July 18, 2007

Watching Where You Are Walking, And Not Watching Where You Are Going - Part II

Part One is here:

Part the Second:

I continued to follow the blazes leading me closer and closer to the next road, where I would then turn East and head back down hill until I could ford the stream and pick up the trailhead again for the return trip. But the road never materialized. As I approached the point along the trail where I knew the road should be an intersection appeared in the trail. By now the trail had twisted around several times and I was traveling almost due north the road had to be straight ahead up the trail but the blazes continued along the trail and turned left heading west back up hill. The map indicated that I should continue to go north but the blazes indicated west, what to do, trust the map or trust the blazes on the trees?

I decided to follow the blazes, the map did indicate that I was to go up hill some and crest out at about 1500 feet before hitting the trail and while the trail had taken me up and down hill I couldn’t be sure that I had hit toe top of that 1500 foot hill. So I went left and that was the first error of the day. Actually the second but I’ll let you in on that later.

Up hill I went - a scramble up loose rock and branches and up I went, and up I went. I should have known by then that I was no longer on the trail, but I was stubborn and determined. Up the trail until I came to the top of the hill and a narrow brush lined trail that weaved in and out of the scrub oak and pine. The trail was completely different here and if I had paid more attention to it I would have noticed that the signs of bike traffic were no longer present, but I was determined to find the road and then the ford.

15 minutes later I knew enough to say enough was enough, this was not the trail, my map was telling me it wasn’t but the blazes were: is that a faded blue blaze there on that tree or is it a faded and dirty white blaze? I stopped walking, the road could be 50 meters ahead and it could be 5 kilometers…without a compass I couldn’t be sure and the sun was obscured by the clouds to get a good reading with my watch. Checking my watch I found I had been walking for an hour already so it was time to head back, my goals wouldn’t be met today. Hydrating some I turned around and followed the trail back down. Getting back on the correct trail I debated just heading the way I should have gone or going back the way I came. I thought about it a bit and decided that I would just retrace my steps as that would be the easiest and quickest way to get back to the truck and off the trail at this point. So off I went back along the trail.

Tired now, I lowered my head and set off back up the trail – fast.

Have you ever noticed how time moves in a weird way when you are going home, it speeds up and suddenly you find yourself at a point where you thought you wouldn’t be for sometime? This is what happened to me that morning: I knew in my mind that I had at least a half hour of walking to go before I got close to the end of the trail, but I soon found myself a lot further along the trail than I thought I should be, and my method of walking at this point, head down looking at the trail for my next step and not looking ahead on the trail almost did me in.

Breaking out into a sunny stretch something about 9 feet away caught my attention as it came into view under the brim of my cap, a branch lying across the trail, maybe? As I took the next step my heart pounded up into my throat, that stick was no stick at all but a 5 foot long rattlesnake sunning himself as he crossed the trail, and my next step was about to land dead center upon his body!

Catching myself, somehow I leapt backwards and then turning I took two more steps away from the snake.

Now in my mind the only good snake is a dead snake, especially if it’s a poisonous snake, looking around for something to hurry it along its way, I found no stones, no sticks or anything readily at hand to shoe it off. So I waited and thought about how lucky I was that I reacted when I did, for if I hadn’t and I had stepped squarely in the middle of that rattler, it would without a doubt have snapped back at my “attack” with one of its bites – and at this point I had passed only one other hiker on the trail all morning. So I would have been all alone in the woods, with a presumably near fatal situation upon me.

After a long 2 minutes the snake moved off the trail and I steadily stomped my feet in the hopes that the vibrations would move it along faster. I watched as it slid off into the underbrush and disappeared into the foliage, before I continued on my way.

Back on the trail I contemplated this turn of events and thought in my head the list of errors that had led me to this situation, my first error: no, nottaking the trail when I knew I should have continued on, but rather heading out on the trail without letting anyone know where I was going and when I should return. Never again will I do that. If I had been bitten by that snake my only course of action would have been - hope I had cell service and apply a tourniquet, even though that is not the best method of treating snake bites, but when one does not have an instant ice pack in their first aid kit one must do what ever they can. My second mistake, taking the trail at the left instead of trusting the map, and the third mistake, not looking where I was going, if I had had my head up instead of down trying to make time, I could have seen that snake long before I got within the danger zone.

Heading back I took great pains to be not only watching where I was walking but also watching where I was going, and I began to think upon this turn of phrase that suddenly came to me and how it could affect me in my daily life. By the time I got to the truck this post was already forming in my head with all of its possible connotations.

No comments: