"The Hike"

Alright, here's the story of what happened today. I want to sit down and journal this because it was a very memorable day. This is my account, and I may have some of the trail names wrong. My friend Jill wanted to hike to Twin Lakes and I wanted to tag along. Sounded like a great day with a few of our older kids. I took Haley who is 11, and she took Seth who's 15 and Gavin 9. All together this should be about a 7 ish mile hike. We started out at the trail head and hiked to Potters Pass. From there, you can go back, or hike down to the lakes. We hiked down to the upper lake and stopped for lunch. Next we headed to the Lower lake and planned to take the loop around back to Potters Pass and then back down to the trail head. Seth was a little ahead of us. When Jill and I reached the lower lake, we didn't see Seth. We figured maybe he headed out on the trail to the loop back to Potter pass. We headed that way for a few minutes, and Jill thought she'd go back to the lake for a few minutes and see if he was exploring around the lake or something. She sent me and Haley on and planned to catch up with us at Potter Pass. Well, apparently there is a turn off we didn't expect. It's not labled or even easily seen. I completely missed it. Haley and I hiked for about an hour thinking surely we're just around the corner from Potter Pass. I knew Potter Pass was about that far away, but of course I reached a point where I knew I had to have missed something and I knew we weren't heading the right way. I knew I could get back to the Lakes. At this point, Haley was getting tired and very scared. We sat down and said a prayer, and then headed back to the Lakes. Haley was crying by now. At this point, I knew for sure how to get back to the Lakes and I wasn't worried. I just wasn't sure If Haley would make it. I knew once we got back to the Lakes, I was planning to hike back out to Potter Pass the way we came in..instead of the loop. I knew from the Lakes, it was another 3 miles back to the car. I'm guessing that we hiked about 2 miles away from the lakes, so we had that to cover, and then the 3 miles to the car. At one point Haley was getting a little hysterical and kept wanting to sit down. I had to yell at her a little to snap her out of it. I told her that I knew she was tired and scared, but that the only way we were going to get home was to get back to the Lakes. Meanwhile Jill told me that when they found the trail that lead to Potter Pass, they were pretty sure I had missed it and had continued on the trail that was leading to Meadow pass (not sure if that's the right name) Jill and Seth took turns going down that trail trying to find us. Either we missed each other and I was further down, or I was already passed that heading back in the direction to the Lakes. We're not sure. Mind you, all this is over a 2-3 hour period. Jill went to Potter Pass knowing that's where we were supposed to meet. She assumed correct that I would head back to the Lakes and try to find my way there. Once I reached the lakes, there was a couple there that had a map. Without them there, I don't think I would have known which trail did lead out correctly. I would have stayed put there and waited to be found. I wouldn't have gone off on any of those trails. Anyway, this kind man took Haley and I and helped us find the correct turn off we missed. He even didn't see it right away and had to refer to his map to be sure. Once he was sure we were on the correct path to Potter Pass, he headed back to his girlfriend at the Lakes. Meanwhile Jill up at the Pass ran into some more wonderful men. At the pass there was reception and they had a cell phone. Again, this has been a few hours since we'd been separated, and Jill "thinks" I've gone too far down the wrong trail, but isn't sure. She and the men call the ranger station to see if they can go to where that wrong trail ends and see if I've ended there. The rangers then call the copter units and all. The two men send Jill down to the car and they head down toward the Lakes to look for me. By this time, Haley and I were about 20 minutes maybe from Potter Pass. This last part of the trail was pretty hard uphill and Haley was struggling. Jeff and Mike run into us and immediately know who we are. They were wonderful and so kind. Mike put Haley on his back and carried her out most the rest of the way to Potters Pass. Jeff ran ahead back up to reception to call and let everyone know we'd been found. Once to Potters Pass we still had 2 miles back to the car. Thankfully, this was easy terrain back down hill. At this point Haley knew we were ok and was great. Jeff and Mike walked the way out with us and we made it back to the car quickly.
I am so grateful for the kindness of strangers. Jill kept her cool and made all the right assumptions and made the right choices in calling the rangers. Of course I was so embarrassed to come to the car to see all the rangers sitting there, but had I been Jill, I would have done the same thing. I'm so proud of Haley for working so hard. While she was scared and tired, in the end she really pushed herself and found her courage and plugged on. Mostly, I'm grateful to my Heavenly Father for keeping us safe and sending kind wonderful people to help us. Haley and I really bonded in this experience and learned a ton. I'm glad we went. All together, we figure we probably hiked 13+ miles today. What a day! :)