When Rob and Zach started talking about going on a back packing trip a few months ago, I took the wait-and-see approach that I usually take when Rob comes up with an idea because I refuse to get worked up about something that may or may not materialize. Well, this time it materialized. And I got worked up. Mostly because I'm a realist. And maybe overprotective. If it were Rob and someone other than one of my offspring, I would say, "Knock yourself out- take a 15 mile trek into the unknown wilderness along a mountain ridge without any trails, lots of wild animals, iffy water sources, heavy packs, possible freezing overnight temperatures and, by all means, do it in two days. I'll see you next week."
I know, I'm a bucket of cold water. I bit my tongue for as long as I could. I really did. I bit til it hurt.
Rob and Zach are grown men. It shouldn't matter that the furthest Zach walks everyday is across the BSU campus with only his books in his back pack. It shouldn't matter that neither one of them has conditioned for a long hike in unknown conditions. It shouldn't matter that no one in our family owns hiking boots or proper hiking equipment of any kind. It shouldn't matter that Rob had pop tarts on his shopping list. Ok, that's when I started getting worked up. I Googled "food to take back packing" and pop tarts were not on the list. The website had plenty of other helpful information including the importance of drinking lots of water, eating dried fruit and (quality) energy bars and wearing good hiking boots. It said, "You WILL get blisters".
I think I might have been ok with the plan if there wasn't a time crunch. We had to be back in Meridian by 4:00 on Sunday and couldn't leave town until after Zach got out of school on Friday so that was on the top of my list of things-to-be-concerned-about. To Rob's credit, he spent hours mapping out the ridge that they would take. He bought a good backpacking tent, sturdy back packs and pepper spray for the wild animals. He really did spend a good amount of time preparing. And looking forward to spending time with Zach. I don't want to discount that at all. They were both excited at the prospect of planting a Geo cache' on the top of a ridge. I wanted them to have that experience.
In the end, time was not Rob's friend. No amount of planning and talking can trump reality. By the time Zach got home from school and the two of them started actually loading the packs, the reality hit that the things they needed to take weighed them down far more than either one expected.
By 4:30 Friday afternoon Rob had to concede that they were running out of time and they would have to make a different plan. He realized that by the time I dropped them off above Silver Creek it would be nearly dark and probably cold. He didn't take it well. I tried not to let my relief show because I really did want them to have this experience. I just wanted them to have it when they didn't have a deadline.
Plan B was to spend the night at the cabin and then head out on a condensed version of the original hike first thing in the morning in order to at least place the Geo Cache. Plan B definitely worked in my favor. We got to the cabin in plenty of time to take a family hike in the midst of Paradise. . .
We topped off the evening with a rare 4 person game of Catan. I'm sure Rob would disagree but it was way more fun than worrying about the two of them shivering in the wild. . .
Zach took some great pictures of the hike and, in spite of the switch to Plan B, I think they both had a good time on the hike. Parts of it might have even been fun AND easy. . .
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