My day didn’t go as planned.
I was intending to go for a run, then shower, and head to my chiropractor appointment. Then I’d come home, pull out the motorcycle, and go for a ride.
I simply did not get y shot together for a run, and by the time I was thinking about it, I was on my work computer doing things I shouldn’t have been doing on a day off, but it was what it was. I had a few people waiting for support letters for research projects, and a few other odds and sods to take care of. And apparently I have poor boundaries and work-life balance skills.
The morning run simply didn’t happen, and the chiropractor dug in a little deeper than usual when I mentioned and intended 300+ km motorcycle ride coming up soon. He’s never made me yelp before today. Apparently he decided to go a little deeper in prep for said ride.
I figured a ride wasn’t a good idea after a really thorough adjustment, so I’d go for a little hike instead.
I felt sad to see this dragonfly splayed out on the trail…the early heat has not been good for any of us.
I headed down into the canyon, stopped at the hatchery because I wasn’t smart enough to have gone pee before I left home, and then did about 5km in the canyon itself. Up to the dam, a stop for a quick work-related phone call on my personal phone, and then up…up…up…..
…to the power line.
I started across the power line walk, but it was hot…mid-day, and the sun was right overhead.
Mad dogs and Englishmen……out in the mid-day sun.
I have some English blood, so perhaps I fit the bill.
For a few years I’ve been meaning to explore the Baden Powell trail in this area, and I knew it runs a bit parallel, but up in the forest, above the trial I was on. And it’s cooler in the forest than on an exposed power line trail.
But I also know the trail starts, in this area, near the base of the Grouse Grind. So I started looking for entry points to somehow get up to the trail above. My map showed a perpendicular trail that went up to the BP trail above….and every little trail I was looking at it like…”nope…animal trail…animal trail…animal trail….”
Eventually I saw a series of cut logs across a little waterway and thought…”not animal trail” and headed up.
My map showed the trail up as being to the right of a creek.
Creek….check.
However, the map showed that the trial I wanted was to the right of the creek, and I was….thought I didn’t seem to be on the dotted trail line. Oh well I thought, the gps may just be off the map a bit.
But there were two creeks, and I was to the right of a creek, but I was not to the right of the right creek.
And…the trail was pretty much straight up….like ….practically vertical.
And I’m one of those types who, once on the way, feels totally committed….I rarely turn back. “It will get better” “I’m almost there” “It’s not that much farther”
Part way up I was totally like…”Where the fuck is the cross trail!!!” “OK, this is really awful, and totally straight up, and I haven’t seen a trail marker for a while…but there are signs of human activity on this trail…maybe not recent though.”
Probably halfway up I realized that I was not on the right trail….that the right trail was on the other side of a creek in a ravine that I was hiking alongside. So I started looking for away down said ravine and across the small creek below…and up the other side to find the right trail.
I had a moment on one part of the trail where I thought “is it a trail…or is it a creek” On the North Shore, the answer to that depends on the time of year you are walking on it…..
Eventually I saw what I thought was a reasonable spot to cross and picked my way down to the water. There were a couple of large flatfish rocks that would make an easy crossing.
Except that they were deceptive. They didn’t have water flowing over them, but they might as well as had grease painted on them. I stepped out and my normally very sticky hiking shoes acted like they hadn’t even connected with a surface at all….and whatever surface was there, was a greasy as …well…grease.
My foot barely touched the rock before It was heading in a completely different direction than intended…and down I went. One foot into the creek (luckily gortex shoes…so all good) and my ass slammed into said large flat and greasy rock. My other foot shot into another area of water, and my butt continued to slide and ended up sitting in water. I sat there for a moment before registering that I was getting wet, and gingerly hauled myself up. Everything seemed to be working….so….all good?
But now I had to crawl up an almost vertical bank on the other side. After the previous experience, I picked my way up very carefully, and found the right trail…complete with orange markers nailed to the trees and leading me up (hopefully) to the trail I wanted to reach.
But seriously….wow…it felt almost vertical. No photos of that part because both hands were clinging to rocks, branches, …..anything…
I seriously started to question if I was going to ever reach the top. I mean, no…I wasn’t going to reach the top because I’m in the North Shore Mountains and there is a looooong way to go up. But I KNOW that damned trail runs across somewhere not too far up…(I hope). Eventually I saw a human above, on the trail I needed to reach, and when I reached that trail…I felt like I deserved some freaking award.
But I still had a long way to go.
Including across another creek.
And yes, I also damaged myself on that one.
Crossing it involved scrambling across a rockfall and then up a steep bank…and over a fallen tree. I was paying attention to the ground on the other side and missed the short nub sticking out and bashed my knee on it and lost all feeling in my lower leg for a few moments.
I did put sunscreen on.
I did have food and water with me.
I did have the right shoes.
I did have my GPS with me.
But it did occur to me, at this point, that perhaps I shouldn’t be this far up alone, without having told anyone where I was.
On the flip side, there were three hikers not that far ahead of me and in the quiet, they definitely would have heard me bellow if anything had gone very wrong. And my position is also shared with Kirk, so he could find me, and I knew that I was visible on my GPS.
After that it was relatively straight forward. It was a bit of a goat trail in some places, and I’ve never been so happy to finally see a trail marker with some distances to tell me exactly where I was…though I did already know, but the confirmation was gratifying.
From here, I won’t say it’s “easy” but I do know the trail well. It involves some ropes to get down some steep parts, but it’s familiar.
So…12 km became 20 km….but it was a good “walk” 🙂
And everything hurts.
I don’t think I’m running tomorrow 😉
I think I undid all the good that my chiropractor did this morning…..