Rain trek

My itch to engorge myself in the wooded bliss of the north shore has been present since early this summer. I finally had the chance to fill up my pack with goodies, my sleeping bag, and my hammock and high-tail it into the woods after so many weekends of... not.

During my ride up the shore, I know this sounds extremely cheesy, but I, in all meaning of the phrase, 'let my hair down'. In all honesty, my forehead relaxed and I was laughing to myself in delight because of the shear amount of relief I was feeling. The sun was coming up over the lake and it was so beautiful. I was ridiculously pumped to grab my pack and fly right into glorious nature.

The minute I parked at one of the trail parking lots, I picked up my bag and set off with dreams of happy trails and hammock reading and oatmeal eating in the cool morning and the smells of all that is good in nature.

Fifteen minutes later, with visions of trees dancing around in my head...

It started pouring.

And continued to pour for the next two hours...

Oh my goodness I was so sad. I was getting completely soaked and the only thing I could think about was how I wanted to continue hiking for the next 8 hours.

Hmmm, then I got to a clearing and looked over the trees to see a massive array of grey clouds. Not helping.

That is when I actually started thinking about what I wanted to do. Keep blazing ahead and magically make the rain stop? And then at the end of the day, string up my hammock in the rain and die of hypothermia? Or... turn back now and drive back home in the rain and... live.

I chose the latter. Obviously.

Although I didn't get to satisfy my true desires of relishing in the goodness of God's beautiful creation for the majority of my weekend, I still got to enjoy a four hour hike in the woods. Better then nothing.

Some day I will be a swift, hunter/gatherer living deep within the wooded lands of the north and I will pop out on occasion to get things like... toilet paper...

I can only dream for now.

Until then, cheers to the rains not finding you! ;)