Humor: The Most Important Item to Bring on the Trail

My cousin Sisu Sadie, (who I formerly knew as Lisa) and I, Sisu Sookie have a very creative way of navigating on the trail. Sisu Sadie and I will get out of my car, my 5 speed Chevy Aveo, and start walking. We are always on the hunt for the start of the trail. We are usually pretty good at finding the trail but have been known to actually stand in front of the trail head and snap a photo and proceed to walk right by and end up a mile and a half in no where’s ville. Ok, that only happened once and it was because we followed a male hiker who appeared to know what he was doing. And here we thought we had already learned that lesson.

Let the fun begin.

Then there are the times where we are on a trail where there have been maps on posts. We casually approach, we are at a T in the path, not too hard to decide correct? Right or left. It is not. We both start stealing glances to our left and right. It isn’t to help us decide, but to make sure someone isn’ t about to watch our dilemma. I can only say what is going on inside my head. Left or right, hmm. Well, we came from here and we must then be able to take this option. Hmm I wonder what Sisu Sadie is thinking. Oh, isn’t that an interesting leaf on the ground I better go take a picture if that. Um, hmm. Boy, is that sky pretty with all those nimbostratus  clouds. I wonder if we should take a selfie in front of that map we may need it later. I finally come back to the discussion of choice of direction and I cross my fingers. I say “right?” and Sisu Sadie says “left?” Of course you now know we both switch our direction choices and say “left? and “right?” Eventually, one or the other of us will say to the other, “you pick.” Which we do and some times we are even right. 

In Minnesota there are two trails novices are told to never go on. One is The KEK (Kekekabic Trial) and the other is the Border Route Trail. The trails meet in the middle and so you can hike from the north eastern tip of Minnesota to near Ely, Minnesota or vise versa. This fall we headed out on the KEK and our families, I think thought maybe  they would never see us again. Or at the very least they would have to send out Search and Rescue. Oh, did I mention the trail runs along the Minnesota and Canadian border, no chance of resupplies on a +100 mile hike. Unless you can convience some unsuspecting husband, a mean person to drive to the boondocks to bring you a weeks worth of food. It is wilderness, that’s for sure. I wonder if this is the reason my husband is so excited to drop us off. 6 months of peace and quiet. Hmmm.

Maybe all of the above needs a little context to make more sense. When we were little, Lisa, I mean Sisu Sadie and I were know to get into trouble naturally. Like the time we found rusty cans in the woods. We brought them in the house, down into the basement all so that the adults in the house couldn’t see what we were up to. I went up to the kitchen and got the can opener so we could crack those babies open. We weren’t sure at the time what the black substance was, but it was black that was for sure and thick. I don’t remember all the details, but at this point the can somehow ended up in my parents sewage. Ok, yes I dropped it in there, but not before that black goo was all over Sisu Sadie’s new, pretty, yellow Sunday dress. Needless to say, the rest of the events of the day went south once our parents saw us in all that black. I believe the words spanking and grounded come to mind.

Girls this is NOT North.

I’m not sure if trouble follows us or that we follow trouble. I can tell you though that we have had many laughs from our misadventures and I know without a doubt we will be having lots of laughs on the AT.

So, if you see 2 women laughing hysterically at a crossroads in the trail, stop and say hi, it could be us the Sisu Sistahood. (And between you and I, we are really trying to locate the quarter we just dropped which we were using to help us navigate our way to Maine. Who needs a compass?!?!).