Lafayette

Lafayette Report: Sorry kind of long…but read on my friends…there’s drama to be had!!

Well it started out a strong crew, lost some before the event, but gained some new friends on the summit.

My wife and I originally planned to hike with 6 others to place the flag on Lafayette. This was months ago. 2 joined the Peace Corps. 2 are expecting a child (7 months) and two had short notice work obligations…oh well…

My wife and I did some night hiking on the Greenleaf Trail and camped (legally) that Friday night, we had our puppy Jackson (10 months) who was a little spooked but loved every minute. He has done some other peaks with me as well, Yellow Lab mix, big!

Saturday my wife and I break camp pretty late and hike a bit and soon arrive at the Greenleaf Hut to stop and have a little breakfast. At breakfast, my wife decides she and Jackson will happily wait at the hut while I place the flag on Lafayette. Although I knew it was a difficult decision for her, I also knew she was concerned for Jackson and her mind was set. I told her if she wanted, she could start down the trail at 1:00pm and I would catch up with her. She wished me luck and I was off.

Made it to the summit about 11:30am w/o incident. The whole way I am thinking, “How the heck am I going to raise this thing myself?” Not to worry, my new friends Dani (skimom), Jeff, Dave and Dave were ready and able. I really can’t say enough about the total support these 4 people showed the FOT48. I am forever grateful.

The summit, in a nutshell was packed the time I was there. Literally 200+. Many pictures, comments in the journal and new friends to help spread the word for next year. Side note: Plenty of unleashed dogs and cell phone use…but perhaps another thread.

I had help taking the flag done as well from Real? And I’m sorry can’t remember the other persons name…but again thank you. I left the summit at 2:12pm. At 2:16pm forgot the summit journal…boogied back up and then started down…again.

At about 2:28pm these two young male hikers asked if I was Jay. I said yes. They proceed to tell me that my wife had slipped on the trail, broke her wrist and was being helped by others down the trail. What?!?

Needless to say…I traveled pretty quickly down the trail. It did not seem that quick with all sorts of scenarios running through my head. I finally meet up with my wife who is sitting in the Tramway parking area with Jackson resting his head leisurely on her lap.

She had a makeshift sling and splint on and proceeds to tell me that she indeed did slip, was pretty much disoriented from the pain for a while and some hikers came her way and agreed to help her down. I cannot express enough how grateful we are to John, John, Nicole and Adam. Nicole actually drove back to make sure I made it to my wife.

Being the WFR geek that I am I check the injury and decide that it is very badly bruised or indeed something is broken. I re-splint and then my wife says something that reminds me why I married her…”Let’s get a beer at the Mooseland!” (We would later confirm at the hospital that she broken 2 small bones in her wrist, that may require surgery…she has a cast and it’s a wait and see).

Great to see so many people at the Mooseland. It was especially nice to see skimom stop by, as well as the two who helped take the flag down. I enjoy very much meeting people from the boards and putting screen names with faces.

Sorry if I seemed out of it at the Moose…was pretty drained (mentally).

I look forward to reading the repots, seeing the pictures and hopefully getting to hike with all of you in the near future.

PS.
Pictures will be up tomorrow.

Peace.