By Morgan Durbin, CSBSJU
Hi lovelies, my name is Morgan Durbin. I’m a rising senior and Environmental Studies major at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in St. Joseph, MN.
I’m writing this having recently bathed for the first time in 10 days and wearing clean clothes!!! My blisters have a protected layer of newish skin, today is laundry day and last night I advanced to the final round of our hearts tournament. You could say I’m pretty much on top of the world right now.
Here’s a quick summary of a week that is deserving of so much more:
Day 1 Up and moving, we drove the hour and a half through the bush to the O’Donnell River and the trailhead (aka kind of maintained ATV trail) to Kuthai Lake, our first camp spot. We had checked the river out about a week in advance because the standard way to cross is simply to roll up your pants and wade. It looked calm enough, but after a rainy night, that calm enough had become some mid-thigh white water. Susie, one of our fearless leaders, almost took a tumble, so we made the executive decision to take the pulley system across. Safely on the other side, we trudged the 11 miles to Kuthai where we could remove our soggy socks and boots and nurse our feet in prep for Day 2.
Day 2 We woke up to the pitter patter of cold rain on our tents, and I can’t speak for everyone else, but my muscles were not holding back in letting me know how they felt. We grabbed some yummy oats and started off on the Nakina trail. (John Ward, a respected Tlingit in Atlin, has been using and maintaining the historic trade route for Inland Tlingit for around 30 years.) This was the perfect follow-up day to a tough first of walking. It was about 6 miles, so half the distance of Day 1, and even though the beginning was a grueling uphill and continued into some wet and muddy marshland, my body was a little happier when we reached camp than the day before. John’s Camp, the location of our second sleep, was picturesque and dry in the middle of a marshy wetland with mountains along the horizon. We may have been tired, but it’s impossible to be a complete grump in an environment such as that one.
Day 3 It was a chilly morning, but we got an early start because Day 3 is historically the longest of the trip. The 13 miles took us about 11 hours, climbing and descending hills, hopping mud puddles, balancing across log bridges and keeping our arms close by to avoid the stinging nettle and Devil’s Club. No doubt it was a tough day, but walking into Nakina CALL (Center for Aboriginal Living and Learning), the spot along the river where we’d be spending the next few days fishing and hanging out by the fire was the best way to cap it off. That promise and the warm bowl of ramen noodles we each had to subdue our hunger made the blisters and tired feet more than worth it.
Days 4-6 Literally spent these three days hanging out by the fire, eating camp food that somehow tastes magically better on trail and doing a variety of mindless but rejuvenating activities like fishing, reading (I finished the 940 pages of Don Quixote for a fall semester class, so I was pretty stoked) and staying out of the perpetual rain. It was definitely a damp few days, but the tasty salmon and good company made the rest days go fast and happy.
Days 7-9 You can reference Days 1-3 for a good idea of the way back, but maybe hit fast forward. We were cruising, dropping about an hour or more from each day of travel!!! The bumps, bruises and blisters felt better every step closer to the O’Donnell. We did have to overcome the lack of brown sugar and consequently bland oatmeal breakfasts. Oh, and we had a grizzly bear wander within 10 meters of a few luckies in Kuthai camp, but that’s just normal, right? I’m pretty sure someone optimistically said, “We’re pretty much on the home stretch!” about every hour, but eventually we weren’t even on the home stretch, we were home.
In all seriousness, this last week has been a physical and mental and experience-packed rollercoaster. Although we didn’t climb any mountains, we backpacked 10+ mile days with 50 pound packs through boreal forest into a more coastal ecosystem. We crossed some crazy white water by pulley system and creeks by slapdash log ‘bridges.’ We climbed some long hills and descended on the other side, collectively nursing some pretty gnarly blisters (and blisters underneath old blisters). We saw some wildlife and caught a few fish. I can count my blessings while simultaneously counting my bruises, and despite my body still being a little bit peeved with me, this experience is one I’ll remember in a positive light.