Fall Hiking
Well, today was an adventure..
It was such nice weather that I finally decided to check out the Metro Parks in the area. There's one just down the road from me, so it wasn't that hard to get to.
Then the fun began.
The trail I decided to hike was about 2.5 miles, which didn't seem like a lot at first. The path was a big loop, with a small (.5 mile) trail leading to the parking lot. So, I'm following along, and then I see a route marker pointing out two different trails. So I followed the "Squirrel" trail.. I kept walking south, and the path continued to incline. Little by little, I realized why more people weren't hiking - the leaves. Yup the wind had knocked all the leaves off the trees leaving me with very little path to follow. So, long story short, there were multiple instances where I totally lost sight of any path. Usually only for a little bit till I backtracked. There were many times where I was standing on the path, but it felt like it dead-ended, and I didn't know where it was meant to go.
The path curved around towards a cliff, which was a very daunting site. The path was somewhat sloped down toward a vertical drop of 50 feet or more. I was v e r y careful walking through this part. Then the path started to decline towards a stream. At a couple points you had to hop across some rocks to get to the other side where the path continued. Not knowing where I was going when I got to the stream, I seriously considered backtracking and going back the way I came. But I persisted, and eventually found the path again.
At this point, I'm getting tired, and want to see a familar location. I find a route marker, so I know I'm doing ok, and that's when I see the parking lot nearby. I head out to it, only to realize that it's not the same one I parked at. I walked around a bit, looking to see if there was a map saying "you are here" [there was one at the parking lot I started from], but there were none to be found. So, back into the woods I went..
On my way I saw some animal droppings, that were definitely from an animal bigger than a dog. I didn't stick around long enough to find out what it was..
Well, I guess you can tell I got out OK. It was a lot of fun, now that I'm back in my apartment and can laugh at the experience. :) I would like to go back.. but.. I think I'll wait till the spring. :)
It was such nice weather that I finally decided to check out the Metro Parks in the area. There's one just down the road from me, so it wasn't that hard to get to.
Then the fun began.
The trail I decided to hike was about 2.5 miles, which didn't seem like a lot at first. The path was a big loop, with a small (.5 mile) trail leading to the parking lot. So, I'm following along, and then I see a route marker pointing out two different trails. So I followed the "Squirrel" trail.. I kept walking south, and the path continued to incline. Little by little, I realized why more people weren't hiking - the leaves. Yup the wind had knocked all the leaves off the trees leaving me with very little path to follow. So, long story short, there were multiple instances where I totally lost sight of any path. Usually only for a little bit till I backtracked. There were many times where I was standing on the path, but it felt like it dead-ended, and I didn't know where it was meant to go.
The path curved around towards a cliff, which was a very daunting site. The path was somewhat sloped down toward a vertical drop of 50 feet or more. I was v e r y careful walking through this part. Then the path started to decline towards a stream. At a couple points you had to hop across some rocks to get to the other side where the path continued. Not knowing where I was going when I got to the stream, I seriously considered backtracking and going back the way I came. But I persisted, and eventually found the path again.
At this point, I'm getting tired, and want to see a familar location. I find a route marker, so I know I'm doing ok, and that's when I see the parking lot nearby. I head out to it, only to realize that it's not the same one I parked at. I walked around a bit, looking to see if there was a map saying "you are here" [there was one at the parking lot I started from], but there were none to be found. So, back into the woods I went..
On my way I saw some animal droppings, that were definitely from an animal bigger than a dog. I didn't stick around long enough to find out what it was..
Well, I guess you can tell I got out OK. It was a lot of fun, now that I'm back in my apartment and can laugh at the experience. :) I would like to go back.. but.. I think I'll wait till the spring. :)