Did everyone know it's that it's Christchurch and not Crosschurch? I didn't know that til I met this hairy hippie. We call him Typo cause he carried that fold up keyboard the whole damn hike. Even when it was broken!
Typo is the kinda guy who would come back for ya in a rock slide. In fact, HE DID come back for me in a rock slide! I had car-sized boulders with incredible momentum barreling down from above me. Had to book it out of there double time! Luckily, it stopped before it even reached the trail but Typo heard it. He saw it was a mile or so behind him and he knew that's right where I was! When he didn't see me at camp that night, he took off SOBO to find me by headlamp in the pouring rain. Luckily I was camped just across the river. He sure was glad to see me.
Talk about 'glad to see' - when a frozen, snow-covered Typo stumbled up to cabin 21 at the Manning Park Resort (thanks Gosselins!), the dude was wrecked. One of the most joyous reunions in my life. He was so glad to be done and to see me alive, frankly, and I was so glad to see him. He answered all my questions about what happened to him as he peeled off his frozen pack. We got him warmed up as soon as possible with quilts and blankets. He ditched his wet clothes - including that black wool vest from his mom that he loves - and tried to get feeling back in his feet. After we both calmed down a bit we went next door to celebrate with Astro, his wonderful mom Betsy and his step-dad/my hiking buddy, Michael. Even Astro's grandfather, his sister and his best friend were there for a monster feast. So much good food! We ate and swapped stories and ate again. Typo said that the very idea of this feast is what kept him going!
I guess I should forgive Typo for scaring the shit out of me when I camped a quarter-mile inside the restricted Mt. Adam's burn area. I thought he was a ranger for sure.
Gotta say one more really cool thing about this well travelled, well spoken, articulate young man: he is what we call 'quietly pure'. Dude didn't take a ride once. Not once. He stuck purely to the trail and HIKED every detour, re-route, hurdle and obstacle put in his way. He's too humble to say it about himself so I'm here to bare witness: he is as pure as the driven snow. Me? Not so much... I took two rides. One for 12 miles and one for 8 miles. Both shitty roadwalks around forest fires. That's not an excuse. Just sayin...
2 comments:
I wish I could meet these crazy hippies. They sound like my kind of people!
You would like this guy, Bri. He's ridden his bicycle all over Europe. He's hiked the Camino de Santiago from France into Spain. He's a total badass but humble. Did you hear his radio interview? Soft-spoken and gentle but he can pull 30 mile days when he wants to. Much fun to hike with.
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