Beaten Path- Day 4 (final day!)

  Beaten Path- Day 4 (Thursday, August 3, 2023) 

gratitude list from the day: 

*talking to Colter and Uncle Dan on the trail 

* laughing with Jason and Tracey at the trail's end (the LONGEST mile!) 

* a hot shower and clean clothes in Cooke City 

* dinner at Miner's Saloon in Cooke City 

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We talked about this fun scale below along the way on the trail. Most of our trip was definitely Level 1 fun, but a few parts dipped into Level 2 fun like the last couple miles of the trail that were so muddy and slippery and peppered with horse poop. 

The Fun Scale by Kelly Cordes on the REI blog 

Everybody likes fun. And fun, like anything, can be nuanced; not all fun is created equal. But it wasn’t until June 2001, while bushwhacking through thickets of Alaskan devil’s club—home to hungry grizzly bears—that I learned of the Fun Scale. Fun, it turns out, is quantifiable.

Type I Fun- Type 1 fun is enjoyable while it’s happening. Also known as, simply, fun. Good food, 5.8 hand cracks. Sport climbing, powder skiing, margaritas.

Type II Fun- Type 2 fun is miserable while it’s happening, but fun in retrospect. It usually begins with the best intentions, and then things get carried away. Riding your bicycle across the country. Doing an ultramarathon. Working out till you puke, and, usually, ice and alpine climbing. Also surely familiar to mothers, at least during childbirth and the dreaded teenage years.

Type III Fun- Type 3 fun is not fun at all. Not even in retrospect. Afterward, you think, “What in the hell was I doing? If I ever come up with another idea that stupid, somebody slap some sense into me.” Many alpine climbs. Failed relationships that lacked Type I fun. Writing a book. 

Into which category a given experience falls, of course, is highly subjective and highly subject to shifts (particularly from III to II) born of the rosy reflections afforded us by the passage of time. Which is probably a good thing. After all, as alpinists and mothers both know: It doesn’t have to be “fun” to be fun.

rainy group photo as we were getting ready to leave our campsite at Bald Knob 

are we there yet? 

 

Level 2 fun :) 

a bit punchy at the end of the trail 

Caz sharing his story of slipping in the mud

the gift of a hot meal cooked for us at Miner's Saloon in Cooke City