Day 6--Duct Tape & Whoops??

Sunday March 31-- day 6 of hiking

Well, the day began with Piper crying. Why? I duct taped Bristol´s blanket to her head. It was so windy, I was afraid that the blankets would fall off as we hiked the trail. Bristol thought that it was a great idea. I carefully made sure that the rough brown with the bumps was against her cheeks. She smiled, as she slowly wiggled her head back and forth allowing it to rub against her cheeks. She said that this would give her energy. That lead me to then turn Piper´s blanket to the navy blue side facing me as I wrapped it around her head. As I duct taped it over her face, she began to scream. I was asking her why… but she was just screaming, ¨No, no, no, no¨. Later, she would say, when she was calmer, that she didn´t want the duct tape making her blanket sticky.

But, I gave her a hug, distracted her by peeing on the side of the trail, which triggered her to stop crying and yell for dady to take a picture. Whatever works, right?

We began hiking, with one stick and Piper in my right hand, We had a 5 mile trail segment to complete. It was pretty. There were still surprisingly snow covered trails and parts were really icy.

As we looked down the trail, we saw a bright circular light coming from a wall. It was an old train tunnel. We imagined how big it would be as we slowly walked. As we crossed under and through Clyde Hill Road, Piper told us it was icy. We all entered the sheer-ice-path with caution. But, as we walked, Piper was telling us, again, about her trained velociraptors. I humored her and started dragging my hiking pole so that it would scrape against the metal wall in 3 click moments. Bristol and Piper got excited as they exclaimed, ¨I hear Blue!¨ We were all yelling echo, and enjoying the reverberating pattern of sounds coming from the walls.

I began to increase the length of my steps, and that´s when I realized I lost my balance. I held Piper away as I fell backwards, both feet kicking into the air. SPLAT! Or CRUNCH! Or EARTHQUAKE! I am not sure which one replicates the sound and shake in the tunnel. But, owww! That hurt!

Jeremy tried to pick me up, when he got done laughing. He then asked me to do it just once more, so he could have the Go Pro ready. Ha Ha! I was smiling and laughing as I lay there on the ice. It was so slippery, that it took a few spins on the ice, and I rolled over and tried to plant my right leg at a ninety degree angle.

But, do not worry, we did in fact, get me up, and I walked about 300 yards and then took our lunch break. The girls were not happy that I cracked most of the peanut butter crackers during my fall.

We hiked at least 6 miles more. I knew my neck was going to be sore and my left butt. BUt, it was pretty amazing that I didn´t actually get hurt.

We finally met a couple that was out for a hike. Jeremy and I had remarked several times that we hadn´t seen anyone on these trails. We were in towns, and no one was using this natural, National Treasure.

We moved the cars, and tried to give the girls a break, but they were just playing, so we got up and started to hike again. They were playing with the stuffed animals and other toys in the car. But, it felt great to sit down and get out of the wind.

We duct-taped the blankets again and set out for a small section. The problem was we needed to hike 25.3 miles on road. The wind was fierce and we would have no break from it. I urged the girls to do 2.5 miles. Piper and Bristol were both getting cold, but we made it. The girls rode home with Jeremy, while I listened to more chapters of the 1000 miler audio book.

It was a productive day. Cold. Windy. But we accomplished as much as we could. The next time, we were planning to pick up the trail again was on Easter weekend.

#IceAgeTrail #NationalScenicTrail #hiking