Monday, May 26, 2008

Not your average Sunday afternoon hike

Other titles I considered for this post:
  • How hiking (nearly) wrecked my marriage
  • May 25, 2008: The day geocaching almost killed my family
  • LOST (but that one is taken, I think)

We've been geocaching quite a bit since the weather has been nice. Well, it seemed as though my hubbie was not enjoying himself quite as much as he used to on our little outings. He needed more of a "challenge." So, he got online, and found a geocache that he thought would be more fun to find. I should have put my foot down when he asked where the second one-liter water bottle was and insisted I put pants on Eleanor. But I didn't. I was up for it, sort of.

So, we get everything all packed up in the car (not including the second water bottle...that will be important later in the story), and head out. We drove up to a place where we could hike to get on the Appalachian trail. We start out...the breeze is blowing, the sun is shining...it's a glorious day for a hike. We came to this...


We began remarking that this was the most beautiful and fun hike we'd ever been on. Oh, those fateful words....

We got to this really cool rock face. We marveled at the very splendor of God's creation surrounding us....Just wait...

Here, we're still on the trail. We're laughing about how we were finally hiking somewhere that was a challenge. I think we even referred to this little slope in the picture as "steep."
Then, things started going terribly wrong. Well, they didn't just start going wrong. Somebody in our party said that (according to the GPS) we weren't heading toward the geocache, and that it was time to leave the trail. Oh, boy.

This doesn't seem like a good idea. In fact, I think somebody else in our party said that exact phrase about twenty times before actually leaving the trail.

Hmmm...what's missing here? Oh yes, any chance in you-know-where that we can make it through this stuff...that's what's missing, Jar...I mean, somebody.


The third member of our party was clearly thinking, "Where in the you-know-where is Daddy taking me?"

Here, sweetie. THIS is where Daddy is taking you...us...all three of us...to our deaths upon the jagged rocks of certain peril at the bottom of the Shenandoah Mountains.

The rocks went on forever. Up hill and down hill. Sliding out from underneath our feet. And below the rocks...more rocks and gaping black holes. See that second big rock from the left? That's where we almost got a divorce.


Now, what's the big deal about this cute, little sign in the middle of the woods? Well, let's see...it says, "Welcome to West Virginia." We don't live in West Virginia!!!

So, I could go on and on (and on) about this whole ordeal. Here's the short version...an hour later (after hiking over ridiculously difficult and dangerous terrain), we found the trail again. Jared made some really clever remark about how I needed to stop being so dramatic, and quit acting like we were going to be stuck out there eating our own behinds. You can imagine how super funny that was at the time.

We followed the trail straight to the geocache. No, really. The trail went STRAIGHT to it. The hiking was still very tough, but nothing compared to the impending doom we had faced previously. We hiked up, and up, and up, and when we thought we couldn't go up anymore, we went up. It was miserable. We were having to stop for breaks a lot, and we both felt like we might die. We drank all of our water. We came across some teenagers engaging in illegal recreational activities. At that point, we knew we must be getting close to civilization...they couldn't have hiked very far in flip-flops, right?

This is the spot where they were. That view makes it worth all the pain, right? Um...NO!

Finally, after FOUR hours in the woods, we emerged back onto the wide trail that we knew led back to our car. I prayed outloud at least five times, thanking God that we didn't die out there in the woods.

Now, here's where I claim the worst-mother-of-all-time award. I drank Eleanor's water. Yep. We were that thirsty. It's not like she was hiking. She was just riding in a backpack for Pete's sake, and she had totally soaked through her diaper and pants already, so clearly she was hydrated. Really...I was justified...wasn't I?

So, that's the deal. Here we are safe and sound and sore like you wouldn't believe. Oh, and with one more logged geocache than we had before.

6 comments:

starfitch said...

Oh my goodness Megan!! You are totally justified. I would have been furious with the situation. Hopefully soon you'll be able to laugh about it. :-) Check my blog tomorrow or so for my account of our first ever geocaching experience inspired by you!

Robin said...

Ha! Yes, it seems that often the talking-about-going-hiking part is more fun than the actual hiking part.

Glad you guys made it out alive.

Shana-Lynn said...

Okay, this is totally NOT funny, but I can't help myself from laughing a little. This totally sounds like something that would happen to Kyle and I, or at least Kyle. We weren't geocaching, just hiking the Grand Canyon once, we had one little 8oz water bottle for the two of us, we hiked down into the canyon for 2 hours even passing a sign that said, you MUST have lots of water if you hike past this point, there is NO water ahead (I think it even said 1 gallon pp, I took a picture of the sign, but it was during my film days), we stupidly ignored the sign and continued with our little 8 oz water bottle, then we ran out. They say it takes double as long to hike up as it does going down. I absolutely panicked, was dehydrated, beat red in the face and oh so thirsty. I was so thirty I would have drank anything, even the darn donkey's pee as we passed them heading back up the canyon. Kyle tells the story better but he said I was walking so fast to get back out of there, I had dirt and rocks flying out from behind me and some how I bolted up that canyon in about half the time it took us to get down (at the point we ran out of h2O).Thank God it was before our Aubree days or before we were married!! We too might have ended our vacation with a divorce. I have another story, maybe I'll blog about it though, it too long.

Anyway, I am so happy you guys didn't get a divorce and that you all made it home okay. I can't believe you were only 17 miles from Harper's Ferry!! OMG

Vicki said...

Wow! That was quite an excursion you had. I hope Jared learned his lesson about game trails. Your pictures are beautiful and I'm glad it all turned out well. You are sooo far ahead of me in geocaches now. :) I have lots of catching up to do.

Janice said...

Holy cow, I can't believe you guys ended up in West Virginia! I know it wasn't funny at the time but hopfully you guys will laugh about this one day.

I am not much of a hiker at all - I drive John crazy with all my whining after walking a mile, I kid you not, lol!!!

Lisa said...

LOL!!! I have a hard time thinking about you and Jared arguing. But good reason to... I would have KILLED Adam! :)

Glad you guys are okay and have the pictures to tell Eleanor about later.