woodland wanderings: Mount Hayes

I hate hiking in the dark. I don’t mind hiking at night through woods I know and enjoy spending time seeking out owls and documenting vernal pool species. However, the thought of hiking a mountain trail at night, in unfamiliar woods alone, gives me nightmares.

After class I drove the three hours toward Hayes. I decided on the longer, but easier to find, Centennial Trail. Too worried about the time to get a decent lunch, I opted for McDonalds. They did away with the grilled chicken salads long ago, so I ordered a quarter-pounder meal. A mistake. Twenty minutes later I had stomach pains that would kill a mule. Ugh. They will subside before I get to the trailhead…NOT.

I get to the trail, I’m in pain, my face is sweating and I’m sure it’s the color of moss. Hiking will make my stomach feel better…NOT. I take two hiking sticks instead of my usual one-stick somehow thinking it would be better to hike with two sticks with a stomachache. The extra stick just annoys me so I hide it behind a fallen birch tree and continue up slowly. I make my way up the steep trail, in the heat, with a stomachache and a green face. The three mile ascent felt like the longest hike in history. As I neared the first set of ledges I met an older couple on their way down. They looked at my green face queerly. I had to explain my green face to them. They said I shouldn’t eat McDonalds ever again.

I know the summit is not well marked so I continued on and on past a few more less attractive ledges, through mossy paths (matching my face) until the trail markers changed colors and continued until I dropped 300 hundred feet in elevation making sure I hit the summit.

When I hiked back to the first set of ledges there was a couple of hikers there sitting where I wanted to have a snack, smoking cigarettes. My first thought in my grumpy, green-faced state was, “They’re sitting in my spot and they are smoking cigarettes! How can hikers smoke cigarettes?!” Then I realized after a strong wave of nausea hit me; “Who am I to judge? I ate McDonalds for lunch!” So I started up a conversation. These very nice guys were thru-hikers who only had 300 hundred miles left of the Appalachian trail to hike. We talked a little about their adventure and their final destination, Katahdin.

After they headed on, I started my descent back down the trail. Surprisingly it was still light and I was excited I was going to be back at the car before dark. Then I realized I had to find my husband’s hiking stick I left behind a random fallen birch log. What I realized on the descent is every fallen birch log looks the same as the next one. After looking behind what felt like a 100 logs I realized I wasn’t going to be back before dark. In fact, night had fallen so quickly I found myself standing in the dark. But before the fear could creep in, something wonderful happened. Gray treefrogs started calling from the treetops. As I listened to the treefrogs, I noticed the walking stick under a dead oak…not a birch. Haaa :).

Back at the car, I found myself looking forward to the next day’s hike - Mt. Success.