Wonderland

Susan and Shannon are in the middle - we hiked with them last year

My dear friend, Susan, who we hiked with last year in Washington, did the Wonderland trail with a few gals when we were in Hawaii.  We were supposed to go but there was a catastrophic breakdown of the permitting system so they couldn't get a permit ahead of time. That meant they had to show up a ranger station and hope they got a permit.  They did!  But it was too risky for us to take off two weeks, fly to Washington and hope for a permit.  So we opted for the sure thing of relaxing on the beach instead.

Susan was instructed to think about us every day - which she did by wearing the friendship bracelet we gave her for last years hike.  Here is is with Mt Rainer in the background.

I loved my hour long debrief with Susan once she was off the trail.  And the story about these shoes was my favorite.  She lost one of her crocs - which are her camp shoes - while on the trail.  Camp shoes are critical because getting out of your hiking boots at the end of the day is necessary for your poor stinky, tired feet!  Once she noticed the shoe was gone, she ran back on the trail to look for it.  No luck.  So she designed a new shoe with items they had with them!  Pefect!  And she used it most of the trip....until they met a lady at a ranger station who told them about a pair of flip flops a trail angel left a few miles away.  Unfortunately it was  few miles in the wrong direction.  But later in the day as they were hiking they came upon a trail marker with the flip flops and a note say "I hope these will work for you"!  The lady drove to get the flip flops, found a trail that would cross their trail and hiked in to leave them for Susan!  Trail Magic strikes again!