For Posterity

I just realized i completely forgot to write down one of the more interesting things that's happened to me recently. So I went cross country skiing with Lindsey, Kevin, and his then girlfriend Ann. We went up in Big Springs Hollow, which is advertised as a nice easy trek across a 'winter wonderland'. Having never been there before, and the directions being somewhat sketchy, I think we got there with an impressive lack of trouble. It was a beautiful day, but we were just a tiny bit late getting out. Between the four of us, I had the only cross country skiing experience, having been once before. So it definitely wasn't the most expert of adventures. However we were all in good spirits as we started skiing up hill. We got to a beautiful meadow just as the sun was getting behind the mountains, as as we continued our climb, it continued to get a bit darker. We finally reached the peak and started our descent, and some of us, notably lindsey, were starting to get concerned about the lack of light. As we arrived in the second meadow, it was getting pretty hard to see. By then, all of us had fallen down several times, and we were tired. We skiid across the meadow, and the trail sort of split up into a bunch of different trails, some disappearing into the bushes, others going across the meadow, in one direction, others heading the other direction. After skiing around quite a bit, we realized we were lost. in the dark. In the mountains. in the snow.

I say we were lost, that's not exactly accurate. I knew exactly where we were, and where we'd been, I just wasn't sure where we were going, or how to get there. The trail made a giant loop, so we decided we should just turn around and go back the way we came. I say we decided. It would be more accurate to say that everyone else decided and despite my obsessive desire to get us found, I had to concede that i didn't know which direction to go and it would be a lot safer to turn around.

So we began our climb back up hill, which wasn't so terrible, although it was, by then, pitch dark and freezing cold. Kevin and Ann got the worst of it, since they didn't have snow pants, and kevin had given his gloves to Ann. Things only got worse when we started going down hill. It turns out, without light, it's pretty difficult to not fall down, especially as you pick up speed. After falling down several times, we decided it would probably be best to walk. So our cross country skiing adventure ended with us carrying our skis across a snowy meadow, which by then felt a lot more like a freezing wasteland than a winter wonderland, and back to the car. Kevin's hands were basically completely frozen, and he and ann were understandably miserable.

I have to say, I had a great time. I don't think it counts as an adventure unless you get lost and have to end up walking home in the dark and several people leave with hurt feelings. The mountains at night in the winter are so absurdly quiet and peaceful, I honestly didn't mind staying a little longer than I'd planned.

Afterwards I looked at the map (that we had wisely not brought with us) and we were so close. I was about 15 feet away from the trail that would have gotten us home in about 15 minutes, before i missed it and we eventually turned back and soldiered on for another hour or so. I didn't know that at the time, of course, and actually thought we needed to go in a completely wrong direction. Someday i'd like to go back there and not get lost, but that'll have to wait, at least until i find more people who will unwisely trust my sense of direction.

So that was fun. In other news, life goes on. I officially switched to a biology major, it sort of feels like I changed who I am. when i introduce myself people will no longer say, "wow, you're good at math!" they'll say, "cool, so do you want to become a doctor?" and i'll kindly tell them "no, i'm going to be poor."