Day 76

I want to start this blog by telling you a few things...first - I am a city girl. I was born and raised in NJ, about 5 minutes outside Manhattan. I moved to Southern CA as a very young child and spent a large majority of my life there before I moved back to the east coast for a few years. I happened to marry an avid outdoors man who could probably build a house out of old sticks, mud and a bit of chewing gum and then spend the rest of the day rock climbing.  That being said....

Arrowleaf Balsamroot

Troy and I go camping quite a bit. By quite a bit I mean, very often. The very first time we went camping I wore silk Victoria's Secret pjs...not bc I was trying to be romantical but bc they were pant pjs! I thought they were perfect. I froze. The very first time we went hiking I wore really expensive Coach boots. Hey, they were boots! They were ruined.  I like to think that over the five years we have been married I have become one with nature. Or at the very least I know how to pack and what to expect.

Duck Lake

My lovely husband spends a lot of time planning our trips, mainly because he is a huge planner and also because he wants to make the trip as enjoyable as possible for me. On the first day of our vacation, it was fantastic. We hiked for hours and I did great. Ignore the fact that I fell while crossing streams, freaked out when I saw horse poo because I was certain it was from bears waiting in the trees to eat us, or that I fell while walking on logs and Troy had to give me his socks because within a mile or two I had major blisters. We won't discuss any of that because I completed the hike and it was worth it. The view was gorgeous and on the way back I felt like I had finally crossed over to the other side...I was officially no longer a city girl.

Mule Deer

The second day, I woke up raring to go. Troy wrapped up my blisters and I had on my game face along with walking poles to help me up the very steep climb that was ahead of me. I was READY. 

All the way until a mile into the hike. That is when it happened. The hard trail gave way to mushy disgusting mud. I lost it. My nature loving went out the window as I started to envision what was under those leaves and mud. I was 100% positive that I was walking on animal body parts, dead rodents and God knows what else. The mud was almost more than I could stand. So like any self respecting PITA ( pain in the a$$) I started to whine. Whining shortly gave way to sobbing because I was just so far out of my element. Troy was ever so patient as he had me sit on a log while he ran up ahead to see how long the corpse filled mud would last. He came back and promised it was nearly over. He took one look at my bratty face and said, okay let's turn back. Aside from the first time he told me he loved me...those were the happiest words I have ever heard in my life.

Back at camp, I begged him to go ahead and do the climb because I knew he was looking forward to it. After much promising that I would be okay, he took off. I spent the next few hours tanning and reading on my Kindle while eating chips. Ah, the life. Once a city girl....always a city girl and I am so okay with that. 

Till next time,

Romy

P.S. All these lovely pics were taken by my husband because well...my meltdown did not include time/ room for pictures.