Crazy Late Hike

OK, I'm certifiable.

We started out at 6:30 from Tuttle on the Red Circle. Walking along and above the waterfalls is one of the most beautiful sections of trail in the park. We were passing through the group camp site after 10 minutes of uphill climbing. The trail had more turns than I remembered and one Boy Scout bridge before you reach camp.

From there the trail goes more off into the woods but still along a dryer stream bed. Soon I could see the rock pile that we had been to the other day on the Violet trail. The sun was pretty low and I had an ambitious plan in my head. When we reached the Red Triangle, I remembered the boulder-strewn stream that we had to climb up from other passes through here. We had seen a couple of people up in the boulders so I put Sadie on the leash and hoped that they didn't have a dog.

Sadie practically pulled me up and over the boulders but we never saw the people when we rounded the bend. There was a couple walking down the bend of the Tower Path to our right as we approached it. We crossed over and arrived at the Green trail. I turned left and called Sadie to follow me. The green markings are harder to see in low light than most of the others but you can't really get too lost on the Green trail.

As we got out of the boulders and onto the more solid ground, with some mushy spots, I began looking along the cliffs to the left for Dead Man's Cave. I had read some comments online recently about how it looks like a big scar in the rocks but the commenter had said that it was about 200 yeards past the Spider Cave in the direction I was headed. However, I saw something that fit the description well in advance of the Yellow/Green crossover, which is roughly across from where I remember the Spider Cave to be when I found it with Evan & Kyle last summer.

Soon we past the Yellow/Green crossover and Sadie wanted to turn onto it. We had been in this area in the snow when she took off on me and made it home by the time I called to admit that I had lost her. I told her we were going ahead on the Green and was consumed by a wild idea that I might find the ice grip I had lost in the snow. In a little while Sadie started running and I realized there were at least 2 deer crashing through the woods away to our right. Remarkably she stopped when I called and came back so I gave her a treat.

When we got to the Cantor Steps, named by me after the man who made them for his Eagle project, Sadie ran up them to head home on the Red Circle trail. I sometimes think besides being a better hiker that she may be smarter than me. I kept going on Green and soon she was racing past. It was already pretty dark when we reached what I call the Acorn Bridge, where I got beaned with an acorn in the snow last winter. We plodded on, trying to hit the rocks and not the muck.

As I said, it's kind of hard to get lost on the Green trail and I even remarked to myself that the next rise must be Hezekiah's Nob where I was planning to jump off to the Red Square. But somehow I missed it because the Green trail veers into the woods off of the wide carriage path that it follows most of the way. It was getting dark now and I was annoyed that I had walked even a little farther than I had to. I crashed through the trees to the real Green trail and back to Little Italy.

Again, Sadie wanted to take the shortest route home and started up the White. I started down the ravine to the left and she went up on the rocks behind me. She was right! The Red Square follows the rocks above the ravine. We roughly followed what I believe to be the Red Square but it was pretty dark now. At one point Sadie started to bark and I decided to put her on the leash so as not to lose her for my fourth time. When we got down to the lowlands and came to a rocky stream, I guessed that it was the Orange trail. We had been here not too long ago and I remember the intersection looking like that. I would have felt much better if I had seen an Orange mark anywhere or even something that I could convince myself was orange.

I had a decision to make here. We either had to stumble down the Red Square out to Mount Carmel Avenue OR stumble up this rocky stream and hope it was the Orange trail. I have to admit that I wanted another segment for my personal Four Season Giant Master but I knew that this Orange segment was short and I convinced myself that when I got over the hill that there would be a little more light.

I was a little concerned halfway up when I still hadn't seen anything that I could even delude myself into believing was an orange mark. At this point we were committed and there was no turning back. At some point Sadie pulled me to the left and I discovered that she knew the trail better than my eye could make it out in the dark. I was glad I had put her on the leash because she helped pull me up the trail and served as a seeing eye dog.

When we reached the saddle and I could make out white markers I knew where we were, crossing the White trail. There were a few frog-like noises but not as raucous as they had been in the warm weather a week or so ago. Sadie absolutely saved me in here because several times my instinct was to go forward and she would turn where the trail turned.

The intersection with the Red Circle was obvious, even in the dark without the benefit of the markings. We walked down the rock ramp and negotiated the swampy area. As we came to the table rock on our left, I could see the lights of civilization over the path ahead and felt certain we were going to make it now. We reached the Yellow trail and I opted to turn left for the shortcut as I was tiring of walking on rocks and concerned about twisting an ankle.

Again Sadie led me through the darkness. As we neared the ravine where the water runs most of the year, Sadie stopped and stared ahead. I have to say that the hair on the back of my neck stood up now. I couldn't see anything but some pretty wild ideas raced through my head. In a few paces I could make out the turn onto the shortcut even in the dark.

As we began the last leg of the journey the phone rang. Pat asked "Where are you?" I told her I was right behind the house, thinking she was home. Had I known she was calling from Dairy Queen to see if I wanted anything, I might have pushed it even more.

Besides surviving, the remarkable thing to me was that it was just after 8 PM when we got in the house. We had started out at 6:30 and I had estimated an hour and a half. Yes, I know, it's not at all light at 8 PM yet.

OK, I'm crazy.