Compass story #7: The Descent

The descent was NOT fun. At first it felt so much easier. It was maybe two hours of easy, and I was thrilled that I could go way longer without resting than on the way up. Then the pain started to kick in. I could ignore it mostly at first, with stuff like watching Glove Love dance down the trail (at one point, Glove Love randomly came up to me and said, "So, Lisa, is your mother a good cook?" I spent a lot of time when I was around Glove Love staring at him in utter disbelief.) At one rest stop I asked Sparky how much farther there was to go. I'd thought it couldn't be far, we'd been going for a long time, but I got a feeling as I looked at him... "It's not close, is it." It was a statement, not a question. "No." he mumbled.

It got gradually worse and worse, and I began to fall behind the group. The Bush stayed behind with me and talked to be, despite my short temper and tendency to snap from exhaustion and pain. (I later apologized and thanked him for dealing with me.) At one point, all we could see up ahead was Samwise. The Bush called up, "When was the last time you saw the rest of the group?"

"What?"

"When was the last time you saw the rest of the group?"

"About ten minutes ago!"

Finally Samwise managed to communicate to the group the need to stop, and after a few minutes The Bush and I arrived at the place they stopped, I found a log and sat down, and looked away from the group so none of them could see my face. After a few minutes I heard a voice next to me. "Lisa?" It was Sparky.

"Yeah?" I struggled to control my voice.

"Are you OK?" Sparky asked, compassion warring with his usual attempt to remain unemotional.

"Yeah. Fine." I said unconvincingly.

"Do you want me to pray for you?" he asked, kind of awkwardly (we were still getting used to the openness of this community).

I continued to struggle to control my voice, and responded, "Yeah, please."

It took about another half hour to arrive at camp. Everyone was thrilled with the campsite, the best one we'd had yet. We had a large fireplace, a big open perfect area for group tarp, everything. Some of the guys with more energy left, like Skyscraper and Glove Love, we whooping and cheering at it.

I literally limped around for the rest of the day.