So anyway we drove down to exit 21, got some groceries - Health Chips, Sobeys, Carrots, Fruit, Yogurt (we were not nutritious! Not even close. Turkey Pepperoni, granola bars and some particularly awesome cookies were eaten in copious amounts). Then we had a windy (as in curvy) drive through the park to Cougar where we had to sign in for our {mis}adventures. We said we'd be back by 7 (it got dark 6-6:30) and it was already 3:30. The ideal parking lot was private so I opted for the extra hike route. I followed the directions from the map for a very windy long, scenic drive until we decided we were crazy (I was crazy) and turned back for risking a ticket. We found a snow park with x-country ski trails and snowmobiling... 5 minutes turned from snowless to more snow than Calgary's had all year put together. Lucky for us we're stubborn, the pastor had told us about Ape Caves, and I had an intense feeling that God was waiting for us up there. Back when I had that moment, I realized that instead of taking Exit 69 (our plan) we took Exit 21, the last exit. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. A funny way for one part of Andy's song to find fulfillment.
We hiked through probably a 6 ft bed of snow for 30 minutes to go Lava Tube Speleunking. Speleunking was SWEET! I had Jason's flashlight and he had his headlamp. A mixture of bouldering, hiking and eventually... climbing. We found a vent to the surface. It was a wet, mossy wall, but why not free climb it? [I hadn't seen the 3 rules I was emailed to follow - Don't die & Don't whine]
At one point I had to use Jason's shoulder to reach the top but he was stubborn and got up bracing his face against the wall (insanity!). Part of me thought Jason! How are we going to get down now?!?!? (we were NOT hiking back miles through untouched 6 ft of snow) but most of me thought, yeah I would have done that too. Now I had to do some highly intense free-climbing down, and the daylight was now gone and not helping. But Jesus got me through and I helped Jason down. No one died. Then we kept going to the real exit (with complimentary mounted stairs) and got good and wet traipsing around in the snow topside. Back down for a long hike back. Oh yeah and I scared Jason by going ahead, hiding, and turning off my light, waiting for him and screaming on the way up! I kept ending up ahead of Jason so I'd stop and stand like a statue with my light off in absolute darkness and pray. Mmm prayer. Like the morning prayer we'd had earlier in the car. So I was a bit impatient getting back. Because were late and I was concerned for the Search & Rescue people and it's mildly depressing speleunking that long. Stopping and praying was a good counter. The Search & Rescue guy was awesome! Praise God! He was just impressed that we'd gone all the way to the end and back that quickly (no he didn't know about our little side venture either), and couldn't believe I was only wearing runners. He wasn't worried at all, didn't give us a ticket, and didn't even sick his german shepherd on us for fun.
More fun driving for me (RJ would have hated me) - in the dark and then I swapped with Jason at the interstate. I swapped back later, in time to get to do the almost psychedelic downhill twisty fast forested dark run to our campground at the coast at 12:30 AM. We set up the tent and had a long shower and went to bed with thank you prayers. We'd had evening prayers the night before (in the mystical foggy drive) where I asked Jason what was on his heart and we prayed for the addicted in Calgary.
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