Ha! I'll bet you thought something stopped us- it didn't. We continue down the trail through the forest. There are a lot of people coming from the opposite direction. Some are backpacking, some are day hiking, and some are on horses. This seems unusual to me for a Sunday, but who knows. Several of them bring up the previous night by asking things like "Did it rain a little up there last night?" or "Did you guys get wet last night?". Our typical response is "yeah, a little bit" or "not too bad", but Phil blunders on one particular response and embarassingly implies that we had wet ourselves. Everyone chuckles as he struggles to re-word it.

Eventually we run into a ranger who also inquires about the weather on the previous night, and about our trip in general. We talk to him briefly about the rain and the mosquitos in Cascade Valley. I expect him to ask for our wilderness pass and am trying to remember where I put it in my pack, but he never does request to see it. We wish each other Good Day and turn a bend as we start walking again. Voila! We are surprised (but not disappointed) to see the parking lot just 100 feet ahead. And just in time- out of water, film, energy,and thoughts, the only thing we have left is stench, and plenty of it. We have made it- well almost. We still have to hike to the car, which as you may recall, Phil had parked another 500 feet away at the far end of the parking lot.

Back in civilization, the two primary human drives take over- showers, and burgers and Cokes. Unfortunately we have to settle in each case. There are no showers, but we are able to sponge bath away some of the stink using campground outhouse sinks. In town we stop at Grumpy's Sports Bar (recommended by a local) for burgers and Cokes, but they only have Pepsi. I thought about asking the waitress if she would mind if I walked next door to the Quick-e-Mart to buy some Cokes to drink with our burgers, but then I remembered that I couldn't walk. Funny, even a Pepsi tastes pretty good after 4 days in the backcountry.

Final thoughts

In backpacking, as with most any venture, there is good and bad. In general, the beauty of the country is offset by the strenuous hike, the escape from civilization and daily routine is offset by the loathsome trail food, the camaraderie among friends is offset by the separation from other loved ones. In addition, this trip had other highs and lows. On the positive side there was the dive-bombing, fish-stocking plane, the hail, lightning and thunder show, and the many magnificent waterfalls and slides. On the negative side was the Gomer Pyle rerun, the mosquito massacre, and the broken toe. But broken bones mend, the mosquitos remain in Cascade Valley, and Carter and Pyle have been taken off the air, and will not be thought of again. It is the good things that we will tend to remember. And over time the bad things will magically metamorphose into good things as so often happens. And years from now it will not matter what happened on this trip, it will only matter that this trip happened.