Day 2

We spent the morning of the second day sorting through our things and putting them different places. We had learned from the day before where we wanted to put our tools, pots and pans, first aid stuff and everything found a new home. In the afternoon, we headed up the mountain again. Here we are at 4710 feet.

As we were climbing the mountain, our truck overheated again. We pulled off on the side of the road slightly frustrated. We didn't know what to do and decided part of our problem was weight- we HAD to get rid of some stuff. Our truck is only a 4 cylinder- not a huge engine. Plenty of cars have bigger engines than our truck and we just weren't going to make it if we didn't get rid of some weight. So, we started pulling stuff out and here is a list of non essentials that we got rid of:

Tent, grill, canned foods, spot light, lantern, cleaning supplies, our books, 15 rolls of film, a few clothes, camp cookbook, lighter, topper off the truck, Tupperware, plastic cups, teapot and mugs, one pan and a few towels, buckets, most liquid things and the list goes on....

As I was sitting up on that mountain ridge, sorting valuables I was remained of the pioneers who first crossed the mountains. Many of those brave souls gave up much more than we did that day. Their trails were littered with books, family heirlooms and treasured possessions. I am not a pioneer trudging up the mountains in a covered wagon, but today I felt a little bit of their pain.

We called Brain back up and he came with his truck and took everything that we couldn't take back to our house so we'll have it there when we get back.

After going through everything and repacking it all (again) we were exhausted. We were hungry, tired, dirty and I must confess we had a bit of a melt down. Brian told us that he would take us anywhere we wanted to supper- so we went to Pizza Hut and got a stuffed crust pizza... yumm. Then, he took us to a waterfall / pool area where we could wash up for the night. The water was freezing, but it felt so good! We washed our hair and swam a bit.

Brian built us a fire and we roasted mini marshmallows!

Brian and Melodee

After we were fed and bathed we felt much better and drove a while up in the mountains. It was a cool evening , so we didn't overheat. It was beautiful at sunset and then the mo0n came out and lit up all the "smoke" these mountains are so famous for. We camped that night at 6000 feet on the top of a ridge. We could look down on three sides and all we saw was hill upon hill. As we looked around, we saw heat lightning in the distance. It lit up the sky along with the almost full moon and bright stars. We stood in wonder gazing at the sky until our eyelids began to close and we slept soundly in our makeshift bed all night.