Day 5

Sofia wrote:  

So much sidehilling— right ankle hurt. Dad got vertigo again. Finally descended into an open valley— relief. Lunch at a babbling brook with mini falls— a fairy’s paradise. Continued up the valley and over relief pass— very mellow. Stormy clouds and sheets of rain backlit by sunshine. We stayed high for as long as possible then dropped into another valley. Short patches of forest interspersed with open marshes (blood red and dead white flowers denoting preferable terrain opposed to patches of willows). Then into what I called the forbidden forest— another brutal slog with no good way through. My exposed ankles got repeatedly torn up by thorns and branches. We kept getting stuck between massive mossy cliffs and the willowy lake edge. So much falling. Dad was fading. Made it to the atv road and the end of Warner lake— civilization! Dad boy scouted an old tarp for a while and I tried to gear us in the direction of dinner. Some stress about Randy not being here until the 7th.