We sat the young men down, and introduced to them what we wanted to do. We made it sound exciting, and between Todd's mind games (he's a shrink) and my salesmanship, we helped the young men feel good about a 50 miler for their high adventure.
Planning started early for Todd and I. We were pretty excited to buy new toys and figure out routes to the best fishing spots. Todd is an outdoors man like myself, and it seemed like we spent an hour every other night planning and talking about cool stuff we had bought. By the time the trip came around we were prepared, perhaps overly prepared. Between the two of us, we had both spent enough money to feed a small country for at least a year.
I think our wives and kids were a little tired of our excitement. I'd call his house and as his son would hand him the phone I'd hear in the background "Dad, it's your boyfriend." He'd call my house and when I'd get off the phone my wife would ask what my gay lover wanted. Luckily, we were both comfortable enough in our masculinity and our strict belief in heterosexuality to not take any of the persecution to heart. Needless to say, Todd and I became pretty good friends through the whole deal.
Finally the day came that we were to leave for the Big Horns. Two nights before the trip we traveled to each of the young men's homes to check packs, weigh them and make suggestions. We had punch lists, and the boys seemed prepared for the most part. Early on Todd and I made it a goal to get in shape for the adventure. I wanted to be in good enough shape that I wouldn't have to worry about having to get packed out. Todd had the same goal. I kicked off about 20 lbs for the trip. Todd is a Type 1 diabetic, so he remained skinny but got in pretty good shape.
At 5:00 PM we loaded the Bishops truck with packs, said a prayer and headed off for the Big Horn Wilderness.
On the way, I looked back at the boys and said a few things like; "I hope you boys left your purses at home." and "Enjoy being boys because in four days you will be men." We all laughed and had a good time on the way up. As we passed our pick up point, I told the boys to pay close attention to how far away we actually would be traveling the drop off point to the pick up point. 50 miles is a long way to hike with a 45 lb back pack on your back. We planned on hiking between 13 to 15 miles per day.
Around 6:45 PM we arrived at our drop off point. The West Tensleep trail head. We unloaded our stuff, sprayed down with bug repellant, took some pictures, and headed off for a place to camp for the night.
We hiked in about 1.5 miles before finding a nice camping spot for the night.
The sky was clear and the only shelter that the boy had for the hike was a tarp each and some parachute cord. We wanted them to work a little on their survival skills.
As we settled in to camp, we suggested to the boys that they build shelters in case it rained. They all declined and said that they would just wrap themselves in the tarps like "burritos". Besides, it wasn't going to rain anyways.
So we took a few pictures, and wrestled around a bit.
Todd had a nice one man tent to sleep in and I had a Bivy sack. A bivy sack is a waterproof sack that fits over a mummy bag that is waterproof. You can zip it up over your face if it is raining hard and is quite handy. My bivy wrapped around a new Marmot 800 fill sleeping bag that I purchased with Zach's college money.
After messing around we all went to bed. About 15 minutes into the night lightning started to pick up. I looked over at one of the boys (Corbin) who had his bag exposed, and told him that he needed to wrap up better than that. He fiddled with his tarp and the rain came and man did it come.
About 2 minutes into the hard rain I hear Corbin: "BROTHER RIDDLE, I'M WET AND I'M FREEZING!"
By this time I'm tight in my bivy sack, I hear Todd laughing, and I automatically start laughing.
I yelled through the rain to Corbin:" Buddy, you are just going to have to man up! If Todd or I have to get out we will get wet and then we'll all get wet!" I look over at Todd in his tent and we start laughing again.
Corbin:"BUT MY HANDS ARE FREEZING AND I'M REALLY WET!
Me:"CORBIN, I PROMISE I WONT LET YOU DIE, YOU HAVE JUST GOT TO BE A MAN! YOUR BODY CAN TAKE A LOT MORE THAN THIS, TRY TO KEEP COVERED THE BEST YOU CAN, AND WE'LL FIX IT WHEN THE RAIN LETS UP!"
Corbin:"OK,"
The rain fell hard for about two hours before letting up. After it let up two of the four boys were soaked. Corbin and Jamin.
Todd and I decided to put his son Hayden in his one man tent with him, and Corbin in Hayden's bag. I thanked Hayden for taking one for the team.
Jamin on the other hand said he would man up and sleep in a wet bag. His bag was soaked to the bone. He grabbed Corbin's bag and teased Corbin because it was hardly wet.
I worried a little about Jamin, because we were at 9400 feet and it was still pretty cold.
Finally we settled in and went to sleep. Every hour or so I would check on Jamin. The rain came pretty consistent through the night, and around 4:00 AM I hear Jamin:"Brother Riddle, what time is it? I'm frozen!" I look over and Jamin is standing there with his shirt off, shivering with rain dripping off of him.
I thought to myself: "Dang, I hope we don't give him pneumonia." I climbed out of bed and got into my dry back pack, grabbed a thermal blanket, my waterproof jacket and a beanie. I fixed Jamin up and he went back to bed.
Around 6:30 AM, I got up and Jamin was just shivering and not saying much. I heated some water and made a big batch of Oatmeal for Jamin. He ate about half of it and began blowing chunks.
I felt pretty bad, and the boys were up to watch the show.
After eating everyone spread their bags and wet gear on some rocks to dry in the sun. I watched Jamin, and he seem to be feeling better and was joking around.
Around 11:30 AM we had our gear dry and packed up. We pumped some water out of a spring and headed out. I told the boys that we would have to hit it pretty hard to get 15 miles in before night fall.
And hit it hard was just what we did. I stayed out in front while Todd brought up the rear.
We stopped for a few breaks and took a few pictures the country was beautiful. A couple of times we stopped because Corbin's knee was bothering him. Todd and I discussed the situation and really wondered if it was really the knee or if it was just a matter of needing to toughen up. We were pushing a pretty hard pace.
At one point and time Corbin fell down holding his knee. I told Todd and the Others to go ahead. I looked down at Corbin and asked him how his feet were. I was a little worried because he was hiking in a pair of 15lb Steel toe work boots from Wall-Mart.
He told me that he thought he may have a couple of blisters.
Luckily, I had packed a pair of my running shoes. Even more luckily Corbin was a size 11 like me. I gave him my running shoes, and we tied his boots on to his bag. After another mile Corbin layed down on a rock whining a little and holding his knee.
I was a little suspicious because I didn't see a limp at all.
I walked back to Corbin and started loading some things from his bag into mine. I took his 15 lb boots, his gas for his stove and a few other things. I told Corbin that he was just going to have to man up and there was no other choice but to finish the hike. I said the only way out of there was by helicopter, and I knew that neither he or I could afford a helicopter. He looked up at me hopefully and said:"I have medicaid."
I shook my head and mumbled under my breath that medicaid didn't cover being a puss. "What brother Riddle?" "Nothing." I said. We talked it out for a minute and I talked to him about manning up. I told him that he had two choices, man up or die. I told him that I wouldn't let him take the second choice.
We moved on.
As we passed the 10 mile mark, the boys were getting visibly fatigued. Most of the hike had been up hill as we climbed from 9000ft to over 10000 feet.
As we continued our hike we reached a high point and then the hike took us back down to lower elevations. There weren't many places on the hike that we would backtrack except for a stretch of about 5 miles. That worried me a little because that stretch was covered that first day. It was all down hill. In fact very steep down hill. That wouldn't have bothered me except I knew that we would have to climb out of there the next day.
Every 15 minutes the boys would yell to either me or Todd. "How much farther?" Todd's answer was always the same "thirty minutes!" My answer was always the same " Just over this hill!" By the time we arrived at camp the boys were exhausted, all but Alex. Todd and I weren't tired, but were a little worried because moral was a little low.
Jamin was still sick, so he just layed down in the grass. I looked over at Corbin and he had layed down, said something like: "I just want to go home" and passed out.
Alex and Hayden began working on a shelter. I noticed that Corbin had lost his tarp on the way, So I asked the boys to just build a shelter that they all could share. The boys griped a little about the other sleeping beauties but submitted and built a shelter for all of them.
That evening the boys were able to fish. Catching Splake, Lake Trout, and Brook Trout, did wonders for morale.
Corbin and I had another talk about being a man.
We ate dinner and went to bed.
That was the last day that I heard a complaint from any of the boys.
From here on out, I will refer to them as men.
To be continued....
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