[at-l] Middle Prong hike story

[mizwaterfall at yahoo.com (Nina)]

Sheltowee and I went on a dayhike in the Middle Prong
Wilderness last weekend. The loop we went on is one of
the few trails in Western North Carolina that isn't
packed with people (though part of it is the Mtns to
Sea Trail), so we pretty much had the whole thing to
ourselves, except for a few Labor-Day-weekend
backpackers that we met.

Because the trails aren't marked, there was always the
question of, "Are we REALLY on the right trail?" We
followed the map and SEEMED to be on the right trail,
but weren't 100% certain. Of course, that's usually my
experience when hiking anyway, so we didn't worry.

The trail was a little overgrown and was confusing at
times, being late summer, but we had a good hike. And
as always, Sheltowee had fun marking waypoints and
looking at our route on his GPS.

Well, we got toward what we thought was the end of the
trail and figured we would be approaching the car
within the next mile. As we hiked, Dan watched watched
the GPS, which said that we were hiking AWAY from the
car. Hm. The trail was overgrown and rocky, and we
wondered if we'd gotten off the main trail.

But we COULDN'T have done that. We hadn't seen any
other trails recently. So we kept walking. But then,
we wondered, what if we weren't on the trail we
thought we were on? What if we took a wrong turn three
hours ago? What if? What if?

Finally, when the GPS had said we'd gone from 0.8
miles to 2.0 miles from the car, we turned around.

"If this GPS is right, it'll be the first time it's
actually HELPED me on a hike," Sheltowee commented.
(We've hiked with it, but always for fun more than
actually finding our way ... though it's come in handy
in parking lots.)

So we hiked the mile back to where we'd heard the Blue
Ridge Parkway and walked out to the road. Figured out
(from the BRP sign ... we are such orienteering
experts) where we were, and that we'd been on the
right trail all along.

The GPS was confused. If we hadn't had it, we'd have
kept hiking the original way and wouldn't have had to
hike two extra miles.

Silly us. And an Eagle Scout and a SOBO at that. I
know, hard to believe. We had a good laugh.

No more depending on the GPS! Next time we get
confused, we'll just call for help with the cell
phone! ;-)

Waterfall

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Louisiana Hiking Club: http://www.hikelouisiana.org


		
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