To read part eleven of day four, click here.

We decided that it was time to take an even longer break and eat Snack. Ben said he didn’t want any, and they made him eat it because he had barely eaten any lunch. I said I didn’t want any and they were ok with that – I had a record of not eating much and still being fine.

I was starting to get hungry, but I didn’t want any for a reason. Snack was a salty trail mix. Salty foods make me really, really thirsty. And we were really low on something that would quench my thirst. 😀

Bobby was sitting there stuffing Snack in his mouth, and I warned him that he was going to get really thirsty and we did not have much water left. He told me that he would be fine and continued to eat it.

I told him about the mile marker we had just passed and got to see his incredulous expression. I told him that it had taken us an hour to walk the first half mile, so we only had three hours left. He told me that he didn’t know if Ben was going to make that. He said that he was doing everything he could to get Ben down the mountain, but he didn’t know what Ben’s limit was. I didn’t know what to say – I just told him that he was doing a good job, and as long as he didn’t swing Ben anymore, he would be doing better. I was able to get him to smile with that, so that was good. I like making people smile. 🙂

I remember thinking that Bobby really changed that day. Up till then he was just a huge jokester, always ready to make people laugh. But when Ben got hurt, Bobby stepped up and helped him the entire way. We all did. But Bobby barely left Ben’s side – he only took breaks from being one of Ben’s “crutches” when he absolutely needed one.

We were just finishing Snack when we heard voices on the switchback underneath us. We looked through the trees and saw Katie’s head coming up! Josh told us to not let her catch us taking a break, so we jumped up, put Snack away, pulled our packs on and headed down the trail again.

We met them at a switchback. It was Katie with Tullia, Sarah Margaret and Kayce. They didn’t have any packs, since they had dropped them off at the bottom, so they took a turn helping Ben. First it was Bobby and Tullia, then Kayce took over for Tullia. Luke took over for Bobby, and it just kept going.

I felt bad the entire time we were getting Ben down the mountain. I couldn’t help Ben like everyone else could, I couldn’t carry a lot of weight. All I could do was encourage everyone, carry the water and try to manage it, and make sure they weren’t pushing Ben too hard. I wanted to do more!

About a half an hour after they had joined us, we took a break. Jordan handed me her water bottle, and I made everyone drink some. I only took a sip, knowing Ben and the people helping him needed the water more than I did. While we were resting and drinking, Josh, Jen and Katie talked. They decided that Jen would go ahead for water. I was glad to hear that – we had finished Bruce’s, so we were down to Jordan’s bottle, which was only about half full.

I clipped Jordan and Bruce’s water bottles onto my chest strap – I didn’t know who had Bruce’s pack, since he was helping Ben, and I didn’t want to bother trying to find it. It was easier to keep carrying it, and since it was empty it wasn’t heavy.

We said goodbye to Jen and started walking again. It was 4:30, and we still had over a mile to go.

A half an hour later, at 5:00, we passed the next mile marker.

One more mile to go.
Two more hours.
Less than a half a bottle of water.

I was getting really tired. My ankle was hurting really badly, and I was so thirsty. But I didn’t say anything, because I felt bad saying anything when Ben was doing so well. He had already done so much better than we thought he would, and he was still going.

He was still going, but he was starting to slow down. He was getting tired, and so was everyone else. Everyone, except Tullia. Apparently her adrenaline was through the roof, so she was bouncing around, cheering people up, being all hyper…

I fully appreciated how hyper she was later….

Click here to read the next part of Day Four.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks to NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*