Brave, kind and trusting... A real American hero...

Day 242
11-4-2006
Started: Auburn, CA
Finished: Folsom Lake, CA
Today's Miles: 18.5
Total Miles: 3904.9

There is no question that firemen are heroes, and we can definitely say that we had a fireman come to our rescue tonight. He didn't have to come running into a burning building and there was no need for sirens or flashing lights and he didn't even get to slide down the firehouse pole, but when it came to going above and beyond the call of duty and displaying the honorable traits of kindness and trust he most certainly earned his Merit Badge. To explain we suppose we should start at the beginning. This morning we were a bit slow moving. We slept in rather late, we suppose we were tired from having hiked after dark last night, and by the time we were packed up we could already see that we were either going to have a very short mile day, or we were going to be night hiking once again. When we thought we were ready to get a move on we were faced with a roadblock, or in our case a trailblock, by the unfortunate inconvenience of a business call. While in Auburn this morning we called home to check in with our families back east and Pop Propster inquired with us about some activity on our debit card. He informed us that a transaction had gone through on October thirteenth, a day when we were deep in the Tahoe National Forest and nowhere near any outlet that would accept a debit card. We determined we had better investigate. So, before heading out of Auburn we put a call in to the bank. As it turns out, someone in Ireland has been using our account number. After talking to two different departments in the bank we finally had a block put on the account and the money spent by who knows who in Ireland refunded. After that delay we stopped one more time at the bike shop in Old Town Auburn where a nice guy named Jay gave us a map showing us the Folsom Lake area we were headed into and then we finally made it back to the trail at the staging area of the Western States Trail. Once finally hiking, we had a beautiful walk. We followed a combination of the Pioneer Express Trail and the Cardiac Trail down into the deep Canyon that houses the Middle Fork of the American River. We were loving the narrow trail that followed the River downstream, zigzagging to and from the water, at times right on the edge of a slope that if we weren't careful could have made for a pretty nasty, steep fall down to the River. We found ourselves hiking intentionally noisy after passing multiple signs that warned of heavy Mountain Lion activity in the area. The signs said things like, "never hike alone, and keep your children close to you". Not the most comforting signs to read, especially as the sun is starting to set and visibility is getting worse by the minute for us, and probably better for the Mountain Lions. The steep conditions and the uneasy feeling of being the hunted and not the hunter caused us to decide that we weren't in the best night hiking environment. When we came to a gravel road we thought we would try to see if it would lead us out of the Canyon to a road we saw on our map from the bike shop that paralleled the Canyon all the way down to Beal's Point on Folsom Lake, a spot we were hoping to get to today. As we were heading up the gravel road our night hiking condition improved for a moment when a huge full moon peaked up over the horizon. The bright white full circle added more light, naturally, then our artificial headlamps could combined. It wasn't but a few minutes before our night hike quickly took a turn for the worse. At the top of the Canyon we hit a gate. After going over the gate we realized we had made our way into some type on community, a gated community. Gated communities in this part of California are definitely private property and the residents don't particularly enjoy seeing strangers walking around after dark with flashlights. We soon found out that the residence we needed to be most concerned with were the ones with four legs that had sharp teeth and barked really loud. We were luckily able to talk nice enough to the first two barking dogs to get a wagging tail and a lick on the hand, but the barks brought out their owner who immediately informed us we were on private property. We shared our situation and he was nice enough to give us the fastest route out of the neighborhood, not necessarily the south and west route we were looking for, but at least we were quickly off private property and away from barking dogs. We finally hit the road we were looking for, but our night hike seemed to be going from bad to worse. The road was rather busy, with no street lights, a shoulder that went from very small to none at all and it was Saturday night, so that probably increased our risk of drivers who might not have the best reaction time (Unfortunate to have to say, but probably true). If dodging traffic wasn't bad enough we also had to dodge a couple of skunks that we had a close encounter with roadside. Tails went flying straight up in the air and for a moment we thought we were getting sprayed, but after a quick backpedal the smelly critters held their fire and scurried off into the tall brush. We knew the distance to Beal's Point wouldn't take us too long, but we also knew that it would only take a split second for a fast moving car to put an end to more then just tonight's night hike, so when we saw a sign for a fire station we thought we would ask for a tentsite out back of the firehouse. Sheri's Brother and Dad Natoli are both Firemen and we have tented at a few firehouses already on this hike so we knew it was our best option. When we knocked on the door we were greeted by two super guys who had lots of questions about our Journey, and who said they were sure it wouldn't be a problem for us to camp, saying that they had two acres of land out back. They went to ask their Captain and then returned to ask more questions telling us that the Captain would be right out. When the Captain did come out he was carrying our card that had our names and web site on it and he walked up, slid it across the counter to Randy and said, "No, we can't allow you to camp". Matt Tribur, the kind fireman we had been talking with looked more disappointed then we were. We figured the Captain was concerned with legal liability issues and so we threw our packs on and started to head back out to do some more car dodging. Before we could hit the door, Matt came to the rescue. This is where we needed to hand out that Merit Badge! Matt said, "I trust you, take my car". We must have looked confused, but we think we were just overwhelmed! Matt reassured us, "seriously, take my car and go down to the campground at Beal's Point, camp for the night and bring the car back in the morning". Wow, kind and trusting, a brave fireman with all the traits you could ever wish for. We went out to the parking lot and Matt gave us a quick overview of his car and then sent us on our way. As we drove the few minutes down to Beal's Point we were literally giggling with happiness and completely overjoyed that Matt was so kind. We're not sure who was "white-knuckling" more, Randy on the steering wheel, or Sheri on the passenger side handles, it's been a long time since we've driven a vehicle on a windy road at night! We managed to safely make it to the campground and now that our nerves have settled we are laying near the beautiful Folsom Lake discussing how amazing it is to meet wonderful people like Matt. Tomorrow we will get an early start and we are pretty sure we won't be night hiking for a while. After we drop Matt's car off at the firehouse we will hike our way back down to the Jedediah Smith National Recreation Trail, also known as the American River Bikeway and hopefully make it to Sacramento before nightfall. Tonight we can't help but to be inspired by Matt's kindness and ability to have faith and trust his fellow man. We wish we could hand out Merit Badges that would be worth the value that Matt and people like Matt are to the community, the country, and the world! It makes us think, if there were such Merit Badges who would be worthy of deserving one? Do You know anybody that should get one? Should You get one? The more we think about it, should it really take Merit Badges to encourage us to act honorably? Matt is deserving of a Merit Badge, but he didn't act the way he did because he thought he might get one! Why then, can't we all be Kind, Trusting and Honorable? Just something to think about.

Your Friends on the ADT,
Randy and Sheri
Follow our Journey at www.treckusa.com