So, I packed the bag with all the essentials...food, water, radio, extra socks, camera and extra battery....and off I headed. I have two GPS devices and abandoned the thought of taking them, after all, this is an island and if you know where you are going, how can you get lost? Right??
The trail was still frozen and this made travel a lot easier. The temp is supposed to get up to high 30's and the sun has been coming and going making for a pleasant day to hike. Not much wind kept me warm, too.
Looks simple enough doesn't it?
Well, something should have told me this was going to be a heck of a day when I fell in the first creek I came to, soaking my right foot and sock, scratched my hand and dropped the camera...great all that in one trip!!
Ahhh hah!! The famous buffalo and their signs! Maybe I will get to view them today...from a distance that is!!
Made it to the edge of the lake with only the one incident and took the self photo before I headed around the bank to the beach rarely visited.
The edges were frozen and cracked and shoved up against the bank that made travel slow and pretty slick in places..of course the Yaktrax were at home with the GPS devices, cause I wasn't going to need them, right?? I even had to crawl on hands and knees at one point cause the alders were so grown out over the ice I knew it was dangerous to walk out that far on ice...at least I listened to my Dad's voice somewhere along the line!!
Two hours later I emerged on the beach tired, wondering if this was such a great idea and hungry already. So, I sat and ate my snacks and just enjoyed the surf. I thought about going back the way I came, but when I remembered having to crawl on my hands and knees around alders and slipping over the edge of ice, I decided it would be safer and probably faster if I headed up a trail, over the Ridge and back to the 4-wheeler.
One last shot as I headed up the trail and back to the 4 wheeler....and then, just like that, the trail disappears up here!!
How in the world does a perfectly good trail one minute turn into this brown frenzy of rock, alders, ice covered snow and ravines deeper than heaven knows what??? But it does and it did!!
I wandered around, heading in the direction I thought would lead to the main trail...and wandered and wandered and wandered........then topping a small hill....
This guys is standing...all by himself and no one else around!! There were tracks all over in the snow, but where was the rest of the gang?? In these brown alders, they could be laying down and I would never see them till I was right on them...or they on me!!
So, I bushwhacked for almost an hour to get around him and potential company and just seemed to get lost'er and lost'er and farther from anything I recognized and I began to realize I chose the wrong way home!
I did my share of praying and lo and behold, when I would get to the end of Laura's rope, there God would give me a glimpse of the trail in the distance and I would head for it. Not to mention I had ravines to scale down, more creeks and ice to cross. I fell numerous times on the snow covered ice and even once my knees buckled from being so tired and a stick went up between my glasses and my eye and then I was really mad for getting myself into this mess. And scared!!
It was dangerous up here...alone...no GPS and my biggest problem, I was so turned around, if I had to call for help, I didn't know how I would tell them to get to me...I didn't know where I was!!
A mere 5 1/2 hours later, the trail emerged again by God's grace and I sat to take one more rest. I ate all my food, drank all my water and donned both pair of socks over my sorely blistered heels, my bruised toes and beaten spirit.
How could I have been so foolish and silly? Oh it happened alright and it was rather easy....the entire day took me 7 1/2 hours of hiking over this mess.
As soon as I got home, I dropped my clothes and boots in the living room, headed to the bathroom and soaked in a tub of hot water till my feet stopped throbbing.
The blisters have healed, I think I will loose the two toenails, and I got a good picture of the buffalo....from a distance.....was it worth it??? Probably not, but it was a lesson I won't forget for a very long time!!!
Again, TYG!!!!
Again, TYG!!!!
