A Day for Poetry

I thought up a haiku while we were on our hike today and it goes like this:

I'm struggling to breathe

I think I'm suffocating

We're up really high

Another to correctly describe the situation:

My legs are burning

Feels like millions of lunges

Get that hiking bod

And lastly: 

Most beautiful hike

So say my aunt and cousin

They have got a point

So today's hike was a true mix of beauty and agony (but really, what isn't?). Before we get to that, however, we need to back up about 16 hours. My aunt and I decided to go camping in Idaho with Sarah so we got all our stuff packed and headed out to pick up Sarah at the farm. We made it to our camp site at Moose Creek after much deliberation over the perfect spot, and though our spot was far from that, it was still very nice. We started a fire almost immediately to try to get rid of some of the mosquitoes that were swarming us and it kind of worked...Then we started grilling and we had a nice meal sitting and talking and enjoying being immersed in nature. Like....very immersed...we were pretty much alone which made Aunt Susie happy because we had the freedom to "pee wherever we want." So, that was kind of a new thing. But you know, there's something oddly satisfying about peeing in the woods, maybe it's because you feel one with nature, I don't know. I should probably leave this topic before it gets weird, but let me just say that I am pretty good at peeing in the woods now (something I think Mr. V could give me a patch for :)). Moving on...as we finished our dinner, a dark cloud started forming over us and, as we deliberated whether to get the tent out, we made a quick and executive decision to go ahead and make s'mores (priorities). As we finished our s'mores, the thunder kept rolling so we sat and waited even longer to see if we would get rained on. After a while we decided to go for it, and we set up our three man tent. Now, a bit of clarification. When my aunt said "three man tent" I was thinking, "Okay good it holds three men." However, what my aunt MEANT by "three man tent" was "you can only fit three men in it" (there is a difference). After seeing the smaller than expected tent, I was reluctant to climb in, seeing as though we had three people and a dog, and fearing that claustrophobia might kick in (which never happens to me but, hey, you never know) or that we would breathe all the oxygen out of the tent during the night and wake up with headaches and dizzy the next morning. Thankfully, the experience was better than my expectations and we all (including Ruby) fit comfortably enough and played some Scrabble until we were ready to go to sleep. I, having longer legs than my aunt and cousin, had trouble getting comfortable enough to actually fall asleep and I ended up waking up multiple times during the night, so as you can imagine, it was a blessing when morning came. 

We left for our hike to Darby Canyon after a good breakfast and started off around 10. It was roughly 6 miles and Aunt Susie thinks we gained 2000 ft. again. I wouldn't be surprised. It was tough but it was so beautiful. It led to a big waterfall at the end which I went down to and put my arm under (because who would want to miss out on an opportunity to stand underneath a waterfall and feel the power of it hit your arm?). It was extremely cold and moving very fast so, as you can imagine, it was slightly painful. But so worth it. Obviously, the trek back down was a lot easier and we finished around 1. We came home and cleaned up some and I've been eating since we got home...it's bad. But it's all organic so it's okay. Any way, we might watch a movie tonight, I'm not sure. Aunt Susie and I painted together earlier and she was talking about teaching me to crochet today but we're both really tired so I don't know if that's gonna happen. 

Oh and shout out to Aaron whose birthday is today! Yay!! Love ya!

Okay see you on the flip side!

Emma Kay Terrell

Dysfunctional Fam pt. 1

Dysfunctional Fam pt. 2

The first waterfall

The final waterfall

From underneath it

That moment when your aunt takes a stealthy picture of you while your eating rice crackers...I was just enjoying the view. An elderly man on the trail told me he liked my shirt and it made me really happy :)

There I am feeling the rushing water...though it's hard to tell