“When are you planning to tell the Parentals?” asked the Forest Ranger, glancing over at us with a smile quirking her lips as she pulled her car around to the ER’s entrance.

Britta and I laughed simultaneously. Haha…ha. While we did make the phone call eventually, I’m still not sure they’re convinced of how anticlimactic everything really was.

So Mom and Dad, here’s the short story: everything is fine. Everyone is fine.

Everyone else, here are all the juicy details of the long story.

It began when we missed a turn for the trail. A quick consultation with GPS showed it was just to our left, up a small incline. Britta didn’t hesitate, just started climbing up. It was likely the trail would be just as steep as where we currently stood, so taking a shortcut made sense. Unfortunately, one of the rocks she chose for a handhold wasn’t sturdy. The hillside lost a rock, and she lost her balance, tumbling down and ending up with a beautiful goose egg on her forehead and a scratch which surprisingly didn’t bleed out at all. Naturally, when we backtracked to find the actual trail, we found perfect stairs.

The goose egg all but disappeared after a day, and that would have been the end of the story… except that in the following days her eyes swelled up. Although there had been no sign of a concussion, neither of us could pretend to be an expert on head injuries. Was the swelling unrelated? Probably. Were we certain? We couldn’t exactly Google it.

In normal life we’d likely just wait it out. On the trail, it wasn’t so easy. We were set to cross a highway soon, but after that we’d be looking at several days up in the mountains where it wouldn’t be so easy to get help on the remote chance that anything was wrong. We decided to play it safe and get it checked out. We hiked the remaining miles through lots of aspens and hills and snow patches.

Upon reaching the highway, we hitched a ride with a nice couple who were out fishing. They dropped us at the nearest Ranger Station, where one of the rangers graciously offered to take us to the nearest ER on her way home. Not only that, she also offered to take us back to the trail the following morning, which was incredibly awesome and much appreciated.

At the ER, we received the news we’d hoped for: the swelling was unrelated, and just due to a minor allergic reaction which they easily treated with anti-allergy pills.

We took advantage of being in town and took a Zero day, getting a motel and relaxing in the hot tub, internet-ing to our hearts’ desire, and stuffing ourselves with good food. I think on town days I must eat close to four or five thousand calories in a day. No, that’s not an exaggeration. Hiker hunger is real.

We’re heading back out to the trail tomorrow morning, excited to reach Colorado. It’s just a matter of a few more miles!