day 3- wednesday

Man, i tell you what. if i had died 30 seconds after waking up on that 3rd day, i would have died a happy man with a smile on my face. we were up just before sunrise, and there was not a single cloud in the sky. not only that, our little bell tower was up above a valley, so we could see all the mist and fog swirling around the little town down there. so awesome.

We had told the kids that in exchange for allowing them (and us!) to sleep in the bell tower and stay dry, we were going to have to haul some pretty serious butt the next day, which we did. as always, getting them to pack up and clean was something of a battle, but when we left that bell tower it looked better than when i first walked in. some girls even took the time to sweep it with a little tiny broom we found. go team! and then, the hauling commenced. me and tyler, in looking at the maps the night before, had realized that the fastest way to get to where we were going was to take the road back down the mountain that we had bushwhacked up, which meant we would actually have to walk through the same area in town that we were lost in for like 3 hours the day before. i was against this idea, as i thought it would be bad for morale, but after looking at how incredibly far we had to go for day 3, i agreed that we needed to save as much time as possible. we started them off at a pretty quick pace, and hopefully they were too busy hiking to notice that we walked by the trailhead that we had created with our off-road challenge.

We breakfasted at a dam (a.k.a. "water restraining facility") and the day was just going from great to greatester. it was at the top of a huge hill (which dams usually are), so by the time we all got up there we were roasting. i got to do one of my favorite things- take off my shirt and sit in the sun- and made powdered milk for our granola. still no clouds, but tons of sun.

Our trailhead was not too far away. after about 30 minutes, we gave the "packs on!" call, and started actually hiking, on trails. according to the map, we would be going up a valley almost the whole way to the top of a ridge, crossing a happy little stream along the way. the hike to the stream was pretty brutal, lots of big steps over slippery rocks and such. it was still sunny, but there were so many trees around we didn't get much of it. then we came to the stream.

Remember how for the first 2 days it had rained aggressively? funny thing about streams- they remember stuff like that. so even though it was really sunny, and not raining, the "happy little stream" was practically at flood stage. our leaders weren't sure if they were taking us the right way when the trail crossed the river, but i told them "if there's only one way, there's only one way". this mantra was repeated ad nausium every 20 minutes when they would ask for help. the first crossing was pretty dry- one guy had slipped in, and he volunteered to carry everyone's pack across so we could all jump for it. the guys went first, then we threw big rocks in for the girls to walk on. the stream became a key player in our hike for that day- we probably crossed it about 20 or 30 times. in fact, there were times when there was no trail for about 30 yards, and the river became our trail. after about the 3rd crossing all our shoes where completely soaked, and after about the 10th crossing we were all wet up to our knees, except for one guy. he was wet up to his armpits. the craziest part of that section was when the river went between 2 cliffs, probably about 15 feet wide, and we could see the trail ahead, beyond other side of these cliffs. at this particular section, the angle of the river was fairly extreme, so we ended up basically doing a mild rock climb in a river. that was awesome.

The rest of the day was, for the most part, not that special. there wasn't that much time for conversation, as we were all just pushing to try and make it close enough to get to camp on time the next day. tylers clock had broken in the night from the condensation or something, so nobody had any idea what time it was at all, even us, which was an added bit of adventure. i don't know the mileage for that last day, but when we studied our maps at the end of the day, we realized that we had gone about 3 times farther than we had gone on any other day. that means we went more than 150% of the distance we had covered in the last 2 days combined. i was so proud of them (sniff). they pushed themselves so much harder and farther than they thought they could, and they were able to do more than they imagined. a good lesson for everyone of any age.

The end of the day is worth mentioning. we had gotten to the point on the map where me any tyler had decided that we had to get to in order to make it home the next day, but we had made it there early, there was still about an hour of sun left. that particular spot had zero camping potential- the ground was clay and big chunks of rock, there were no trees or underbrush, and the wind was real strong. we decided, as a team, that we would press on to the next spot on the map, about a kilometer and a half away, and if we didn't find anything on the way, we would just camp there. we did find something on the way, but it was only marginally better than the lookout spot we had just been at. the ground was still clay, but there were no rocks. the wind, though, was going crazy. after staying there for about 5 minutes, everyone's nose was running. i decided that i would run ahead the 1.4 kilometers and see what this other spot looked like. it had been aggressively circled on the leaders map, but after the whole burnt-down-temple thing from the day before we wanted to know for sure. also, we thought there might be another team there already.

When you take those packs off, you seriously think you can fly. the run to the spot was great. and the spot was great too. there was no shelter, but there was no wind, either, and the ground had lots of pine needles and softness, and there was lots of wood. i ran back and told the group that i thought we should press on. by this point, they had all been sitting for about 30 minutes and were freezing cold, and had no desire to do anything. and it had gotten dark, and only half of the flashlights still worked, on account of the rain, we figured. it was a great team-building thing, though, and i think i'll confiscate half of the flashlights next year just for fun. it's very easy to be miserable and exhausted when all you have to think about is yourself, but when you have to think about others and how to serve them, you forget about your own body and needs and complaints. at least, thats the theory.

We finally got to the spot about an hour later, and the team declared it good. there was an overwhelming lack of enthusiasm to do anything, including making supper, collecting wood, collecting rocks for the fire pit, digging a fire pit, etc. and with only half the flashlights, everyone had to team up with someone, and they mostly just sat talking. after about 3 minutes, tyler gave his last motivational speech, and, in my opinion, his best one yet. he generally told them to get off their lazy butts and start working- nobody would eat or be warm if we didn't all start working. i still remember my favorite line "Sitting around is not an option!! Now MOVE!". i should take lessons. we had a fire and some rice/veggie gulash and some hot chocolate, all in record time. we all took a gamble that it wouldn't rain that night, and none of us put up fly sheets- we chose to take our chances and sleep under the stars. before i got to sleep i did get to have a unique experience: earthquakes in the wild. i've been through about a billion of them in my life, but never out in the woods. they are a lot quiter than i realized- at home there's always dishes clanking or something creaking. it lasted for about a minute, and it was a pretty strong one too. earthquakes don't scare me, but they do elicit a sort of panic/thrill response, even in the woods.

A secret- i hate hoppers. hoppers are the bastard child of a grasshopper and a cockroach, and they are evil. daddy long-legs i'm fine with. spiders and whatnot, i'm ok. i don't want them sharing my sleeping bag, but i'll pick them up and throw them somewhere else. not hoppers. i would willingly and joyfully kill any hopper that crosses my path. and, being in the woods of japan, there are quite a few in some places. these things are seriously beefy. the first night, tyler found one on his backpack while we were making camp. he tried to flick it off, and it just took it- didn't even phase the thing. it just kept climbing around on his bag being evil. i think i hate these things so much because their defense mechanism is to jump at your eyes. seriously. when something jumps at your face, your reflexive reaction is to jump back, and, in that moment of shock, the hopper makes his getaway. some things look evil as their defense mechanisms, or are poisonous or whatever. and i can respect that. hoppers, are just going above and beyond. they already look like something satan would find in his kitchen when he turns on the lights at night, there's no need for the whole jump-in-your-face thing. This is an important bit of information.

After supper, as i mentioned, we had hot chocolate. water may take about 2 minutes to boil on the stove, but in the woods over a fire, hot water is a luxury that takes about an hour to make. me and tyler had been asking the kids some questions, singing some songs, etc., and were now just letting them talk and tell stories and whatnot. suddenly tyler's whole body jerks, and he says "bleagh, a hopper just jumped on me". not that uncommon. about five minutes later, i decided i'm gonna check on the water, see how hot it is or fish out any bark or ash thats has blown into the water, and i see (shudder) much to my dismay, a dead hopper, floating belly up, being stewed in our cocoa water. i shut off my light before any of the kids notice, and sit down real fast. i leaned over to tyler and whispered in a terrified tone "there's a hopper... in our water." he gives me this "holy crap, you've gotta be kidding" look, then grabs a spoon and, without turning his light on, fishes it out of the water and throws it in the fire. this whole time the kids are oblivious. and they are so excited to have the cocoa- we passed around the packets, and everyone had cleaned out their cups and poured the powder in, and we even had some leftover powdered milk that we passed out for extra creaminess. it's a few hours after sunset, so its getting colder and colder, and we were all looking forward to our dessert, and then bed. and i couldn't do it. i -could not- tell the kids that there had been a hopper cooking in our water. some of them wouldn't have minded, but some of the girls would defiantly not have had any cocoa, and i really wanted them to. even harder than watching them drink the hopper-water, though, was me drinking the hopper water. if i hadn't had any, the kids would have noticed, and been very suspicious. and i really wanted it too- that last night was probably my coldest night, and i really wanted something to warm me up. so, in the end, i got my cocoa, and just chugged the whole thing, straight down. that way if i changed my mind i wouldn't have the time or ability to stop. i then gargled with listerene.

I wonder what the kids are gonna do to me if they ever find out about the hopper water...