Get Out of Dumb Free Card

Possible blog post titles:

Well, that was fun! 

Take a Hike, Not! 
Two Hikers Missing, Almost!

Dumb Choices Come in Bulk!

Nah, it wasn't really all that bad. When we were at the bottom of the ice covered hill and decided, after having not read a map to see how long the hike was, after slipping and skidding downhill with the help of gravity, after seeing that the path, from the point to which we had made it, then turned back UP the hill, an unfortunate reality that would have made gravity an entirely different character in our little story...  Anyway, when we were at the bottom of this hill, beside the creek, where we should have known we would be because we should have read a map, looking back up the hill, we made a decision. Was it the right decision? Well, I'm here to write this post. Spoiler alert, it involves no major injuries and ends with fancy chocolate and coffee. So, it could have been worse. 

I'm not sure how much of a story to make out of this. I mean, we left the house for what, in my mind, would be a "walk" to the "waterfall." The waterfall is a tiny little drop in the level of the creek on a beautiful, but tiny nature preserve, about five minutes drive from our house. Behind this waterfall there are two trails, neither of which have we yet to explore fully. As we were leaving the house, having already locked the various deadbolts installed by the previous, obviously paranoid owner, loaded the poles, gotten in the car... I looked over at Meg and said, "Oh, I guess I should have put on my boots. Should I go back in and put my hiking boots on?" Well, this was a short conversation wherein we discussed the merits of going all the way back in to get my boots. I, like I said, thinking of this as just a "walk," chose poorly. She, to her credit, suggested I go back in and put on the boots. Choices. What can I say. Hindsight and all. 

I started the car, placed my tennis shoe covered foot onto the gas pedal, and away we went.

I always grab my walking stick, for short walks, hikes, days in the park. It's a tool with many uses. To my credit, I had reminded Meg to grab the trekking poles I bought her for Christmas. I can take solace in that, because the poles and walking stick probably prevented us from breaking one, or various bones on our adventure. And had we ended up the way we joked we might end up, stuck in the snow, or one of us dragging the other wounded and busted up from the woods, or worse yet, one leaving the other behind to go get help... they would have made for "better than nothing" weapons.

Anyway, back to the hike. Standing at the bottom of the icy hill, halfway through the "hike," beside the creek, we looked at each other and, for the purposes of this story, simultaneously said, "I guess if we follow the creek back it might be better."  There were a few other comments. I can't remember which of us said exactly what, when, or the perfect memory of what concept was in our heads. Suffice it to say, we were at the bottom of a treacherous hill, didn't really like the odds of going back up. We didn't like our odds going forward (Also uphill, on a trail that foot traffic had disturbed, then packed, then had refrozen into a slippery mess). So, like in the movies, follow the river. It will lead us somewhere.  

How, exactly did the conversation go? We're a team. So you can imagine either of us saying any of the things said at any given time. "I don't know. Is this a dumb idea?" Sure, there were a few of those thrown in. Bottom line, it was the type of conversation one would imagine the couple in the news article about lost hikers had before they did whatever it was that turned them into a news article about lost hikers. You always say to yourself, "Well, that was dumb. Why did they do that?" I'm here to say, yes, that was probably dumb. But being dumb often has mitigating circumstances, outside help, the influence of a situation sculpted by mother nature and happenstance. 

The main thing that guided our poor decisions was likely the "How bad could it be," factor. Like, we weren't far from actual houses, they could probably hear us screaming, in a pinch, that sort of thing. Except, when we got separated and had to yell at one another, we could barely hear each other. So maybe that thought was false comfort. 

"So, Mr. Waites, how did you get separated?" In the movies, there's always some dramatic moment, some heated argument, a clear moment when one person makes the decision to leave the other person. It's a poor choice moment, or a survival moment. There's a clear cut choice that leads the story down the path, by splitting the paths of the characters. 

Well, I can see how that's probably bullshit most of the time. In our story, one little rock, one slippery log, one hole through the snow... we just ended up in different spots. I went around a big boulder, I slipped and fell, not bad, but enough that I wasn't going back that way. Meg went low, around the log below me. When you're off trail, and the ground is covered in icy snow, I can assure you, it's easy to get separated. Sometimes momentum drives you forward. I surged up the hill to get to a place with firmer ground. Meg crept across the creek to do the same. 

Voila! There we were, one up on a hill on one side of the creek, one down on the banks on the other side. You can't hear it very well in the video. But apparently we were both yelling basically the same thing. We both knew where we were going, and both worried the other might not. As good teams can do, we spoke with our actions when words didn't actually suffice. From here, the story, like the ground, levels out and draws us to a speedy conclusion.  

We both followed the creek until we reached the bridge, and reunited on the path back to the car.

 

We joked with each other that after this, we needed to hand in our "Get out of jail

dumb free" cards. This was a baby mistake. As in, compared to the mistakes other people make, this was inconsequential, like a mistake on training wheels. Could it have been worse? Absolutely! One of us could have broken a leg. One of us could have fallen in the water. It was below freezing, but only just barely. Up here in CT that's balmy for this time of year. But it would have gotten colder if the sun went down. We didn't have any lights. It was late in the day. That sort of thing. Baby mistakes. 

This was just a moment, for us, where we could sympathize with those people in the news articles about doing dumb shit. Our dumb shit was pretty tame. But one different moment in the story... What could it have been?

Our story ended with a bunch of laughing at ourselves and how goofy we had just been. Then we drove to Kent and got really high quality chocolate treats and a damn good cup of coffee for Meg. I'm glad we did that instead of becoming famous.