[pct-l] Getting lost

[scourtway@bpa-arch.com (Steve Courtway)]

Here's my getting lost story.  Sort of a
"hazards of hiking" story.

A couple years back, I was hiking one of
our (San Diego) "Drug Runner" trails in the
Pine Creek Wilderness.  (Not the PCT, but
a nearby trail called secret canyon).  Everyone
was busy, so I set off on a solo adventure
where my plan was to hike about 8 miles
out the trail and then follow snaking pine
creek 8 miles back through an adjacent canyon.
This was mid May, and a nice sunny day.
I was about 3 miles into the hike, traversing
up a steep slope (short cut, BAD !) and
suddenly a giant pine creek rattler jumps off
the rock he was sunning himeself on and
sails right past my head !  holy smokes, flying
rattlers !  o.k. nerves calmed, continue.
a couple more miles into the hike, another rattler
snapped out at me from the lower left of the 
trail, sending me jumping (and exclaiming obscenities).
o.k. no problem.  So, a few minutes later, I was
standing in front of a massive stand of poison oak,
contemplating rash.  Out of the silence, I hear 
spanish being spoken, then around the corner comes a 
string of 12 or so illegals led by the aforementioned 
aviator shades wearing Coyote cruising down the trail.  
Obviously to these folks a better life was WAY more 
important than doing the "oak ballet"........I can
just say there musta' been a whole lotta scratchin' 
goin' on a few days later in some abandoned L.A.
warehouse, or wherever these guys end up.
Any way I gave them a friendly broken spanish "welcome 
to the USA and enjoy your hike" and a pidgeon warning
about dangerous plants and snakes and watched them
take off running as soon as they were just beyond me.
And then as if that was not enough, as I wound my way 
down the creek enjoying turtles and what-not, I 
realized that by sleeping in that day, I was exhausting
my daylight, and had no idea where in the canyon I was.
for the next three hours, I wound my way down thru
the canyon, sometimes in the creek, sometimes feeling
poison oak brushing against my face and arms and neck,
the whole while trying to remain calm and just keep moving.
I let out a huge yell of joy when I floundered down a
waterfall area and finally recognized a couple landmarks
that indicated the point where the trail crosses the creek.
I triumphantly headed up the trail in my wet clothes,
knowing I was going to be kicking back at home with a 
tombstone pizza and corona (o.k. I stole that from MTV cribs)
and promptly took a wrong turn down a side trail.
I knew I was on the wrong trail because the main trail
widens as you approach the trail head, and this one
was narrowing into yet another hellish tunnel of oak !!!!!  
(by the way, check out a product called TECNU for poison oak)
"what am I gonna do now" I asked myself.  Shall I wander
aimlessly for hours ?  No.  I just decided to stop, build
a fire to dry out my clothes, and wait it out until morning.
I was having visions of more oak infestation while looking
for wood, but low and behold, an old stack of cut wood was 
buried in the brush just a few feet from where I decided
to stop.  So I built a fire, dried out my clothes, and
kicked back cross-wise accross the trail and enjoyed my
fire until I fell asleep.  I awoke to a beautiful misty
morning and had a laugh when I rejoined the main trail
and realized the simple mistake I had made due to darkness.
Needless to say, there was a whole lotta scratchin' goin'
on the following week.

Steve "gotta good bear story too" Courtway