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Cara Stolen's avatar

This reminded me of the time we tried to bushwhack into a basin in Glacier Peak Wilderness using some sketchy google earth images. We had three pack goats in tow and by four hours in had made it less than a mile 😂 We ended up backtracking and did, in fact, sleep in our pickup that night.

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Joy Nicholas's avatar

Oh my goodness! That’s wild!! Sounds like the pickup was a good choice! But also... pack goats?? 😍

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Natasha Mila's avatar

To answer your question at the end, when I was in high school we accidentally got lost with my parents in rural South Dakota. We came about a random place with picnic benches and intended to eat lunch and make the best of a full day of unnecessary driving. All of a sudden this car of teens pulls up (we are VERY much in the middle of nowhere so this is quite odd) in their swim suits. We follow them back a bit into a secret little cove with THE clearest spring water I’ve ever seen! We all, of course, jumped in and it was our favorite day of the entire trip.

When I was a bit older, my husband and I unintentionally free climbed in the badlands. We were backpacking the badlands and got into a situation. We bouldered our way up a short rock area to find the most beautiful secret greenery. I’d have never known that was what was on top some of those rocks in the mostly desert badlands. We walked all day and tried to search for a way down. The badlands doesn’t have trails, so GPS is your only work around. Long story short, we could not find an easy route down so we had to carry our packs and essentially free rock climb down which was something I was NOT comfortable doing but did purely out of necessity. Anyway, the stories we can tell from that experience! It was one of our favorite trips!

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Joy Nicholas's avatar

Wow!! Both of those sound so cool!! The free climbing sounds a little scary, but yes, what a story!! They do make for the best memories!

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Kendra's avatar

It's so good to hear the whole story!!! Wow what an adventure for sure haha! I remember you messaging me and asking to pray for the car to start. The pictures are absolutely incredible, what a beautiful part of the world! I love how you described the whole ordeal so vividly, your descriptions are my favorite parts of your writing!!

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Joy Nicholas's avatar

Thank you soooo much!! I’m really glad you enjoyed it!! And thanks for praying too! Lol!

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Natasha Mila's avatar

Haha!!! Oh my goodness. At least you have a story to tell?

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Natasha Mila's avatar

Also here for the deleting of the manuscript. You know when it just isn’t right. That is bravery.

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Joy Nicholas's avatar

Yes, my granddad’s last words to me were about always having a good story! Haha! As for the manuscript… I should have added that it was a very accidental deletion mixed with bad timing. The whole story is linked there, but what you said here is true. I wasn’t loving the tempo and tone and was thinking I’d need to do some major rewrites. Well, I handed myself that chance!😆 And I do think it was for the best—for the story and for the fire lit under me to finish it!

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Natasha Mila's avatar

Oh my!! I need to go click that link and read. Yikes! You seem to be really honoring your granddads words with all these good stories to tell hindsight!

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Stacy Bronec's avatar

Wow! Those views!! Thanks for sharing this story!!

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