Into the Wilderness, The Final Chapter

I woke up the next morning and immediately checked our packs for the tell tale signs of wildlife disturbance. Disappointly enough, they were untouched except for the spider that had lodged itself in my shoe. We got up and shared a nice breakfast with Kate and John, gingerly tested our legs (still sore, but working), and went about packing up and moving on out. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and we were excited to see Mount Trudie in less inclement weather. We planned to lunch on the top of the mountain, and then make our way back to the car. It was uneventful, for the most part. The walk back seemed less treacherous than it had the day before, most likely because we were becoming accustomed to the trail and because it wasn’t pouring rain. We made it to Mount Trudie in just a few hours and sat on a rock outcrop and had lunch and took in the spectacular views. Then it was back down the mountain, including the original climb that had caused a fair amount of lingering worry in the back of my mind. I inched my way down the steep trail, and made it to the bottom without incident. I commented to Jeff that we hadn’t seen much in the way of wildlife. A few minutes later, I heard a noise in the underbrush. I looked, and saw a small ground squirrel coming my way. I did a double take, however, because from the front the squirrel looked more like it had some enormous growth hanging off the front of its face. I looked again, and then noticed the four tiny paws wrapped around the back of her head, and realized that this was a mother carrying her tiny little baby through the forest. I was shocked, since I had never even thought about how squirrels get their kittens around, and more than anything I was supremely happy. I told Jeff to turn around and look, and he got a good look at it too, and was just as pleased as I was. It might not have been much, but it was new to both of us, and that was about as good as anything we could ask for.

We finally made it back to the car, and rode out much of the way to St Paul in silence, exhausted and looking forward to sleeping in our own bed, with our own pillows, clean and full and warm. And then, of course, we started to plan where we’ll go on our next trip.