[LauraMJ]

Well, last Sunday we were out riding in the mountains......the route we were taking would take about 5 and half hours........normally. We hadn't been on that particular trail in about two years, and evidently no one else had either. It was very overgrown and very faint once we got to the top of the mountain. Very slow going for long time, we kept losing the trail, finding it, losing it, finding it......hacking our way through brush, cutting our way through deadfalls.......detouring around things......until finally, we lost the trail altogether.

We looked and looked, and the problem is that we are clear up on the very peak of the mountain. It is very craggy with large granite outcroppings and sheer drop-offs, so you can THINK you are going to just "go thataway" and suddenly you can't go any further and have to backtrack. We wondered back and forth for quite a while up there. It is now FIVE O-CLOCK IN THE EVENING and we are STILL up on the top of the mountain. We were seriously thinking we might have to spend the night up there.

So, what do we do?? We take pictures of the scenic overlooks.

FINALLY, we find, not the trail we were looking for (never did find that section of trail), but a place where we COULD get forward to the area where we knew the trail could be picked up again.

We manage to get back down the mountain and back to the trailers right at dusk, we barely had enough light to see by to unsaddle and load up the horses. We ended up riding for 8 1/2 hours.

Soooo, anyway, here are the pics from the top of the mountain.

[LauraMJ]

More

[LauraMJ]

Another one

[LauraMJ]

Last one!

[Gabriel]

Very nice Laura

[ymfoster]

Great views Laura,
quite an adventure, glad you managed to get back before dark, ......
we were lost in a pine forest years ago & the light was fading, luckily we found our way out also.

[Blackmirror]

We need to have you fitted with GPS tracking Laura

Lovely view from the top ....

[LauraMJ]

Originally Posted by ymfoster

we were lost in a pine forest years ago & the light was fading,

Its an interesting feeling, isn't it?

We need to have you fitted with GPS tracking Laura

A GPS will only show you where you are, and how to retrace your steps...........it won't show you where the trail is.

We knew exactly where we WERE,..........we just couldn't get to where we wanted to GO.

[ymfoster]

Originally Posted by LauraMJ

Its an interesting feeling, isn't it?

Sure is, ..... we were thinking someone may notice our car parked there & come looking for us,


Hi Donna

[Blackmirror]

Not after seeing the Blair Witch Project

No woods for me

[poochee]

Laura, neat pics!

I had the same adventure of being lost for a while in the mountians with dusk coming on and the temperature dropping. EEK! Don't want that adventure anymore.

[LauraMJ]

We did, however, have great cell phone service up there........so we could have at least told everyone, lol.

That was actually the fourth time we seriously were thinking we would have to spend the night out somewhere.

Odd how that keeps happening to us...............

[ymfoster]

I just keep dreaming I can't find my way back or out of some place I've got myself into,
it's a bit safer that way, but I must have some underlying phobia there

[hewee]

A good gps you can mark places on it so it should help out a while lot.
Plus maps you can get online. You need the Longitude and Latitude

http://maps.google.com/
http://intl.local.live.com/
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/
http://www.terrafly.com/
http://www.terraserver.com/
http://www.multimap.com/
http://www.landvoyage.com/
http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/zoomviewer/

[LauraMJ]

We have topo maps........but in these mountains, they don't always show all the trails that are there. Just the National Forest established public hiking trails..........but there are TONS more trails there, in reality.