Continuing our hike from Signal Point to Edward Point, Tisen and I made our way along the steep slope of the gully.
I guess it’s a gully. I’m not really clear on when a gully becomes a canyon or if there’s some other name for a horse-shoe-shaped space in the side of a mountain, but essentially, we were going to hike in nearly an ellipse, but we were going to end up on a point on the opposite cliff from where we started.
The trail starts high, goes mostly downhill to the midpoint and then climbs again to Edward Point overlook on the far side. It requires stepping over, on, or around many rocks in the process. We clambered our way up the trail, keeping a pretty good pace going. I eyed the poison ivy growing along the trail with disdain–I knew it meant Tisen and I were going to be taking very thorough baths that night.
When we got about another 1/2 mile down the trail, we ran into an impasse. This happens quite frequently on trails. A tree has fallen across the trail that can’t be gone over, so you have to go around. Usually, this might mean walking a 1/10 of a mile out of the way to skirt the fallen tree. In this case, there were dozens of trees that had fallen. It was a terrible scene of destruction that made me sad. On the other hand, with as many bad storms as have rolled through this area in recent years, it’s pretty amazing that that’s all the damage that’s been done.
But there were piles of fallen trees. And we we tried to go around, we ran into only more fallen trees. We went around and went around some more, trying to find a route through all the crap that fell with the trees. Eventually, we did make it.
Of course, in the process, I lost the trail. We ended up bush-whacking our way back to the trail, arriving slightly scratched and a little more tired than we would have otherwise.
When we finally found the main trail again, we hadn’t gone more than 10 feet hen we saw a junction with a trail that came from the same direction we had just come from. It was clearly blazed as the main trail and it looked like it would have missed all of the fallen trees. I kicked myself and wondered how I had missed that option when we took the high trail to hell.
But, back to relatively clear sailing, we continued on our way, making it to the point where we’d turned around the first time we tried to hike this trail and pushing beyond. Less than a 1/4 mile past our previous turn-around point, we ran into a stream. Tisen made quick work of laying down in the water to cool off. I thought about joining him, but there wasn’t a puddle big enough.
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I hope you have with you a way to contact someone if you were to need help. Hiking alone sounds scary to me. 😉
Well, on Signal Mountain, there is a cell phone signal (as seems proper on “Signal” mountain 🙂 ). But I don’t always hike where there’s reception. I carry a first aid kit, a mirror and flashlight for signaling, and one of those emergency foil “blankets” in case I fall and have to wait to be rescued. I also don’t hike places that are so remote that no one would be in ear shot for days. And, I always let someone know where I’m going, what trail I’m taking and when I expect to get back. The risk I worry about is if something happens to Tisen, but I figure I can make a gurney out of the foil blanket, duct tape, and sticks and drag him out if necessary. 🙂
ok I feel somewhat better now lol 😉
🙂
Every time I see Tisen in a pool of water like that it makes me think of a nice cool stream on a hot summer day. He is so smart.
Other emergency equipment and first aid…the good ole trusty bra… 🙂
He is a brilliant boy. So, what does one do with a bra in an emergency–that’s one I haven’t heard of!
The best use is for a sling but a bra can be used as a compression bandage along with something else in the absence of an Ace (better than nothing). There are more but those are the 2 I remember right now, but I knew women who used bras when they came up short putting up their tent and in regular camping activities.
I am imagining a bra big enough to be a tent now, but I don’t think that’s what you meant. 😀 I can definitely see a sling and compression bandage. Filing that away for future reference!