Saturday I was in bed alllll day -seriously, I had a dentist appointment in the morning where I was put to sleep and proceeded to sleep till 5pm even thought my apt was 8-11. Amazingly, I still went to bed early that night too, but I was really annoyed that half my weekend was pretty much gone. (I even tried to watch an episode of law and order and just fell asleep in less then 5 minutes.)
Anyway... since Sunday was a beautiful clear and only slightly cold day, after breakfast with my parents, I decided to go on a hike and try something new- Murna Point. I hadn't really heard anything about it except that it was "difficult" (understatement), 1.8 miles there and back (understatement) and kind of rocky (understatement).
I realized while hiking this there are not that many times in my life when I have done something and realized (too late) that I am in WAY over my head and possibly in big trouble, but this was one of those times. (I would say the other 2 were 1. going to Morocco alone and 2. when I was on a boat that almost sank in the RMI.)
It all started innocently enough.
^ that's not a small river, that's actually the trail frozen over
This trail is an "unmaintained trail" and to get to it, you know you have gone too far if you hit this creek. I figured I would miss the trail turn, so I planned just just get to the creek and turn back around to find the trail, which worked.
After I found the unmaintained trail I pretty quickly realized it was going to be a very hard 1.8 miles (or whatever it was, who knows!!) to the top. It. Was. Steep. I felt like I stopped every 20 steps, but I tried to be all zen and count to 100 steps then take a break (a trick Joe always told me to use when we hiked over the summer. It does work. It would work better if I was in better shape, ha).
^ lots of ice
And then the "trail" started to look like this... (honestly there were much worse sections then this, but I was not willing to whip out my camera and take pictures).
and this was the view to the side-
and this..... (at this point I was thankful I declined my parents offer to come with me, because my Mom would have had a heart attack/made me turn around)
It was more of a rock climbing session then a hiking session at this point. And it was about here that I realized I was 1. alone 2. on a very steep trail 3. climbing up rocks 4. may fall 5. no one would be there to help me 6. I would probably die 7. even if I didn't fall/die I would still have to climb back down 8. there was ice 9. I didn't even have a water bottle with me (I swear I am the worst prepared hiker ever.)
And then I swore that I would never hike this particular hike again (alone).
At this point it was 3, which is where this story takes a tragic turn. Whenever I hike I ALWAYS give myself a turn around time. Since the sun is going down at 4:45 now, my time I was 3. I was pretty sure I was close to the top, but not all the way to the top so even though I REALLY REALLY REALLY wanted to keep going I also knew that to do that would be stupid. All this insane hiking/rock climbing would be straight up dangerous (even more so) at night and I just wasn't willing to chance it. Siiiggghhh.
I just got to a nice little spot that I am 100% sure was not the complete top, but probably really close and hung out for a little bit.
It was amazing and beautiful. And I am certainly going to hike it again (soon) with someone else and get all the way to the top. On the way down, it was really cold, and by the time I got back to my car it was dark so I know I made the right choice in turning around when I did. Plus, now I have another hike that I have a great reason to do again!
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