Just over three years ago I started dating Melissa Hoff... our first real date (actually her selection course... dont tell her) was a hike in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, The Bob for short. I intended on spending a few days alone in the Bob, but she seemed interested, so I invited her along. She had all her own gear... ruck, gps, compass, etc and had done some day hikes in quite a few Natl Parks. I was pretty impressed at that and her gear. So while she had done some hiking, my 44 mile / 2 day trek in a Grizzly refuge was outside her past experiences... or at least what was supposed to be a 44 mile / 2 day trek. A forest fire burned in behind us on the morning of day two, thus making our return portion of the trek impossible. In a Wilderness, there are no roads or maintained trails, so route planning is important. The nearest Wilderness entry point / parking area was on the other side of the Wilderness... another 40 plus miles away. This is when Hoff really learned to read topo map. By the end of the walk, she was in front with the map and compass. We moved all day that day knocking out more than half of that distance crossing over White River Pass... at over 9000ft. In August, those peaks are still holding snow. The last mile up to the pass has 5000ft of elevation... it took more than two hours. Crossing the moving waters in the White River, Hoff slipped and went for a ride. Luckily I had crossed, dropped my pack and was back at her when she slip in. I got her out of her pack to bank. But it hurt. We were both a bit scuffed up from the rocks. I picked the crossing. It could have been fatal... BIG TIME lesson learned. I expected that to crush her, but that chica just changed out of her cold, wet clothes and kept going. I now know she just didnt realize how close to getting killed she had just been. Funny now... wasnt then. Mostly b/c I knew NO ONE would believe I would have taken her across at that point by accident and, barring a motive, I would have gone to jail! Ha. The third day we shared a Cliff Bar... yes, one of them. If you know her, you know half a Cliff Bar wouldnt be a snack for Hoffie on a good day, so it certainly didnt do much for a caloric and sleep deprived Hoff. Lucky for us some nice folks at the trail head gave us bologna and cheese sandwiches and cherry soda... and ride to the nearest town (25 miles away). 65 miles - 2.5 days - carrying a 35lbs pack in some of the roughest country in the US is a good start for vetting your girlfriend, or boyfriend folks. Just remember though... everyday is a selection. ha.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 23:00:07 +0000
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