A Hiking Tale

 Jason and I have been trying to get out to hike a bit. Ok ok ok, it's been only two times thus far but it still is a start!   The first week was a resounding success!  The second week.......well.....it was not without it's issues! 

The First Hike

Jason and I got out for a hike on Mothers Day. The weather was warm but not unbearably hot.  We decided to head to a section of the Appalachian Trail (AT) in Maryland, just south of the Pennsylvania border.  It was surprisingly a section that I had never been on so it was neat to see.  We only planned to be out for a few hours and knew that we would be doing an out and back hike.   The section we chose was gorgeous, but then that is not too surprising as most of the AT is gorgeous!  There was a steeper section that was a bit rocky, and those large steps are rough on the knees but I wasn't too concerned.   It was a fantastic hike.  We hiked by a shelter, up the rocky incline, through some mud, across an open meadow where their were bulls behind a fence right across the field.  We crossed a road and we walked across planks that transversed a swampy area, we saw chipmunks and even a snake.    And then we turned around and did it all in reverse! 

 It was a great hike.  The only negative was the moment that I stopped to use the bathroom.   Of course we were in the middle of the woods so I had to rough it.  All went well and I went to pull up my pants and I forgot that my cell phone was in my back pants pocket.  ANYONE that has ever put their phone in their pants pocket can already guess what happened.   Yes, the phone went flippity flop out of the slack pants pocket and fell RIGHT into the pee puddle.  Ok, kinda disgusting...but more humorous than anything else! (And yes, I cleaned my phone off good when we got back to civilization.)  

The Second Hike

Riding high on our successful first hike we decided to go hiking the following Sunday.  The weather was even more delightful.   It was even cooler than the previous week, just fabulous.   We decided to hit the AT again.  This time we headed to Caledonia State Park, walk through the park and then hop on the AT.   We geared up and off we went.   We rambled through the park and reached the AT.   Almost immediately we were at a steep (must steeper than the week before) I honestly had a thought of NOT doing it.  I didn't WANT to do it. But I did.   And it was tough on the knees....so tough that I was inwardly panicking about the idea of coming back down.  Ironically coming down is worse on the knees.  But I pushed forward.   After the climb and a bunch of switchbacks we made it to the top of that incline and it leveled of.   I was feeling better but low key worried about the return.   We pushed on and came to  fire road/trail that the AT utilized for a bit.  In short order we were back on the dedicated AT and enjoyed a stream and some fabulous scenery.   We were about an hour and a half into our hike when we got to an AT shelter.  It was the cutest most well kept shelter.  There was potted plants and swing.   Perfection!   A shelter volunteer from the group that maintains the shelter and the surrounding 12 mile stretch was there working.  We stopped to talk to him for a few minutes.   We mentioned that we were about ready to turn back around which would bring our hike to about 3 hours. In no way our longest hike, but nothing shabby in it's own right.   The volunteer started talking about his recommendation for us.  He highly recommended that we continue on the AT for a "short bit" and that will bring us to an intersection to another trail that goes off to the right.  He gave us the name of the trail and told us that it was what we would want to do....a shortcut...at the end of that trail we would turn right and that would put us on the same trail that earlier had shared a short piece with the AT.   At that point we could hop back on the AT for that steep panic inducing (for me) section or according to this volunteer we could continue on and it was a fabulously easy and quick walk back to the park,   I specifically asked about the length of his recommendation since we were already at our turn around point.  He was like the same if not shorter!   And then I asked him about difficulty because I had that steep panic inducing section in my mind and the pain that I knew my knees would feel and I mentioned my arthritis on my knees.   This volunteer pulled his shorts up and showed me his scars on his knees and was like "I know what you are talking about"  and this trail is fabulous...much easier.  Meandering!  So we headed forward on the AT on this guys recommendation.   

 Now let me backtrack to Last October on a hike at Cowans gap where we were told by a park worker that they had updated a trail and it was no longer considered difficult since they put in switchbacks to make it easy!   Ad we lamented the fact that it was not easy.....I had a panic attack on that trail that day!   I should have learned my lesson from that day and not trusted the words of a mere mortal human.  Because I got burned AGAIN.

Going up the AT we had to keep going off trail because it was flooded and a river.  But we trudged on.   Then we started to climb upward.  And upward.  And then for good measure we went up further.  It was about 20 minutes and we started to question if we were ever going to get to this trail we were looking for. Internally I was contemplating turning because we were going further and further north and getting further away from the car with each step.  Finally after about 30 minutes we FINALLY reached the intersection.  We checked the sign and it was definitely the trail we were looking for.   Ahhh we made it.....see, it was all working out!   We turned and set off happily down the trail.   We were going to slay the shortcut.   We eventually started to go back down that mountain that we had just climbed.   It was a bit rocky.  It was a bit technical, but not too bad.  But it was definitely NOT meandering!  We kept going down....and down....and around...then back up a bit...then back down.   Seriously, time was passing and we started to make remarks about how the volunteer had steered us wrong.   Because a quick glance at the clock told us that if we had turned at the shelter that we would be nearing the car but yet we were still trudging down this unknown trail to who knows were.  We were not feeling confident with the directions at this point.   We both agreed that the trail was gorgeous though.  But seriously, we were madder than a mosquito at a mannequin factory!.  If we would have run into that guy we probably would have given him a piece of our minds!  I was seriously low key starting to panic that we would be totally lost and have to retrace our steps and I had serious doubts that I would be able to make it.  (I said that to my brother a few days later and he was like "you would have done it, it's amazing what you can do when death is on the line."  Ha)   But yeah, I was low key panicked about having to turn and waste the hour plus to get back to the shelter and then still have the hike back to the car.  We pushed forward.    And then we came to it.

 What is it?   We came to a stream crossing.  It wasn't our first stream crossing of the day.  (the picture above was one of the earlier water sightings)  The others had been shallow enough to wade through, or had a log to walk across or had strategically placed rock to go rock hopping across.   Normal fare for a hike.  NO problem.  But this stream crossing was different.   First of all we were in dense brush and forest and there was no room to step off the trail.   The forest walls were right up against us so we didn't have many options of where we were going to cross....it was right there or no where.   Still not a problem right?   WRONG.   The water was deep and flowing pretty good.  No assists for crossing.  No logs to inch across.  No stones protruding from the water to hop across.  Nothing but water......water that would be higher than our boots.   We stood there and pondered.  I thought about taking my boots off....but seriously, the rocks were jagged.  Their were holes.  It would have been unsafe without shoes.  That left us two options.  Turn around and retrace our steps or wade through with shoes and HOPE that we could stay on top of the rocks enough to keep the water under the level of our boots.  

Jason went first.......almost immediately his foot slipped into a hole and he wrenched his ankle.  But he didn't go down and made it across.  Then it was my turn.   Yeah, I missed the hole but I was in water up to my knees.   Water was DEFINITELY in my boots.....abut I made it across.  Now I had wet feet and we were still lost.  Jason asked if I wanted to dump the water from my boots....but there really wasn't a place to sit to do it as the trail was narrow and muddy.  I opted to let the water drain naturally.  Good choice because less than 3 minutes we were crossing the same stream....AGAIN.   And yes, again the water was over the tops of my boots.   We criss crossed over one more time on that darn trail!  Eventually we came to the intersection of the trail.  I checked the signs and we were still on the trail that this guy had highly recommended as 'easy' and the trail we dropped onto was the trail he said we would be on.  We headed off down that trail....my feet squishing with every step.  (Thank heavens I was wearing wool socks.....cotton socks would have been more uncomfortable.)   We walked and walked....and forded a few more water crossings.   And then we walked some more.  We were wondering if we were ever going to make it......I knew that we were on a trail that would take us back to the park (We had talked to some people while we were on this trail on the way to the shelter and I had asked what the trail name was and were it went...so I knew that eventually we would make it to the parking lots....but when.)   

 

Finally we came to a road.....with some cars parked on it.   We had a decision...continue on the path for who knows how long......or head down the road.  We finally had good cell coverage..I it appeared that the road took us to the park campground....from there I was pretty sure that we would be able to hop on an easy trail that we had walked during our vacation last October.   We decided to go that route. 

It was during this section of our walk that I had my next disaster.  My inner thighs started hurting.   Like burning and chafing.  But how, I was wearing shorts!  Yeah, my shorts ripped and my skin was rubbing and causing chafing!  OUCH!  

  We finally made it to the campground and I led us to where I thought the trail head that we needed would be.  That is when I realized how nervous Jason had been about our 'detour'.   As soon as we stepped foot on the trail and he saw the surroundings he said "ohhh I'm Ok now, I recognize this from when we walked to Zoey last fall."  

We ended up hiking about 2 hours more than what we planned. My knees actually did well.   My chafing I had been able to to keep under control by constantly adjusting the shorts and bunching them between my thighs (yeah, real pretty like).  My feet were feeling wet but they dried out nicely and felt fine with no blister.   My feet however ached.  I have a problem with my feet that is referred to as The Bone.  The bone was KILLING me that night and the next day.  But I just rested and elevated the feet and by Tuesday they were feeling better.   My legs were still achy a bit from the unexpected workout but by Wednesday I was A-OK the whole way around!   

Jason says we have to outdo ourselves with distance and time this upcoming weekend.   Uhhhhhh really?    Time will tell what happens!   Stay tuned!