Almost Lost

I left Acadia and Maine on Sunday, and I drove to the small town of Bethel, Vermont, where my friend Toni lives. She and I were roommates at a seminar we went to last October outside of Tucson, and I hadn't seen her since then. She's in a graduate law program at Vermont Law School now. Anyway, I arrived Sunday afternoon and we went for a walk around her neighborhood, and then just had dinner that night at her place. I got to cook dinner again for the first time in a while, and it felt good to be in a kitchen again.

The next day, we went to Stowe to do some hiking and to take the Ben and Jerry's factory tour. We hiked Hogback Mountain to the summit. It was a very cool hike, all wooded until we got to the very top. The weather was fantastic, and we sat at the top for a long time. In fact, we sat there so long that we completely missed the Ben and Jerry's tour. I didn't really mind, though, because it was such a great day. Until we missed our trail coming down the mountain, and got lost.

Our first clue that we were lost was a GIANT rock pile. We thought that we might have just missed noticing it on the way up. But then we saw another. And another. And then a tepee. We didn't know what to do....we were on a trail, just not the right one, and it was getting dark. We had only one bottle water, and absolutely no other equipment -- after all, it was meant to be a short hike! After debating our options, we decided to continue on our new trail, and hope to end up in civilization somewhere. After walking for a while in semi-anxious silence, we eventually heard some music in the distance. We followed it until we got to a house where some guys were having band practice. I was going to ask them to give us a ride to our car, but suddenly Toni's iPhone GPS updated, and we realized where we were....1.5 miles from our car. We finally made it back to the car, just as it got dark. Thank goodness. From now on, I will do no hiking without my flashlight, compass, first-aid kit, and extra water....

Anyway, we ate dinner at a Thai restaurant in Stowe (which is a cute town, by the way), and then we finally got back to Bethel around 11pm. It was a great day, but after the nervousness of the hike, I fell asleep the minute my head hit the pillow.