Hiking and Black Hills

Since the beginning of the drive to the end of it when we parked the car at the trail head, waiting in the car felt like waiting in line for the biggest and fastest roller coaster at an amusement park. As soon as we got out of the car our emotions of getting the trip started tried to take over our common sense but the toll of the car ride would soon bring us back to earth. We both lifted our backpacks and they felt glued to the ground and we realized we were not going anywhere that night without rest. We made camp that night a short 2 miles away from our car near the last stop of fresh water or “potable water” as the signs all around us said.

Thoughts of tomorrow’s hike, nature, and dangers eventually drifted me away into a deep slumber. Before I knew it Syd a beautiful fawn colored Australian Kelpie was moving around waking me and Jayce up for the start of the day. I would have never guessed what was ahead in the beautiful and wild forest of the Black Hills. I would learn very soon that the calm forest is very deceiving and dangerous if you do not respect it and its inhabitants. We made breakfast that morning. We would soon fill up our last bottles of water and hydration packs and set off into the dark forest.

Jayce asked, “Are you ready to go? ” I replied “Yea just making sure we have everything we need. ” I never used to be that cautious and ready but an earlier trip made me more aware of things and gave me a lot of experience. The main thing on my mind was, will we have enough water for Jayce, Syd, and I? We had an extra gallon of water that we did not plan on bringing due to its weight but I decided to take the responsibility of carrying it since Jayce was going to be leashed up with his dog. I threw on my bag and finally felt the full weight of my gear and water, I was bringing, and it felt just right.

We hiked mile after mile with no problem with the occasional stop to look around at the beauty of this amazing place. After what seemed like a couple miles we realized we were ahead of schedule and had hiked around 10 miles. With my calculations we did about 2miles per hour with about 50 to 60 pounds of gear on our backs. I had set my watch the night before to go off when we had one hour of light left to give us plenty of time to set up camp. To this day I still remember the time it would go off 8:35pm Two days went by since we left the car and started hiking.

We soon both were joking about the extra weather gear we brought along and unnecessary weight it added. But it seemed as soon as we started mocking Mother Nature she responded. The next thing we knew both of us were racing to put our rain gear on with this thunderous storm above our heads striking trees in the distance. Just as fast as it was summoned, it went away. We had one day left in our hike before we reached our planned destination. Since that comment we had made, Mother Nature made sure to shut our mouths up with the erratic weather we had been going through. With 10 miles to go as a result of the weather we were making slow progress.

Packing up wet gear is a lot harder than dry gear and also added water weight to our packs. We woke up that morning just feeling cold and miserable it hadn’t stopped raining since the night before. We continued our hike as normal and just when we thought it couldn’t get any harder we stumbled across a beetle infested forest with the biggest trees downed, from the destruction to the wood the beetle caused, which from every direction it looked endless. Worst thing about it is, it cut straight through our proposed trail and we had no idea how much was infected with these little beetles. We need to figure out what to do. We have around 10 miles left for base camp and our water is half full. ” I stated. “If we decide to go around who knows how far it goes till we hit some clear point. We need to go straight through the middle of it. ” “Yeah you are right we don’t have much choice but to go over each tree” Not even a mile into the infested forest and my thighs were blazing from climbing over huge knocked over trees. The more exertions we did the hotter and sweatier we got; losing a lot more water and using more water at the same time. 5 miles in our water was completely gone and we had awhile to go.

Once I drank the last drop of water, deep down I felt this cold shiver down my back and it finally hit me how bad our situation was but I needed to keep my composure and hide the fear that was dwelling within. Soon Jayce and I found ourselves singing some “hiking cadence drills” that he learned during his marine active duty just to keep our minds off what was going through both our heads about the severity of our problem. We were using more fluid than taking in and it started showing in slow movements, dry lips and the beginning of a dehydrated headache. We saw no traces of water along the way and the nearest lake at least 5 miles off course.

I looked over at Jayce and we both saw the fear in our eyes when we finally accepted the fact that we could very well die out here. This wasn’t a game anymore and turned into a survival experience. The only obvious choice to make was to head to the lake and hope we can purify the water to be able to drink it. Life is usually teeming around lakes and this wasn’t an exception. We hiked over a dreadful hill to uncover the most amazing thing we had ever seen: the bluest lake and the sun was being reflected off the water all around us as to say this is your salvation.

We could not believe it had been almost 15 miles since we ran out of water and here we are next to this lake with almost clear water but we could not drink it right away. We used our very last strength to drop our gear and get our water purify stuff that we hadn’t used, to collect water and make it drinkable. My preferred way of making drinkable water has always been two processes boil it and the add drops of chlorine just to make sure everything is completely dead/ “I cannot believe this I thought we were goners. You know out here no one would have found us right? ” Jayce said Yes I know that I saw how scared you were earlier” I laughed trying to avoid bringing up how scared I was also. “Well now we are 25 miles away from the car. No turning back now correct? ” The hike back was totally a nightmare; completely tired, hungry and thirsty. But this time the thirst was much different after knowing what true thirst is I will not be the same anymore. Jayce and I still bring up our near death experience but tend to keep it to ourselves since neither of our families had a clue about what actually happened. We didn’t see a point in worrying them after all we did survive.