Day 16: MTR to Franklin Meadow, 8 miles, 1000 feet of
climbing
Both of these conversations were swirling around in my mind
when the next morning, as we picked up our three buckets of food at MTR, I met
Rick, a PCT hiker. Assuming I worked
for the ranch, he approached me asking if I had pliers to fix his broken hiking
pole with. When I explained that I too
was a hiker and not on staff at MTR, he started sharing his trail trials that
included a broken water pump, then a broken stove, and finally two boughts of
Giardia, all within the miles between Mexico and where he stood that day. A few more questions from me spurred him to
continue on, revealing his reasons for hiking the Mexico to California section
of the PCT. He needed to refocus and
find himself after recently losing his mom to a swift acting stomach
cancer. His plan was to take as long as
it took to get to the Oregon southern border, he had time and by the sounds of
it, he needed time for his heart to heal as he walked the trail.
Clearly the question of “how” do we get our kids out in the
backcountry is deeply imbedded in the bigger question: “why?” Rick had already battled (with antibiotics)
two episodes of Giardia, a broken stove, a broken water purification pump, and
was now attempting to fix his hiking stick.
The “how” was falling apart for Rick but the “why” compelled him to
press on.
John and Rick, the eager dads of reluctant kids to join them
on the trail, reminded me of Jim’s Sacramento math students – some were amazing
students, learning and chewing up everything he taught them, but some (his low
scoring students) were simply, as he endearingly described them, “reluctant
learners”. Jim was a hiker we met at
Vermillion Ranch a few days earlier, who made us chuckle, but also struck a
familiar chord when he didn’t insult or poke fun of his low students. He simply described them as reluctant to
learn. They, like John and Rick’s kids,
don’t seem to get the why – to learn math or to hike with dad.
These young reluctant hikers have not figured out that the
excitement on a backpacking trip comes quietly in the whispers of the trees and
the warmth of the sunrise, in the comfort as dreams unfold during long talks to
pass the trail miles away, in the smiles around another delicious camp dinner
that end caps a day full of successful effort.
They are moving too fast to stand in awe of the Creation. That which cannot be googled is not worthy
of their time. They haven’t grasped the
why.
As parents we can help our children grasp the why by letting
them experience nature, from a young age.
We haven’t missed a summer, since our kids were born, of backpacking
with them. It would have been much
easier to leave them at home then to tackle the monumental task of figuring out
how to bring them. But early on we
chose to include them which forced us to figure out how to do it and gave them
the chance to figure out on their own, the why. They have no way of doing that sitting at home. They have to be out, to figure it out. As REI simply says on the cover of their
catalogue: Get out.
There is, of course, a how to this madness and with over 25
years of backpacking experience and 10 years as a boys camp Wilderness guide
and camp counselor in the Sierra mountains, Cory has made it his mission to
become an expert on the how, especially when it comes to exposing kids to the
wilderness. He has witnessed literally
hundreds of inner city Los Angeles boys transform as they are challenged to be
men through the life changing two weeks they spend at Pyles Boys Camp. There are many ways to accomplish a trek
through the wilderness, some methods more comfortable and easier than
others. The important thing is to
try. To go for it. To take the kids and figure it out together.
Today it became crystal clear to me that an individual has
to grab a hold of the why, in a place that’s deep in the heart, so that when
their poles break (and 2 of the 4 we brought have failed), or their stove
breaks, or they get Giardia, or it just is simply a physically challenging day
on the trail – they continue on, because they WANT to continue on.
Now, a touch of the “how” could help reduce the broken gear
and the lethargy, but without the “why”, the “how” will never matter.
The why propelled us out of MTR at the low elevation of
7,500 ft with heavy packs stuffed with six days of food. We spent the entire day walking uphill in
mid-80 degree heat, with our heaviest packs of the trip. Today’s hike, despite
the heavy packs, was the kind of beauty that could convince anyone to join
us. We hiked along the San Juaquin
River Valley with the river raging through granite slabs and boulders as our
constant companion, urging us on. There
are a few exposed areas that caught my breath as I watched our kids pass
through them like pros. One slip would mean sure death, as one would plunge 100
ft down into a raging river. The warm
walk up the valley ended for us before
a bridge that crossed the river. We’d
spend the night in Franklin Meadow, the first of 3 hanging valleys we’d walk
through in the next few days.
Cade was jumping at the bit to test out his new fishing pole
that he had made out of a willow branch that was sporting a fly that a generous
JMT through hiker at MTR had given him.
Our campsite was nestled in the trees next to a gentle flowing section
of the San Juaquin River. Ankle deep,
our little fisherman followed by his adoring sister, ventured into the river to
snag a fish. Within 10 minutes, to our
surprise, his homemade pole was bobbing with a 6” Golden Trout. Cheers echoed off the canyon walls. He caught one more fish that night and went
to bed beaming.
The why just embedded deeper into one 11-year-old boys
heart.
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