It all started with the pudding...
On Thursday May 22, 2014 Chrysanthemum
and I set out to hike a section of the Pennsylvania Mid-State Trail,
running over Naked Mountain, between White Deer Creek Road and Cooper Mill Road (just off of Spruce Run Road). We began our "trip"
at the trailhead just west of campsite #3 in Bald Eagle State Forest
around 4:30pm and headed south.
It was pretty easy going at first.
Before long, we came to a large stream with a well-built foot bridge
and a very pleasant campsite on the otherside. I suppose it would
make for a very delightful camping experience along the trail and I
definetly have my sights set on having that experience someday in the
near future; however, we continued on, anxious to discover the trail
before us.
Nearly immediately the trail began to
head up the mountain, which was quite a long journey – the majority
of our trip. The trail wound uphill for quite sometime before coming
to its first memorable landmark: an underground spring. It was
really quite awesome to walk over the rocks and hear the water
rushing beneath us.
Near the top of the spring we found a
great spot for sampling the water. It was excellent, just as water
should be - tasteless! We hiked on, up to the mountaintop, and I
decided, since it was a day in which we had just had a thunderstorm,
that now would be a perfect time to tell Chrysanthemum about my
experience being caught in a thunder and lightening storm on the top
of a mountain. I will share that story with you...
I was hiking the OLP (Old Loggers'
Path) and had just reached a mountaintop when a thunderstorm rolled
in. The trail wound around the mountaintop for quite sometime, so
really I had no direction I could go to get off the top of the
mountain quickly. I decided to keep going forward, but my dumb luck
brought me closer and closer to the very peak of the mountain.
During all of this the winds whipped and branches were falling
everywhere, and then the lightening strikes started.
I was getting really worried as I was
quickly becoming really close to the height of the tallest trees and
the storm just kept on getting worse. I started to look around for
some place to take shelter when suddenly a lightening bolt struck a
tree probably no more than fifty feet from me (I kid you not). Once
that happened I started walking along in a crotched position and
looking for the third tallest tree in the vicinity. I found that
tree and crotched under it for the remainder of the storm.
Now, let me tell you my logic behind
the third tallest tree... I figured that lightening was likely to
hit the tallest tree in my immediate area so I didn't want to be
there, and I didn't want to take a chance on the second tallest tree
being struck, so I decided to hide under the third tallest and get
lower than it. I don't know if it was smart or not, and luckily I
didn't have to find out. I like to tell myself that at least I did
something rather than nothing, and at least I put some rational
thought into it even if my logic was ultimately faulty.
In any event, I didn't get struck by
lightening and one of my mottos still stands: always try to be
third. Why third? It is a survival of the fittest type thing.
Number one and number two are always in the sights of somebody or
something, and they are always taking the brunt of blows and face the
most stresses, but nobody ever cares about third place. At third you
are just close enough to the top to influence things, but just low
enough to stay off the radar, and you are still strong enough to beat
back the competition. So third is where you want to be if you want
to survive for a very very long time.
Anyway, we reached the top of Naked
Mountian about two hours into our hike and needed to make a decision,
as daylight would be completely gone in another two hours. Either we
would turn around and go back the way we came, possibly doing some
night hiking on the trail, or we would go forward and probably hit
the road at the other end of the trail segment we were hiking before
nightfall, and then we could hike the road back to the car in the
dark.
We decided to go forward and take the
road back as we wanted to see more and not repeat what we had seen,
plus we were both more tired and it was likely that we would fair
better on the road as it was much easier terrain although it was a
longer walk. So we walked on, still looking for a decent spot to sit
down and eat our long overdue lunch.
We crossed the mountaintop and started
to head down the other side, which was a very steep southernly
decent. The whole time we were starving, but still in our outside
world mindset, so we didn't stop because we were looking for the
perfect place to sit down (which doesn't happen too often in the
wilderness). Finally, I decided I had to have something to eat and I
broke out a pudding, which is when it all began...
The pudding hit my tongue and was
extremely sweet. I complained to Chrysanthemum that it tasted way
too sweet, and then we realized that it was because we were starving
and our bodies were craving the sugar for energy, so we determined we
had to eat soon, and eat some real food. Neither of us had eaten all
day, we were most assuredly starving!
It couldn't have been more than ten
minutes later that we said, "screw this!", and threw a
blanket down right beside the trail so we could stop and eat. We ate
like ravenous pigs and got food all over ourselves. Chrysanthemum
reached into my pack and got out some hoagies we took along for our
day hike (bad idea if you get oil on your hoagie, btw). The hoagies
were squished and soggy and Chrysanthemum couldn't tell whose hoagie
was whose.
She opened the first hoagie, looked it
over and determined it was mine, so she handed it to me. I
immediately tore into the sandwich and about one second later she
said, "No. I gave you mine." Immediately, I said,
"uh-oh!" through a mouthful of hoagie, and then handed her
back a little more than half a footlong hoagie. Chrysanthemum just
looked at me and said, "Holy crap! Is there any left?"
"I'm sorry.", I said. "You
can't do that. Don't hand me food and say: 'Here eat this,' and then
turn around and try to take it back because it is pretty much already
gone at that point."
"I see that," she said.
Despite the snafu, we devoured our food and then trekked on.
Before long we were down the mountain
and headed toward a stream. We stopped at another nicely constructed
bridge and determined we had a half hour more of sunlight and then
probably another half hour of twilight. Chrysanthemum and I left the
spot and started up another mountain hoping that the road we were
searching for was on or near the top.
It took us quite some time to make it
up the mountain as Chrysanthemum was having some issues, but we made
it to a tower at the top of the mountain just as it was getting too
dark to walk without light, and luckily there was the road.
The tower was eery and it most
certainly did not belong in such a wonderful and wild environment.
It made strange alien noises and hums, beeps, and clicks. I swear it
even began beeping and picked up pace as an aircraft flew overhead.
It was like something out of a sci-fi movie where the aliens were
secretly broadcasting signals. It was truly weird!
We got to the road, flipped on our
headlamps and then hiked another four hours back to the the car. We
had a blast! The Pennsylvania Mid-State Trail (MST) is definitely a
very nice wilderness hike, especially over Naked Mountain, and I
would recommend it to anyone.
Peace,
Alraune
No comments:
Post a Comment