STATELINE final

"I was down and sliding before I knew it...."    it's ironic that this close to the end of my 7 year quest to hike the Idaho Centennial Trail, that I almost bought the farm.    I almost didn't get to finish the ICT.      This is the final part of the ID-MT Stateline trail that I completed.   It is a 10 mile section between Cascade Pass at Cedar Creek Road,  and Dry Creek Road.    Hiking with me were Jerry "Frog" Finnegan, and my son-in-law Tyler Parrish.    We got separated from the trail near Frog Lake, and Tyler got the "good save award" for Navigation, by getting us back on the actual ICT with his GPS.   then a few miles later, Jerry got the "good save award" for Life Saving, that is my life was saved.   I took an unexpected slide down a snow slope near the western face of Eagle Cliff.    I tried to self-arrest, but my hiking pole merely bounced off the hard icy cupped snow surface.   Jerry leaned out and got a hand on me as I went by.   He grabbed the lanyard of my GPS hanging from my pocket.  This caused the GPS to rip out of my pocket, but the tug was enough to slow me down.    For a brief few seconds I honestly thought I was sliding to my death.    It shook me up a bit, but we carried on and finished the hike.