[at-l] Night Hike

[greyowl at rcn.com (greyowl@rcn.com)]

Hey All,

My most memorable night hike occurred on one of the worst 
hikes that I have ever been on.  In October of 2000 I and two 
of my friends were backpacking fro Dennytown Rd to Bear 
Mountain Inn.  We were doing most of the mileage on the first 
day (12.3 miles).  To add to our difficulties we got to 
Dennytown road pretty late in the morning; thus got a late 
start.  We started out hiking at a very fast pace, but soon hit a 
pretty steep climb, followed by a series of PUDS.  We stopped 
for lunch on a rocky knob just short of Canopus Hill Road.  I 
really stiffened up during lunch and the climb up Canopus Hill 
was as struggle for me.  To add to my misery I had pulled a 
groin muscle in my right leg and an old war injury in my left leg 
had flare up.  At the top of Canopus Hill was the last place I saw 
my hiking partners until the next morning.  I took a couple of 
vitamin-I, did a 30 minute cool down and drank some water.  I 
was showing the first signs of dehydration.  I really don?t 
remember much about the climb up Denning hill, but I did find 
Greymoor Friary very interesting and I took some time to 
wander through the grounds.  My butt was whipped by the time 
I reached route 9, but in the distance I spied a dispenser of the 
elixir of the gods, a Pepsi Machine.  Walked down the road to 
the machine, got a Pepsi and returned to the trail.  There was a 
stile over a barb wire fence, so I sat down on the step, popped 
a couple of Vitamin-I?s and slowly sipped the Pepsi.  I felt 
better, and went and got another Pepsi.  I was now facing a 
dilemma, over the past several hours I had been averaging 
only 1 mph and I was three miles from the campsite.  Do I go 
on or do I try and find a place to spend the night.  I chose the 
latter.

The air had turned cooler with the setting sun and the character 
of the trail had changed.  The light had transformed the trail 
into something almost magical.  I walked through spots that 
were a lot where the air colder than the surrounding area.  Also 
the air was very calm and I could hear very small sounds.  As I 
walked along I was slowly transformed into a creature of the 
dust.  The pain was disappeared, the headache was gone and I 
flowed into the landscape.  A log was across the trail-it was the 
right height to be a seat and I sat on it to have a drink of water 
and listened to the tree crickets? chirping.  When I got up to 
walk again the sky had turned dark and the trail was glowing 
from the fluorescence of the fungi breaking down the leaves on 
the trail.  I just followed the light.  It seemed that all of my 
senses had just awakened from a long sleep.  It was somewhat 
strange to see a white triangle floating until one got to the tree 
that had the AT blaze on it.  The moon rose and the 
fluorescence was gone.  I was now hiking through a world of 
shadows and shades of grey.  The trail was fairly easy to follow, 
and then suddenly I realized I ha lost the trail.  I could not find 
my flashlight and I saw a gap in the trees almost straight in 
front of me.  I headed toward the gap, but no blaze.  I 
backtracked to the trail and tried several time to follow it, but I 
lost it.  I finally gave up, unpacked my sleeping bag and went to 
sleep.

I am not sure what woke me up, but when I did the moon was 
pretty high up in the sky.  I figured that I had slept for three 
hours.  I felt a lot better, walked to the trail.  There was enough 
moonlight to see that the trail curved to the left.  I rolled up my 
sleeping bag, put on my pack and followed the trail.  The 
moonlight had transformed the trail from one of soft shadow to 
a much starker landscape.  It was a lot easier to follow a trail 
and after about ? hr I came to a cliff, the descent down to 
South Mountain Pass.  I was not going to try and negotiate that 
in the dark.  It was probably around midnight and I hadn?t 
eaten since noon.  I dug through my backpack for a snack and 
found my mini-mag flashlight.  I had my snack and water, and 
then started the descent.  I hadn?t gone 50 yards before I had 
to turn on the flashlight.  The magic was gone and before me 
were cold rock and a switch back trail.  I quickly made it to the 
campsite where I rolled out my sleeping pad and sleeping bag 
and went to sleep under the stars.

The next morning I woke up feeling very little pain, rejuvenated 
in fact.  It was still not the best hike out, but the memories of a 
magical evening hike helped me make it through the day.

Grey Owl