Montana Reckoning

Well, I was up a little this morning, weighing in at 161 even. Not horrible given I was on vacation with a family of food lovers in an environment with few healthy choices, but not where I wanted to be. But I have gotten abck on track pretty easily.

This evening I have my JC weigh-in, and my official measurements. I am going to get my starting measurements for comparison. Then to the grocery store to finally stock up on produce again!

So I didn't lose weight in Montana, but I probably gained some grey hairs.

Monday, our last full day out there, Pat left for a hike at 6:45am, planning to be back at 10 am. When he wasn't back by 12:30, I talked to our lodge manager, and he had a kid, Ryan, run me out to the trailhead parking lot 20-some minutes away at another ranch. The rental was there. We drove up the road, and Ryan hiked in while I stayed around the main area checking things out. Eventually I walked back down to the neighboring ranch and had them call the Sheriff's Department.

When Ryan got back, he said he hiked in 3 miles and back and no Pat, and that he met some other hikers who had been further out and also saw no one, I started to get even more worried, and kept thinking how my daughters wouldn't remember their Daddy. The fact that Pat is a good hiker sort of reassured me, but also scared me, because why wasn't he back?

After talking on the phone with the Sheriff's Department, Ryan took me back to our lodge, where I basically sat around in my cabin for about 3 more hours, periodically taking calls from the sheriff's department, which had begun search and rescue operations, or the other lodge, which had initiated their own search protocols. At this point, every time the phone rang I was expecting a call saying they'd found his body.

Around 7:30 pm I got a call from the other lodge saying they had good news, and I immediately started breaking down on the phone. A cowboy from the ranch on horseback had found him as he was hiking back down the main trail, and he was still six miles out, but not alone. He got back to our cabin around 9:30 pm, and was wet and freezing cold.

He had selected the hike as one that was recommended by our lodge as a fairly simple 4-mile trek. The directions, however, did not make it clear if it was a loop or not (and as I learned when trying to find him and figure out where he may have gone) they were very confusing to the non-local. Sometimes that happens when someone who knows the ground well describes it. It was also clear that this area was a network of 15-20 trails, not just one like it sounded on the recommendation sheet.

Well anyways, Pat started up on the hike, and at some point realized he was beyond 4 miles, and that he had also lost the trail. He basically had ascended to the top of the mountain, and no sooner did this happen than bad weather moved in and he couldn't see more than a foot in front of him in sleet. He took shelter in a thicket for a while, and was shievring uncontrollably. He decided he had to try getting back down the mountain because he was afraid he'd get hypothermia and that he couldn't be located up there.

He basically picked a side of the mountain to descend, and started climbing down without a trail. After about an hour, he came accross a trail, and got on it. Another hour later, he saw signage indicating he was back on the original trail he had lost! What are the odds.

Then, he eventually met up with the cowboy, and made it back out, after which I practically killed him. He is still sore, and could barely walk Tues. or Weds., but he is doing better.