i have this picture hanging in my wall. seth is on the horse. my wife linda and i and my sister julia went on a trip to bear lake in the uinta mountains. the 8 mile hike in was a typical trip with seth full of laughter and fun. we got to the lake with little problems in the early afternoon. however after we had spent an hour or so taking in the beauty of the mountain lake and mountain peaks, my wife came from camp saying that blaze (the horse) was gone. that horse was known for undoing knots and escaping. linda, so thoughtful and concerned for the horse had unsaddled him so he could relax from the hike. so he was unsaddled and on the loose in the mountains. Seth felt terrible because he was the one that tied up Blaze. we tried to follow tracks and listen for him but found nothing. we concluded that he must have headed back to the truck. 8 miles away. seth who was still recovering from his ankle surgery (from a bmx bike wreck, actually) requested my gym shoes which were 1 1/2 sizes to small. since he rode the horse he had only his cowboy boots. so i gave up the shoes and he grabbed a bottle of water and a head lamp and headed down the trail. he requested i stay behind with the women folk. i watched him disappear into the forest on a dead run. i got the women settled and packed a couple granola bars and water bottles and headed down the trail after him in his 1 1/2 oversized cowboy boots on. i dont know how he did it on his gimped up ankle because i ran the whole way down the trail and i never caught him. finally just shy of 8 miles, 300 yards or so from the trail head i heard the truck fire up and begin to pull out of the parking area. i came out of the trees just as seth was leaving the parking area. he came to a relieved stop when he spotted blaze in the corral at the trail head. i reached the truck just as seth opened the door and fell out onto the ground in relief. he hugged me and said there he is! we had a drink of water and a granola bar. it was about 7 or 8 pm. just before dark. we had a prayer, got the horse and headed back up the trail. so there we were, 2 dudes, in the dark, riding bare back in the woods. boy did we have a good laugh at that. as you can imagine. 2 or 3 miles in, blaze became so tired we took turns riding so he didnt have such a load. we changed shoes as we took turns hiking. it became to painful for our legs to begin hiking after they cooled down from riding the horse. i could only imagine the pain seth felt in his ankle. he never complained and even offered to hike the rest of the way so i could ride. like i was going to take that offer and let him hike on that ankle. i hiked and he rode. by miracles, no doubt, we reached camp thanks to random locations (like the one in the picture where we turned off the beaten trail to find the lake) that either he or i recognized along the trail that acted as landmarks to take us the whole 8 miles in the dark back to camp. we reached camp about 1 am. we had a prayer of thanks and slept. the next morning we laughed and told the story to linda and julia. we ate mountain pancakes and fish. then loaded up and headed back down the trail that afternoon. the relaxing over-nighter we had planned on turned into quite the exhausting, memorable experience. it was a pleasure spending time with seth, despite the outcome. love you potters. everyone of you. thoughts and prayers for another miracle.
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 06:41:14 +0000
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