I wasn’t feeling great after the morning’s hike, but I figured lunch would improve me. We ate and drank and then Ambrose decided he was going to take a nap. I decided that I’d wash my hair while he did that.
Fifteen minutes later, I had just finished washing my hair and he was up and ready to go. I don’t know how he does it. If I go down for a nap, I’ll be out for an hour or two, but he can take a three to fifteen minute nap and wake feeling refreshed. I can’t even fall asleep in three minutes!
I dallied a bit, getting ready to hike back out. Took a picture of a sun dog. Drank some more sparkling water. And then I decided that I should just go, and if I felt bad after hiking a while, then I could turn back. There have been times, after all, when I wasn’t feeling up to physical activity until about ten minutes after I started.
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| Sun Dog |
I hiked slowly, behind Ambrose, and tried to ease my body into the idea of motion. Not too far into the wilderness, we came to a place on the trail where a stream seeps across it. The mud was squishy, but not too deep. And the mud clearly revealed that some sort of four-wheeled vehicle had been along in the not so distant past.
ATVs are not allowed in the wilderness area, but it seems like that didn’t stop some intrepid jerk from giving it a try. The grass and the mud showed distinct evidence of passage and Ambrose was quite upset about it. I was not as upset, but only because I wasn’t feeling well.
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| Water running high under the Queens River bridge. |
We hiked on, and I felt no better when we approached the last bridge. I sat down on the bridge after crossing it and didn’t want to get up. But I did want Ambrose to have a chance to look for more morel mushrooms. He took a quick look, but told me if I didn’t feel well we should head back now.
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| Ambrose approaching the last bridge. |
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| Water roaring under the Little Queens River bridge. |
I didn’t want to turn back so soon, and I especially didn’t want Ambrose to have to turn back as well. He, on the other hand, didn’t want to leave me alone if I wasn’t feeling well enough to hike on. So we turned back together.
And that was a hard decision, but it was also the right decision. At this point, I’m pretty sure I was just a little dehydrated, but it could have been something else. Feeling ill and walking on into the wilderness, where there’s no rescue at hand, just isn’t wise. So we didn’t get to see how deep the Little Queens River crossing looked, so what? It was just a day hike, and I’m glad that we handled the situation the way we did.
But there’s still a part of me that doesn’t like it.
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| Ambrose pointed out this snake on our return hike. |
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| Back to the trail head. |