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Survival course ends!Jun 12, 2004
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drinks all round.... and about 10 lbs lighter!
The midnight march was along roads and mostly downhill, thank goodness! It was actually quite beautiful in the sense that you just looked up at the night sky (full of stars) and let your peripheral vision guide you down the road. We were like zombies, together Tom, Adam and I, marching quickly into the blackness.
My rear was a bother, I elected to use my lib balm to ease the pain of the friction/chafing down there; not exactly what it was intended for but it helped - I hate to think how my underwear will look at the end. Note to self: don't forget to throw out lip balm at the end of the hike.
The road seemed endless, shadows of trees passed quickly, the scent of cow pasture pervaded our nostrilsand there was the constant 'stamp, stamp, stamp' of our feet. All of a sudden we saw a number of glow sticks... I recognized the area, we were at finally at basecamp! We were congratulated by the leaders and had some oranges and gatorade and sat by the fire (it was starting to get cold). We had hiked about 11 miles in 3 1/2 hours - it felt a lot longer. Gradually the others arrived.
I spent a lot of the rest of the night by the fire and feeling like a wreck. The road march has done more damage to my feet than the first 13 days of the course - I think its because of the repetitive nature of the hike over flat ground. I also feel stinky and sore and tired and cold. But then again, we all feel great to be done and are dreaming of food, hot showers and clean linen.
This morning we had a big breakfast (lots of freshly made food) and got all of our things together, then drove to Provo.
This evening was fun. I had a long shower, dressed in clean clothes, used real toilette paper, brushed my teeth with toothpaste.. what luxury!!!! Tonight we had a celebratory dinner with the team, perhaps it was a little anti-climactic after what we had been through but very nice nonetheless. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone.
