Sunday, January 21, 2007

Which way?

Let me start by saying that last night I slipped on the stairs at work. Not the usual slip either. (yes I'm a bit of a klutz) I reached for the handrail and whooooomp whooooomp I went down.... hard. I hit so hard on my hip and back that it literally knocked the breath out of me. I've never experienced that before so I was taken aback for several long seconds. I was ok enough to stand up and get the heck off the stairs so I must not have done too much damage. Not long after I started feeling really sore and it hurt something awful to take a deep breath and to bend over.

So that's the background information. Let's just say we (DH and I) decided to go trail running at Island Lake because it was sooo pretty with the snow that had fallen earlier this week. Sure seemed like a good idea at the time. OMG, the bit of ice storm that we had before the snow were weighing down the tree branches and the trail was nearly impassible at times. I did mention that I fell down the stairs last night and it hurts to bend over right. YIKES! I had to actually and hand and knee it under one very large limb while trying to stay upright as much as I could and block the limbs with my arm rather than try to bend. Not good. To make matters worse... I got lost. Really lost.

Somehow I missed the very first turn which would send me in the correct direction down the trail. Correct meaning I shouldn't have to turn around to see the mile markers and they should have been counting up rather than down. No big deal, I thought... how hard could it be? The nice couple I fortunately found walking their dog near a subdivision (yeah, I was in the woods.... what happened?) and asked them to point out where I might be located on the map that I was carrying. "You're not on the map anymore," they replied. Uh oh. So they pointed me in the right direction warning me of the dwindling evening light. Now I could go back in the direction I came and run the trail in the *right* direction now but NOOOOO. I'm back on trail heading backwards, surely I won't get lost again. HA!

I kept my eyes pealed for the backwards mile markers and suddenly I didn't see any for a long time (more than the 1/4 mile intervals that they are posted). Not knowing the area that well, I couldn't say for sure if the 2-track I was on was supposed to be part of the trail or not. I stood for a moment in one place contemplating whether or not I'd ever get out of there. "D A V E", I yelled out really loud, but heard no response, so I plodded on. The evening sun began vanishing behind the trees and I was still not on trail, nor was I certain which way the trail was to be found. Finally the 2-track came near a railroad track and I quickly tried to identify where exactly I might be on my map. Hmmm. Ok, I see RR tracks on my map and they do go toward where the car is parked, but do I go left or right? I decided to go left and low and behold found the trail again with seriously not much time to spare. When I entered the woods again, I had a hard time seeing the contour of the trail because of the whitening effect of the snow and the darkness that the woods held. Not long into the newly found trail I saw the backwards mile marker. I could have never been happier to see it read "1/4".

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