It was the day after Kevin fell on his wrist, and we were supposed to go kayaking. However, huge storms had brought the winds up, and we were not going to be able to do it. So instead we decided to take a hike up to Montreal Falls. We decided that everyone in our group was going to go, despite the lack of energy and overall low morale, and we set out in 3 vehicles, led by Army Ranger Dave, who was showing us the way.
The problem was that about 4 of the guys (including Ranger Dave) had been to this falls, but it had been about 4-6 years. So when we came to a fork in the road, the question was--which way? The road on the left was very steep and covered in rocks. The road to the right was also steep, but instead of rocks, it was just plain dirt. Dirt with very large ruts in it.
We chose the latter road and began the perilous trek up the hill with a truck, a minivan, and a 12 passenger van. I was riding shotgun in the 12 passenger, and I was very thankful to be doing so, as the girls in the back were becoming quite ill. The road was so bad, we had to stop numerous times to pull fallen trees out of our path, drive through large mudholes, or navigate over huge rocks jutting out of the steep hills. One of the girls in the back wasn't wearing her seatbelt and we heard a loud "thud" followed by "Oowww!"
"Eliza, are you okay?"
Eliza, rubbing the top of her head "Nothing, I just hit my head on the roof."
After about ten minutes, Ranger Dave stopped and ran back to our van. He suggested we try the other road. So we drove all the way back the the "y" and drove up the rocky road. This road was even steeper and more impassable, and after two more wrong turns, many groans and threats to pull the van over to be sick, and comments from the peanut gallery of "DOES THE WORD WHIPLASH MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU?!" to our driver, Ranger Dave again ran to our very weary, muddy, and scratched up van to tell us the awful truth...It was the original road or no road. Did we have the strength to face it? We had now been on this perilous journey for an hour, and our stomachs were not happy with us.
But our girls were strong and stated that they had come this far--they weren't going to turn back now! We were told that it was only a couple miles into the forest before we could get out and start hiking. An hour and ten miles later we finally made it to our trail. We spilled out of the vans and breathed deeply of the fresh air.
We had wasted so much time on the roads that we now had very little time to actually get to the waterfall and back before dinner. So with Ranger Dave in the lead, we took off down the trail at a very rapid pace. I was thoroughly enjoying practically running through the underbrush, over logs and fallen trees, around stumps, and avoiding the sheer cliffs leading down to Lake Superior on our right sides.
We made it to the Falls in record time, splashed around in the water, caught a frog, and took some pictures. Then, within minutes, we turned around to head back. I had heard that Kevin and Chris, his wife, had had to turn back and wait for us because she had fallen. I hopped she was alright and that she didn't need medical attention as we were quite far from civilization.
When we emerged from the woods, we saw the sad couple sitting on the grass looking out at the lake, Kevin with his right arm swollen from yesterday, and Chris with a grossly swollen and bruised eye, various cuts on her face, and worst of all, her ring finger swollen to nearly double its size. She had tripped over a root and landed her full weight on her finger and then her face. Ouch. She was quite brave though and insisted she was fine. I was worried about her finger, and the wedding band quite stuck there.
We made it back just in time for dinner, a little banged, bruised, very tired, and ready to have an uneventful ride home the next day. But that was not about to happen.
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