A passing grade...

Day 187
9-10-2006
Started: Pueblo, CO
Finished: Pueblo West, CO
Today's Miles: 18.5
Total Miles:2575.0

Today was difficult. We truly felt tested, and if we had to give ourselves a grade we wouldn't like the letter scale, so we prefer to use a pass/fail scale and say we passed. When determining our grade we would have to evaluate how we dealt with the challenges we faced. Some days are a physical challenge, some days are a mental challenge, and some days the elements can be a challenge, on a day like today we encountered all of those challenges. This morning it was easily evident that we were going to have a physically challenging day. The blisters on Randy's feet are in very awkward locations that will not allow the combination of bandages and moleskin to stick for any length of time. To keep the blister care from falling off he has come up with a complete foot wrap using underwrap and tape. The extra wrap does keep friction from creating new blisters, unfortunately the wrap does cause extra pressure to be applied to the sore blisters that already exist. When the first steps of the day are sore there is no doubt that the rest of the days hiking is going to be a physical challenge. The environmental conditions at the start the day made for ideal hiking. As we made our way out of Pueblo the temperature was perfect and the sights to be seen were beautiful. We were hiking along the Arkansas River and made our way into the rock canyon area of Lake Pueblo State Park. The swift moving water and the amazing rock formations made for a hikers dream as we followed the nature trail through the park. We made our way past the nature center and continued to hike through multiple day use areas and by a couple of fishing holes. When we reached the huge dam that holds back the river to form Lake Pueblo the perfect hiking conditions took a drastic turn for the worse. The wind started to pick up and very dark and thick clouds moved in becoming an eerie backdrop behind the great rock formations. We tried to pick up our pace and hoped that we would be able to skirt past the front edge of what appeared to be a nasty storm. When we felt the first drops of rain we paused to put on our rain gear and pack covers. The first couple of rain drops that hit us were cold and wet, which comparatively wouldn't have been so bad, because the next thing we knew we were being bombarded by golf ball sized chunks of hail. We can tell you, getting cracked in the top of the head by pieces of ice that are the size of golf balls is no fun and yes it does leave a mark. We ran as fast as we could to a lone standing tree and tried to use our tent's rain fly to put a shield between us and the millions of ice balls that were crashing down all over the place. We had both seen "storm chaser" shows on the weather channel that showed incredible hail storms that leave the ground completely covered and cause all sorts of property damage, but this time we were watching it unfold all around us. It was actually scary, and painful too! After hiding out under the not so protective cover of the tree for about ten minutes a car pulled over on the nearby park access road and gave us an inviting wave. We ran over to the car as fast as we could and jumped in trying to avoid any more direct hits. Once safely inside we tried to thank the kind "angel" that had stopped to help us, but quickly realized that our multiple "thank yous" were not being heard. It turned out that Jennifer was hearing impaired so she immediately reached for a pen and paper that was on the dash where she introduced herself and communicated with us about how crazy the storm was. It was awesome to see that she wasn't letting her physical challenge keep her from interacting with others, even perfect strangers like ourselves. We passed the pen and paper back and forth and had a conversation that led to Jennifer dropping us at a picnic area with a roof that we had recently passed through. Jennifer was inspiring and allowed us to see that physical challenges can be met head on, and all the while she was helping us to overcome the tremendous challenge the outside elements were putting on us. We can't thank Jennifer enough for her kindness and hope we didn't get too much water and mud on the carpet of her car. Shortly after Jennifer got us to a safe spot the storm started to ease up and the once dangerous hail was now a beautiful accent to the landscape, making the entire surface of the ground look as though it had just snowed. The hail was melting fast as we continued hiking around the north side of the lake and it was nothing more then a memory when we stopped to take a break at the JuniperBreak Campground. The mental challenge of today's hike started to unfold while discussing our plans for the rest of the afternoon as we sat at a picnic table in the campground. Sheri can't stand watching Randy hike in so much pain, and Randy is rather stubborn. The problem we encountered was that Randy's stubborn mindset had him focused on miles and making our way west regardless of his blistered feet. He was thinking that he could fight through the blister pain until we reached somewhere that we could search out a remedy. A rather near sighted outlook that was more concerned with today and tomorrow and unfortunately overlooking the reality that making painful progress today and tomorrow would more then likely lead to a day-after-tomorrow that would require a short day at best. Sheri took on a less frustrated and more level headed approach that was determined to put us in a position tonight that would enable us to search out a remedy first thing in the morning, even if it meant a short day tomorrow knowing that it would then create a less painful day-after-tomorrow. To put ourselves in a position to search out a remedy tomorrow we felt like we needed to make ourselves accessible to a ride back into Pueblo in the morning. This may have been the most mentally challenging moment for Randy because the best way for us to put ourselves in an accessible position would be to make our way to the east side of Pueblo West and not to the west side where the ADT will eventually take us. What would essentially happen would be a day of hiking over 18 miles so that we could end up 12 miles outside of the point in Pueblo where we started the day. So as you could imagine that can be a bit of a mental challenge. Sheri's level headed mindset that enabled her to say things like, "at least we had a beautiful hike through the State Park", and "remember, you could be doing many less fun things!" helped to keep the pain and frustration that Randy was feeling from completely overwhelming him. We are definitely fortunate to have each other to share this journey with. When one of us isn't seeing things with the clearest of mindsets the other usually keeps us moving in the right direction. When it really comes down to it we don't think there is a wrong direction as long as we are both going there together. So all things considered, we feel like we definitely deserve a passing grade on today's challenges, especially when we are being graded on a group project. Think about it, even the lowest grade averages out to a passing grade when someone in the group deserves an A. With that in mind, the only way we could "fail" is if we didn't work together, and with the love we share that is just not an option!

Your Friends on the ADT,
Randy and Sheri
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