(Mis) Adventures in Hiking...

So, let me give you an example of "Can't Have Nothin' Nice"

My husband Mark LOVES the outdoors- hike-the-Appalachian-Trail-and-sleep-in-an-abandoned-barn-loves the outdoors. My version of the outdoors involves making sure there is enough ice to keep the shrimp cocktail and bourbon cool until we get to the tailgate. So you can imagine his surprise and delight when after looking at a friends awesome FB pics of hiking, I suggested we find a little state park and hike on Sunday afternoon. You know the kind, a gentle 2-3 miler while enjoying the fall foliage kinda hike.

We googled around on the internet and found a nice state park with a big lake and some trails about 15 mins from our house. Mark ran around gathering boots, backpack, flashlights?, snacks and water bottles. I changed into old jeans and sneakers and we were off....kinda late in the afternoon. 3:30 doesn't seem that late when the sun is blazing overhead, lighting up the beautiful hardwoods with their electric greens, yellows and reds.

We got to the park, paid on the honor system, put Roscoe the dachshund on a long leash and headed to the trail. The 7.5 mile loop around the lake. In the back of my mind, I thought, huh, kinda a long hike considering how early it gets dark these days.....but I didn't want to ruin Mark's outdoor adventure.

We started out at a good clip, walking along, laughing and talking- ooohing and ahhhing over the beautiful forest. I was almost feeling like, "I can DO this!! I am ADVENTUREGIRL!!" We took pics of Roscoe, stopped to look up at the light filtering through the trees....we thought we had gone at LEAST 3-4 miles when we saw a sign post. It said 5.5 miles (we unknowingly started out backwards and it was counting DOWN from 7.5) ...ok so we have only gone 2 miles. And the light was starting to get a little weaker, the air a little cooler. "Huh", Mark said, "we ought to walk faster"...so we did.

We passed another sign post...4 miles... 3.75 miles. Then we passed another hiker on the trail going the other way and he ominously said, "you gonna keep going?...(yea) ..well it's gonna be really dark... Good Luck." GOOD LUCK? What in the world?! At that point the sun was REALLY setting and we were exactly half way around. Either direction was 3.75 miles back to the car. I asked Mark, "do you have the flashlight?" Hmmm...Nope. Left it in the car. Awesome. Suddenly I had visions of the show "I shouldn't be alive" flash through my head. What started out as our nature hike suddenly got a little less fun. Can't have nothin' nice.

Mark looked at me and said, "We need to run." And we took off. Running down the trail in jeans, boots and fleeces. Not exactly prepared for this activity. But also not prepared to lose the trail in the dark and be hanging out in the Maryland woods all ngiht (I am no longer feeling like ADVENTUREGIRL at this point). Running along, watching the mile markers countdown was the only thing that kept me going. 3.5 miles, 3.25 miles...2.75 miles... 2 miles...1.5 miles...by this time I was about to die. Not much of a runner (EVER), much less in jeans, scared to death, in the dark. Then I heard the howling and barking in the distance. I'm sure it was just some farmers dogs barking, right? Whatever. I kept running.

The last 0.5 mile was the longest. Knees burning, sweating like crazy, we made it! Oh blessed crunch of gravel under our feet!! We saw the parking lot! Our car (and the flashlight) waiting for us up ahead. Collapsing in the car, laughing and tired, our adventure was over.

Next time, we decided, we would start earlier in the day. Can't have nothin' nice.