That trip? AWESOME. Let's hit the highlights...
-Fun car ride, great group of people.
-Um...Iori/Zack/other must have misplaced poles to this tent Joce and I were supposed to use...but, um...there were only 2 and you need WAY more than that to even make a structure for it. It was hilarious, and turned out for the better as you will find out later.
-Food was awesome at our first stop (not the actual hiking yet). We made potatos and cooked them in foil in hot coals with carrots and broccoli. Broccoli was burnt (at least for us girls...) and the carrots tasted like sweet potatos. Josh had good broccoli.
-Um...seeing as Joce and I weren't sure how we were doing sleeping arrangements we put it off and slept in the van that night (aware that we'd eventually have to figure it out when we were in the mountains).
-Van--incredibly uncomfortable. When we woke up...I wanted to get out...well I guess it set off the alarms...Yeah...
-Alarm: OBNOXIOUS. EMBARASSSING. YEA. none of us could figure out how to shut it up...so Josh drove it off and tried to look for the horn in the hood...eventually just unplugged the fuse for the horn. The lights continued to blink every time we opened the door (panic) and stuff, but at least the horn wasn't sounding off. His mom didn't know what to do when we called and the dealerships were not open at the time. Dangit.
-The hike? ROUGH. Like "rough trails" are Actually Rough. Carrying like 40 lbs all day isn't very pleasant but you don't really notice it all that much until you're going up the mountain or having to climb something. Then you really feel the burn. I fared rather well and I am grateful. Jocelyn did not wear proper shoes and was having a lot of pack problems and such so that was really painful for her. Josh had to take her sleeping bag and coat. OK, Zack, THANKFULLY the tent was not taken up because instead of splitting weight and stuff I wouldve been stuck with it because Jocelyn's load had to be reduced to like...just food.
-Red River Gorge is beautiful. Really bare as far as wildlife goes but it was beautiful. The cliffs and trails were not exactly safe though.
-We explored a lot, ate good food, I got really dehydrated (duh). Did a lot of exploring without the pack, mostly with Josh because the others were sorta slow...
-Saw a few birds, one caterpillar, a few crickets, a dead mole, a few ants, one whole acorn, a couple empty ones, a buzzard, a sparrow, 5-ish butterflies...That was practically it as far as wildlife goes...and apart from TALL trees (a good deal were dead and fallen, and many burnt).
-Us girls made an awesome fire on our own. I hunted in the dark far from the camp in order to find decent wood, twas a fun adventure...as was all my exploring, most of which resulted in my bleeding from lots of scratches...
-Sometimes trees would have fallen and blocked trails so we couldn't see them and we'd go off the wrong place and then have to back track UP slippery slopes. GREAT.
-Thankfully Josh planned it well and it was only like 12 or so miles because we could go at a relatively leisurely pace...Relatively.
-I got to climb a lot of rocks and explore little caves. The other girls didn't want to climb the last one because it looked scary, but really? it was a lot easier than expected...sorta slippery at times but if you're careful, it's alright.
So many other things happened but I am so tired...I have documented a lot of it through pictures but...there are some things you just had to be there for to see for yourself. It was amazing.
What do I have to show for it? Better muscles with an incredible work out, lots of pictures, happiness, memories, probably 20 decent scratches that still sorta sting, bruises on my feet, my hips, maybe an elbow...mostly bruises. NO blisters, even with NEW boots!
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