Open letter to the hikers who helped us walk out

Dear young men from Federal Way and Oklahoma University (respectively), I am writing here publicly to thank you both as well as your family for your kind and generous help in getting me and Chris down off of Twin Lakes Trail above Lake Wenatchee on this past Saturday.
You passed us as about 1PM, right after I twisted me right ankle and was in a crying heap on the trail. We waived off your offer of help at that time, after all, you were heading up and we were effectively stopped, and were turning back. About an hour later your group caught back up with us and again you offered help. The older man with you was very concerned about leaving us alone as we were the last ones left coming down the trail. So, you two younger men stayed with Chris and me, and walked very slowly behind us, making sure I got over rocks and logs safely, and often I felt hands keeping me safe from falling, and you both kept up the banter and laughter to pass the time so very quickly. I was shocked to discover it took us 5 hours to get 5 miles, because although it felt like I walked a LONG ways, it didn't feel like it really took that long.
After we were standing next to our pickup, I hugged all of you and thanked you as much as you would let me, and Chris shook hands. You were all so very kind to strangers in a strange place, and without your help, though we would have gotten down off the mountain, it likely would have meant we'd have had to stay up there alone overnight due to exhaustion and the difficulty of the trail.
For those of you who don't know Twin Lakes trail, it is 6 miles uphill of some of the most difficult steep and rugged trail you will encounter. The entire way is a trail filled with rock slides, switchbacks, biting flies and mosquitos, a couple of miles of razberry bushes, a wide creek to cross over on a log, trees to climb over and under. When you finally get to the first lake, sadly it's disappointing, its pretty boggy and bug-infested. I didn't get to the second lake, but was told it wasn't all that great either, but the group did take a swim because the water was cleaner.

Most of the time in hiking, the going isn't the good part, it's the getting there. Finally you're done and you can take off your backpack and relax and have fun after all the work! This particular trip wasn't that way, it was the getting DOWN that was the greatest part for me, and I was thanking Jesus and our helpers the whole way down.

As for my purple swollen and disfigured ankle, I'll live, I spent a couple days with ice packs and today I'm going to get it x-rayed just to be sure there's no broken bones in there because there's still some pretty bad discoloring and swelling. The boots are going back to REI, paid $125 for some boots that could have cost me my life if I'd been on a cliff instead of only a steep part of a wide trail. They are indeed light weight, but have no ankle support at all.

Thanks again you guys for being our helpers, we wouldn't have made it safely or as quickly without you.