Bear Traps and Walking Through Them

So, because I am an engineer, people think I am smart. And I think I am. But there are times when I think, “hmmm…. maybe not”. Like the time I was working on the construction management team, of a 8-story building, in downtown Seattle. I felt really smart, reviewing drawings, making decisions on construction, managing the schedule and keeping track of the budget. However, I could never seem to get my bike through the door to the office without getting stuck somewhere on the door frame. I worked in this location for about 3 months. You would think someone who is smart could figure out how to gracefully enter the building after that amount of time, right?

Anyways, place yourself in the Alaska sidecountry (side country: typically within a 2-3 hour hike of a road) and you are on this trail that supposedly meets up to a ranger cabin and a river. You have all of your gear to go packrafting, and you are about 45 minutes in, and you are like, “hmm… this trial has kinda turned into bushwacking.” You keeping going along, and you see a sign that basically says, “I have a right to put bear traps here, don’t worry I already asked the government. See, here’s the stamp”.

Leigh, trying to determine how to get down to the water.

I don’t talk about my feelings much, but I feel like a smart person would probably think, “hey, maybe this is a bad idea, we might want to turn around and look for the trail.” Instead, I thought, “according to this GPS, if we keep heading in this direction, right through the bear trap area, we can catch up with the trail and not have to back track!”

IMG_20170709_114137 — A picture from where we were not yet successfully united with Windy Creek.

It wasn’t until about 20 mins pass the sign I thought about its implications on the longevity of my not yet broken legs. Oh well, just keep an eye out right? We finally got back on the trail and made our way to the river, never actually finding the ranger cabin. It wasn’t until we started inflating our boats that someone mentioned, “hey, did you guys see that sign about the bear trap?”