My friend Christine and I have made a habit of devoting a Saturday of every semester to some serious hiking, just the two of us. We try to pick a pretty long day hike, start out early in the morning and log close to 15 miles. In March we picked the Bristol Hills Branch of the Finger Lakes Trail. Thanks to CNY Hiking, we had a great trail description and everything went according to plan. In fact, the snow even melted for us. When we woke up at 6 in the morning Rochester NY was basically snow free for the first time since Early December.
Little did we know, Naples NY was not snow free. Not even close.
When we got out of my van in Ontario County Park to make our sandwiches and put on our final layers at 8:00 that Saturday morning all I remember thinking was... "hey, this is a lot colder than I thought it was going to be." Even as we walked toward the trail entrance with a few inches of snow and lots of heavy wind in our faces, we laughed it off. We assumed the wind wouldn't be as bitter within the cover of the trees and we had prepared well with layers of warm clothes.
We're both very optimistic people, and we love hiking together. When you are with another optimistic person it's easy to keep your spirits up. Plus, I'm a firm believer in the fact that you can choose to have a positive attitude in any situation. All this added to the fact that I love being out on a new trail enjoying the woods turned the odds in favor of a good day... or so we thought.
So we trudged on. What started out being the best part of the trail, the fact that there was not another human soul around, ended up being the bane of our hike. Three hours in, at the top of one of the hills we were hiking through knee deep snow. Our boots, though tried and true, were not made for hiking through snow. Progress was slow and we we both were learning that GoreTex is great, until snow melts from your ankles down and saturates your socks.
So we trudged on. What started out being the best part of the trail, the fact that there was not another human soul around, ended up being the bane of our hike. Three hours in, at the top of one of the hills we were hiking through knee deep snow. Our boots, though tried and true, were not made for hiking through snow. Progress was slow and we we both were learning that GoreTex is great, until snow melts from your ankles down and saturates your socks.
The Bristol Hills trail goes up and down three hills in Ontario County near Naples. At the tops of the hills in the most untrodden portions of the trail we were laying fresh tracks though knee deep snow. In the valleys we were trudging through mud and puddles. We had wet socks and very cold feet. It was cloudy and windy. And we were only a quarter of the way done with our hike.
I remember distinctly the moment where I faced my "dark night of the soul". I was following Christine (we were taking turns being the leader cause following in someone's tracks was a bit easier) and had just tripped for the hundredth time, falling into the snow. That's when the internal dialogue started.
This is stupid. Why are we doing this? the farther we go the longer it is going to be to get back. Maybe we should turn around now. Our feet are only going to get wetter. Is this dangerous? No, its not dangerous, just uncomfortable. Are you going to let 'uncomfortable' ruin this day for you? Are you going to give up? I want to give up. But I love hiking. I don't love this. Will we even be able to make our goal with this slow progress? What happened to enjoying everything with a positive attitude? I'd much rather open up the flood gates of complaining. But what good would that do?
Man... that sucks. I would have been way more grouchy way sooner!
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