Barking Dogs, Big Bertha, and Backpacks by Emma McCoy
We pulled into the trailhead parking lot, a homemade bead bracelet reading “Big Bertha” dangling from the rearview mirror. Thanks to an early 6 am call, just about everyone in the van dozed off during the two-hour drive, including me. When I woke up, I was leaning on Emily’s shoulder. At least, I assumed it was Emily. Introductions had been hurried and brief that morning and I had yet to learn everyone’s names.
It was overcast, cool, with a slight breeze and we shed the morning’s layers. A very nice man on a motorcycle informed us that there were streams still flowing this late in the year. We were able to ditch the water we had packed with us and my pack dropped from 50 pounds to only 25. Time to hit the trail!
The climb was gentle at first before changing to switchbacks up the mountain. The forest had been burned recently; I could see the charred bark and the white tree underneath. Beautiful yellow and orange flowers were blooming along the trail and I had to dodge no small number of bees.
We crossed streams, found pinecones, took pictures on rocks, and followed Bri-dog’s tradition of taking two deep yoga breaths at every lookout point. It was early afternoon by the time we got to the campsite, and we spent about half an hour just sitting in a circle on the ground. We’d already climbed 2,000 feet and we had 2,500 to go tomorrow!
We had a scattering of majors: pre med, biochem, kinesiology, and literature. I mean, someone had to represent the humanities. We talked about books; which we recommended, which were our favorites, which were the best Christian authors of our time.
It was a good thing Sarah and Karrie had our permit, because a Ranger came by at this point and introduced himself. We gave the permit to Ranger Dan and he told us that to summit, we would need to commit to a 7 hour hike and another 10 miles in addition to the hike back to the van. I scoffed, he made fun of me, and as he left he said our dogs would be barking by tomorrow. Apparently, that meant our feet would be sore. And boy was he right.
One devotional, scary camp story, and quick teeth-brushing later, we were in bed. It seemed like moments later that our alarms were going off. 5am. Awesome.
By the time the sunlight was bright enough to see, we’d already been hiking for half an hour. We were climbing steep switchbacks, switching off carrying much lighter packs than the day before. To take our minds off the climb, we asked group questions. What were our favorite holiday traditions? Favorite piece of jewelry? What would be the perfect day? Would you ever get a nose piercing? What is God teaching you in your life?
While I don’t think everyone could hear everyone’s answers to these questions, we did share bits and pieces of ourselves when we could catch our breath. That’s part of the trouble of hiking in a large line: the person in the back can’t really hear the people up front.
Though altitude sickness started making its presence, we actually made it to the top! The views were SPECTACULAR and we munched on PB&J’s while we took it all in. Ranger Dan was right, by the time we got back to our campsite it had taken us just about seven hours. And we had another six miles to go. Before we had started hiking down, Bri-dog suggested we play a game: see who can guess how many people we’ll pass on the way down.
Hard guess. It was Sunday, a nice day, but we were on a long hike and it was already mid afternoon. We had guesses of 12, 19, 20, 22, 25, 30, and 35.
We were an hour from the parking lot, the number was sitting at 15. I was getting nervous. I had guessed 19, Ivy had guessed 20. We were intently watching every corner, waiting to see if someone was going to appear. During a downhill section, I wasn’t watching my feet and fell hard on my knees. If you haven’t fallen with a full backpack on you, I don’t recommend that you go out and try it. I was picking gravel out of my hands and I had two dollar-coin size bruises on my knees for weeks.
At this point, Bri-dog had some of the biggest bruises I’d ever seen, we were up to 18 people, and I think everyone was just about ready to fall asleep standing. But we kept going, one foot in front of the other. 19 people. If only we could make it back to the van right then...
20! 20 people! And the trailhead was only minutes away. We finished the hike, Ivy had won with a guess of 20 people! Our hike was over: 24 miles, 5,000 feet of elevation gained, summit of 11,000 feet.
As we piled back into the van, I wondered how I had ended up in a burned up forest with a group of girls I hadn’t met before. We were kind, competitive, creative, smart, resourceful, spiritual, outdoorsy, loving, and strong. I didn’t fall asleep on the way back, though it was a near thing. It was time to let Big Bertha do some of the travelling because as Ranger Dan put it, our dogs sure were barking.