Reunited!

So, today we decided to go back to the scene of the creek crossing mishap (yes, that’s what we are calling it) in an attempt to recover Sandy’s wayward hiking pole and to look during broad daylight at any options we may have missed re: our failed river crossing.

As we were nearing the washed out road crossing, which started this whole mess, we noticed a Park County Road and Bridge truck carrying a huge culvert. We were hopeful they were going to be working on the county road to the trailhead. The two culverts which had previously handled decades of spring runoff failed when the recent 100 year record rainfalls hit. For those who may have missed it, here is a short summary of the situation: The main road to the trailhead was inaccessible, which caused us to look for other ways over the raging creek, which resulted in us falling into said water, which caused Sandy to lose one of her expensive Komperdell hiking poles and oh yes, almost her life.

So, sure enough, the county is working on making the creek crossing a three culvert affair and are asking all those who are parked nearby to kindly move their cars so their heavy equipment can move in. In the meantime a young hiker and his mother are asking how to get across he creek and are not being give any constructive advice, so they decide to semi-wade across, which was not a very good choice. Well, their boots filled up with water but they were actually able to locate a shallow portion of the creek where they made it across without losing an expensive hiking pole. (Sorry about that Sandy)

But now back to our story of the lost pole. So Sandy and I retrace our tracks across several breakaway water flows, a broken out beaver dam and are now just below where she met her fate yesterday. I look into an eddy and low and behold, I see some expensive cork floating right next to the bank. I was like a child at Christmas when I yelled, “Eureka, I’ve found it”, or something similar and less worthy for an already overextended blog story. In any event, what I thought would be an effort in futility ended up turning out to be a monumental success. I don’t think this rates up there with a successful moon landing, but it is very close.

In addition, we are getting a new water crossing which DOES NOT require crossing a rapid creek on an icy round dead tree. So, this means that Rosalie-Part III will be back on again for another nice fall day in the very near future.

Buen Camino – Tenemos nuestros bastones de senderismo!