Severed Fingers??? What?!?

Saturday was my long day, meaning that Sunday we had free to do anything! Natalie and I had ORIGINALLY planned to hike Hawley that day, but after much consideration of time restrictions and of OURSELVES, we decided that hiking Hawley was probably not the best of ideas... so we hiked the Speculator trail instead!! We had planned to hike up to the West Boulder Plateau, but, intelligent as we are, we didn’t look at the topo map before going! We hiked STRAIGHT up about 2000 feet and were pretty exhausted. We enjoyed our Clif bar lunch and were quite disgusted by the dried peaches (or “old people ears” as David so lovingly dubbed them) so we threw them in the river. (they smelled AWFUL!!!!!!!!) On our way back down we came to a clearing and decided to sit and look out over the mountains. Natalie would journal and I would read... great idea!! Until, of course, about 5 minutes later when we felt the foretelling raindrops!! As we looked up, we saw none other than a HUGE BLACK CLOUD!!! We pretty much raced down the mountain to avoid getting stuck in the thunderstorm miles from camp, praying the whole way “Please Lord, let us get out of the mountains before that cloud pops!” After a few slightly rolled ankles and a couple last minute pictures, two very jarred girls emerged from the mountains!! RIGHT as the rain started!! Our mile walk back to the camp was a very WET one!! Apparently God thought we smelled bad... He gave us a shower... :) Natalie and I had a blast!!

My other update will, I’m sure, make several of you mad at me!! Yesterday was a short day, and the four of us in the kitchen were preparing taco salads for lunch!! I was cutting the lettuce (a bad idea for the women in my family, apparently...) when all of the sudden my knife bit my left thumb!!! I think I must have been in shock, because I realized that I had cut myself, took off my gloves, said, “Alright, guys, I just cut myself... sorry...” and proceeded to walk around the kitchen aimlessly for a few seconds while blood was dripping everywhere... Ms. Judy to save the day!!! She immediately went into “First Aid” mode and told me to run it under cold water and got me a rag to put pressure on it. I forced myself to be tough and SOMEHOW didn’t cry! I paced for a few minutes getting myself together and then attempted to call Kent or Jenny over our radio which I soon found to be dead! It was only about 40 minutes until lunch, and almost everything was done, so upon Natalie’s suggestion I went to find Kent. When I got there and told him that I had cut myself and showed it to him (and looked at it MYSELF for the first time) I realized that I had cut THROUGH my left thumbnail and didn’t know how deep below the nail the cut was. Kent suggested that I go to the clinic in Big Timber just in case, and then we all stood around for about 10 minutes... I’m not really sure why... I started asking if he wanted me to do anything like fill out paperwork and that’s when I think he realized that I was still standing there bleeding! I DID fill out my workman’s comp stuff as the person who brought me to the clinic got ready, and then we were off! We arrived at the Pioneer Clinic in Big Timber, filled out all of the same forms again, and then the doctor saw me. You’ll never believe this part. When the doctor entered the room and said “hello” I knew IMMEDIATELY that he wasn’t from Montana... he HAD to be from the south!! I asked where he was from and he said GEORGIA!!! This man, Dr. Kirby Somethingorother interned in THOMSON with DR. WILLS’ SON!! That’s right, the doctor from Washington! He had been to the Tour of Homes several times and was raised in Calhoun. It was the wildest thing! We talked about things that we missed from the south... fried okra... mashed potatoes... sweet tea... fried chicken... it was a great moment. ANYWAYS! They just cleaned me up and the cut hadn’t gone too deep below my nail, so they didn’t even have to take it off! Horray!! I did, however, get a really big thumb-sling! It was interesting... and interesting to shower with!! Gotta love trash bags and hairties!! So yeah!! For those of you who are beginning to wonder if I’m coming home in one piece, YES!! I am STILL in one piece!! And I only have 6 more days to survive!! :)

I love y’all a ton, and I’m gonna go have some more adventures!! :)

*morgan