When my husband decided he wanted to hike to McAfee Knob last year, I had no idea what I was getting myself into but still begrudgingly went anyway because I love an adventure. But I wasn't prepared for it to be as hard as it was because my ambition doesn't think about those kinds of things until it's too late. And I wasn't prepared to fall madly in love with hiking at the end of it the way that I did because of how hard that hike was. I didn't know that the moment I made it to the Knob would change my life so profoundly that I would be hooked on chasing that kind of challenge forevermore. Reaching the Knob was a literal, physical metaphor for my life and I was giddy at the tangibility of it.
As far as I was concerned, I was a for real hiker now!
So before I even made it down from the Knob, I set an ambitious goal to hike the Inca Trail in Peru after Isabelle graduates high school in just a few years. And once I set my mind to something, nothing gets in my way until I accomplish it.
Because.... I'm
Me on the Knob 2017
But in order for me to reach my goal a few things need to happen:
First, I've needed to get into shape. A lot of what made hiking up to the Knob so difficult was that I was really out of shape. But not anymore! So far I've lost 28 lbs through High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) 3-5 days every week! I am building my endurance and stamina, my muscles are getting stronger and I am noticing giant changes in what my body is able to do compared to a year ago. I don't care to lose any more pounds, but I'm not done strengthening my body and I don't think I ever will be.
Secondly, and probably the thing that is going to suck the most, is that I have to get the whole camping thing licked. *whimper* I had the worst experience camping when I was 12 years old and I'm still not over it. It was so awful that I can't even relive it to tell y'all about it. But the Inca Trail is a 4-day, 26 mile hike and that means we have to sleep at some point, and that means.... camping. *pouty whimper* There are a LOT of blogs and websites out there dedicated to hiking to Machu Picchu filled with links to hiking gadgets and tips on everything you could ever need to make your hike as comfortable as possible, and along with those links I've also been doing my own research, so now I feel like as long as I have my husband with me I'm ready to try camping again. Eric and I have a few small trips planned where we are going to try camping out of the back of our SUV all hippie-like and I can honestly say that I'm excited about it! We probably won't get around to those trips until next year, but we for sure are going on them because I have got to get a handle on this camping thing.
Because... I'm ambitious.
I also need to learn how to hike, and I'm so very slowly trying to do that. Eric and I are amateurs, to say the least, and we have a lot to learn. I follow different female hikers on Instagram and am building a list of things we need to buy for Machu Picchu on Amazon while studying what it all means and does. But nothing quite teaches you how to hike like actually getting out on real trails. To be fair, we have hiked trails throughout Europe - hiking down Kehlstein (a subpeak of Göll massif), on running glaciers in Iceland, and countless baby trails all over Germany, we've hiked McAfee Knob, and the Incline in Colorado Springs, but it's not enough if we're going to hike the Inca Trail in Peru. Eric and I need to hike more and learn more, and nothing teaches you how to hike like getting out there on all sorts of trails and just.... hike!
But the temperatures here in El Paso are dangerously hot for most of the year, and y'all already know that I spent the majority of the first year we've been living here pouting about how there's nothing to do around these parts, so we've only hiked once since we moved to Texas, and that wasn't even in Texas.
Not that there aren't plenty of trails to hike in El Paso! There are!
So now that I've decided that I got all the pouting I needed to do out of my system, I signed Eric and I up for the Old Tin Mine hike at Franklin Mountains State Park for our very first hike on a Texas trail!
But like I said, we are still learning how to hike, and this hike would prove just how much we still have to learn. We made a lot of mistakes on this day, and got ourselves into a really dangerous situation.
My ambition has served me well in my little life and I've overcome, endured, and accomplished a lot because of it. But I don't always think things through and admittedly, I can be naive. When I want something I set a goal and hyper-focus on individual details until I arrive at the end, not always looking at the big picture first to keep a realistic mindset on what I need to do to get to that goal.
Basically, I just go for it. I want what I want and I just go for it.
The Old Tin Mine hike is a well-marked old jeep road with a gentle 3 mile climb up to America's only operating tin mine from the early 1900's. It is considered "moderate to difficult" for trail difficulty and is 6.5 miles in length round trip. The reason why I signed Eric and I up for this hike was so that we would be with a Park Ranger who could guide us along the trail. The Park Ranger is the expert, she knows where she is going and if there was an emergency I was sure she would know what to do. This hike was pet-friendly so I decided last minute to bring Journey with us, even though Eric thought that it might be too difficult of a walk for him. Journey is not an outdoorsy sort of guy, he's a mama's boy, a bit of a girly man, and Eric worried that the rocks would be hard on his paws and that it might get too hot for him. But I didn't want to leave him home alone and thought that if the hike was pet-friendly it must be safe enough for a guy like my Journey.
Many mistakes were made that day, and many lessons were learned, but deciding to bring Journey with us ended up being the biggest mistake I could ever make.
I packed my camera backpack with a sandwich baggie of Journey's dog food, a sandwich baggie with a mix of goldfish crackers and almonds for me and Eric, and 2 liters of ice water - one for Journey, one for me and Eric.
**We were about to go hiking in the middle of the desert.**
This was not enough water. This was not enough water by a lot. I did not bring enough water to go hiking in the desert for two people, let alone two people and an 85lb dog.
Everything about the mistakes I made on this hike were stupid. And almost every mistake I made I already knew better. I am an amateur hiker and I know that I have a lot to learn still, but making sure to pack enough water is something I already know is essential. I've hiked enough to know how essential water is for any terrain. I don't know what I was thinking.
I wasn't.
And about that camera backpack of mine.... I unloaded all of my camera stuff and only had our snacks and water in it, but my camera backpack is not made for hiking, and it's especially not needed for a simple 6.5 mile hike. I didn't need to bring that big of a bag. All we needed was a camelbak - each - for water and to carry our snacks and phones. Eric ended up having to carry extra weight for no reason, and when things got tough, that bag got heavier and hotter. But if he was going to carry a big bag then I should have packed it accordingly. There was so much wasted space in it because it was almost completely empty. I could have easily fit 3-4 more bottles of water in it.
Eric carrying an almost empty camera backpack.
It was a gorgeous morning and the scenery was beautiful! Don't let anyone tell you that El Paso isn't pretty, it is! The hike up to the Tin Mine was great! Journey was a trooper! The trail was an old jeep road that was a mix of gravel, dirt, and bigger rocks, nothing that we felt was too terribly dangerous for his paws. The gradient was gentle so none of us were having to work too hard, although Journey is a bit on the chubby side and isn't used to working out like I am so he was beginning to pant heavily. Eric and I just stayed behind everyone else to let our Journey go slower and so that I could take pictures.
I was feeling happy to be hiking again, but still couldn't shake the bad feeling I had woken up with that told me that we shouldn't even be hiking in the first place.
Well shit
Oh hell no
The entrance to the mine
The Park Ranger was great and stopped a few times along the way to point out different animals and plants native to this area. She also explained the history of the mine - it was once America's only operating tin mine, but after a few non-profitable years it closed in 1915.
And then we made it!
We made it to the entrance without incident! Journey handled the hike like a pro. We could tell that some of the rocks were hard on his paws, and that the temps were beginning to get hot for him, but all-in-all he handled the first 3 miles like a champ!
Eric, Journey, and the rest of the group went into the mine to listen to the Park Ranger, but that seemed like a not fun thing to do when I saw how tiny the entrance was, so I just waited outside where all of the oxygen was. They stayed inside the mine for a good 45 minutes listening to the information about the mine, giving Journey plenty of time to cool off and catch his breath. When they came out I didn't even ask Eric what the Park Ranger said because I wasn't all that interested in any of it, which thinking about it now isn't like me at all.
There was a smaller group of people not part of the same group we were with that stayed outside of the mine too and I got to talk with them while I enjoyed the open air. I took pictures of them and they took pictures of me with my cell phone. I took a few selfies and noticed that my phone was almost dead so I tucked it away into my bag and talked with the group some more. It was about this time that I started to realize how hot it was getting, probably because we were now at a higher elevation, or because..... I was wearing all black.
Who wears all black to go hiking in the middle of the desert?!?!!
Me. I do.
Because... I'm a complete idiot.
When Eric felt that Journey had caught his breath they crawled back out of the mine back to me and all of the oxygen. We chatted a bit and then together figured we could easily make it back to the car. We were hungry and tired and ready to get back now that we had made it to the "goal." The "goal" being the mine.
Since Eric, Journey, and I had woken up early to meet up with the group at 7 a.m, none of us had eaten breakfast. None of us had eaten a bite of anything before heading out on the Tine Mine Trail. I tried to feed Journey his breakfast but he didn't want it because of how early we had woken him up, so I packed it in my camera bag in case he wanted it later in the morning while we were on the hike. I only packed a sandwich baggie with a mix of goldfish crackers and almonds as a snack for both me and Eric... that was it. We. were. starving. All we could think about now that we had accomplished what we came for were cheeseburgers and curly fries, so we felt like it was probably okay to head back down the trail on our own.
Y'all should know that one of the triggers (of the many) for my Epilepsy is a severe drop in blood sugar.
I didn't eat breakfast and hadn't eaten in more than 16 hours by this time. This is a very real and very extreme danger for me. My seizures are so delicate that I can't risk any trigger ever, and I had no access to glucose in any way and had unintentionally paid no mind to it. At this point in our hike, it never crossed my mind that I not only didn't have enough water, but I didn't have enough calories in my body or any ability to get calories into my body except from a handful of goldfish crackers and almonds to sustain me for if things got tough.
Literally everything about this hike was turning out to be dangerous, and potentially deadly.
And I didn't even know it at this point.
Where was my ambition?? Apparently, not on this hike.
So what do you do when you're hungry? You decide to walk back down the trail without the Park Ranger and the entire group you hiked all morning with because you totally know what you're doing.
Palm. to. Face.
Eric, Journey, and I thought that since we had seen what we came to see and we were as hungry as we were, we could just walk back to the car like it was no big deal. Ya know... because we totally know it all. Sooo... that's what we did. We left the group we were with and the Park Ranger behind and headed back down the Old Tin Mine Trail to our car.
And that is when we got lost.
Okay, to be clear, Eric and I never got "lost" lost. We had the Franklin Mountains to the west of us and the city of El Paso to the east, with only about 3 miles between the two. I am a complete and utter directional moron, but even I knew where I could find our car. My husband is a logistics officer in the United States Army who has served over half of his entire lifetime serving, he is trained in land navigation and was born with an internal compass that he naturally follows and has never failed him. It wasn't like either one of us was ever worried that we were lost in the way that we didn't know where we were and couldn't find where our car was or how to get back to civilization.
However, I do not want to minimize the situation. We were in danger because of ALL of the mistakes we made that day.
Somewhere on the trail we missed a turn back to the starting point. Because of all of the mistakes we had made that day and then making a wrong turn, it all culminated into a very bad situation.
And that's when we finally realized everything that was bad:
- We were alone without the Park Ranger or group of hikers we were hiking with.
- By now it was over 100° and I was wearing all black.
- Although we could figure out which direction to walk, we couldn't be sure how far we needed to go or how far we had gotten off track.
- We had Journey with us who was beginning to struggle with the heat and the terrain.
- Because Journey was struggling he was going slow, prolonging the walk, our being out in the sun, and our ability to get the things we needed (water & food).
- We were no longer on a clear trail, cutting up Journey's paws faster and worse than before, making him walk slower and slower with each step.
- We were almost out of water and now we weren't sure how far it would be until we could get more water.
- My cell phone battery was almost dead, and this is when I learned that Eric's was too but he didn't want to say anything earlier.
- My blood sugar had long ago dropped below a normal level and was plummeting with each passing minute.
Our biggest dilemma was Journey. He just couldn't keep up and his paws were being torn to shreds. Eric and I rationed the water we had and even gave him ours every 20 minutes to keep him going, but then that put us humans in an even worse way. And because of Journey, Eric and I couldn't cut through a trail to get to where we knew our car was faster, or even just walk faster because Journey couldn't keep up. The temp was so hot and he had never walked that far in his entire life, so he was becoming visibly stressed and we worried that he was near collapsing, forcing us to walk at a crawl. Walking at such a slow pace was prolonging our ability to get to water and my getting to sugar, and we were burning under the sun and depleting everything our bodies had faster.
Eric and I had to talk about what we were going to do.... were we going to have to call 911? Do we call the Park Ranger? What is the Park Ranger's phone number? Where were we? Should we carry Journey (all 85lbs of squishy love), will that allow us to go faster or will it slow us down even more?
Ultimately, since we knew we were going in the right direction (just that we had frustratingly added an extra 2 miles onto a hike that I had sorely under prepared for) and since Journey was still walking, we decided to keep plugging along. We wanted to preserve the teeny bit of battery life we had on my phone for if something truly went bad - a seizure or if we couldn't get Journey out of the desert ourselves - so we just kept walking.
From the point that we realized that we missed a turn, we continued east towards the city and then turned south in the direction where we knew our car was parked walking diagonally over different bike trails until more than an hour later we made it back to the Old Tin Mine Trail.
Once we were on the right trail again and knew we were heading towards safety, Eric and I decided that he should go on ahead and get gatorade's and waters at a gas station near where our car was parked and bring them back to us. I couldn't get Journey to go any faster and I was way past dehydrated. Our car was still more than a half mile from where he left me and Journey, but it was by that point that Journey was almost belly crawling along the path and I was in tears at the sight of it. Both Eric and I had become extremely dehydrated and we weren't sure that carrying him was possible. We had depleted every last drop of water we had getting Journey to that point and I could feel that I was not doing well but didn't want to say anything to Eric, I just needed him to go get us water.
Once Journey and I made it to the edge of the parking area he finally collapsed and wouldn't go a step further. His paws were torn to shreds, he was severely overheated and exhausted. It was as if Journey knew the entire time we were lost that he had to just keep going, that the only way he was going to get off that trail was by taking a step, no matter how badly it hurt, and once he knew he was at the parking area he knew he could stop. Eric met us with a gallon of water and I didn't think Journey was ever going to stop drinking. Eric's quick trip to the gas station gave our car a chance to cool off so once we were able to get Journey on his feet again (an almost impossible task) for the last few feet to the car, we quickly got him into the air conditioning and then I sucked down a gatorade and thanked the good Lord above for getting us all to safety as we left Franklin Mountain State Park.
Eric stopped for cheeseburgers and curly fries on our way home. We both knew that there was absolutely zero chance of either one of us getting off our butts once they touched our couches so cooking wasn't at all going to happen and we were famished at that point - stopping for food was as essential as the water and gatorade.
We had to carry Journey into the house and physically put him on his bed. His paws had been torn apart and he was beyond exhausted. Once he laid down in the car he wouldn't get back up and didn't for almost 5 days after that. Eric and I were concerned about heat exhaustion so we put ice in his water and a fan in front of him to cool him off, and then sat vigil all night long, sleeping in the living room with him.
Once we were showered, had full bellies, and were comfortably snuggled on our couch I completely fell apart. I couldn't believe what we just went through. Y'all, you needed to be there to believe it. It was AWFUL.
I'm a sucker for an adventure and a challenge and I am ambitious to an obsessive level. Combine these things and I've managed to do things I never thought I ever could. Combine these things and I've managed to get myself into a few pickles.
But I've realized that combine all of those things.... and I just might be able to endure and survive anything.
No comments:
Post a Comment