30 versus 25

I am hopelessly behind in providing present-tense updates to this trip, so I’m going to start picking out past memories and journal entries, which you all seem to appreciate. I will let you know when I make shifts back to the present.

journal 9/24, Kennicott, Alaska

We were tired and broken - Keenan’s achilles, my toe - and we stumbled back through Kennicott, wandering off trail only to bushwhack up an animal trail back to the dirt road. We walked quietly but we were Full, completely exhausted but completely satisfied after a day on the Root Glacier. About 4 miles from camp, a truck passed, her mouth said through the closed window, “Do you want a ride?” I looked at Keenan and we both nodded and hopped into the bed. Seems to me that’s the difference in being 30-years-old versus 25 – you do the things you were too prideful to do in your younger years. This hitch would get us back to camp before dark, time enough to collect and chop wood for a toasty fire.