw a coyote. Sophie yelled at him and he ran through the meadow but stopped to look back. The crows divebombed him where he stood. Now we know to listen and learn.
The morning was misty and cold. Neither of us slept with a rainfly on, despite sleeping in a meadow, which turned out to be a critical error. Our tents and sleeping bags were wet. And our sock and shoes. And our backpacks and everything else we owned.
We packed it up wet and decided to dry it at camp tonight.
I picked up my pack and water poured out the bottom. My water bladder broke. It’s a lot harder to stay hydrated without one, but I’m going to have to try. When it broke, it also doused my toilet paper.
We ran into Joe Dirt and his two friends whom we’d met at Marlette Lake on Day 1. They were almost done with The Loop. We aren’t quite halfway there. We were impressed.
Fresh Bear Poop, Joe Dirt said.
Pee still running down the trail, his friend said.
Sure enough, there it was. And Sophie took a picture. And we made a lot of racket for the next hour to make sure we scared him away.
I marveled at snowflowers and ant lions and lupine. At pauper’s blanket and tiny blue button flowers and bright red guys too.
I sweated my stinky self up the trail into the Granite Chief Wilderness and the glorious views that hurt my eyes, they were so pretty. Views I barely bothered taking photos of because they would do the mountains no justice.
It only took 10 days of hiking to get a lecture from a man about how surprised he is when women hike alone. Why? I asked him. Things happen in the wilderness, he said. Things also don’t, I said. I don’t walk in fear, I said. Plus you have bear spray, he said. I said nothing but thought a lot-a lot-a lot of things.
I put up my tent and a pole broke, first thing. Then I lost my lighter for an hour and eventually borrowed Sophie’s so I could eat dinner.
I realized I hear voices in the woods and babbles in the brooks and I know why people believes in fairies and gnomes.
And I think when I read the forest, maybe I believe in them too.