Excelsior Ridge Trail

Event: Excelsior Ridge Trail Night Training Exercise
Date: Saturday, September 6th, 2003, 5:00 pm
Duration: 14 Hours
Distance: 20 kilometers
Directions: See maps below
Parking: At trailhead
Required Equipment:

If you are participating in the night training exercise this Saturday you will require ALL of the following:

1. Birth Certificate and other photo ID to get through the US border.

2. Easily accessible and convenient hydration system. On the ridge water may be in short supply for at least 6 hours. Maybe more. Maybe less.

3. All non-cotton clothing.

4. Lighting system suitable for trekking.

5. 10 essentials of hiking.

Recommended Equipment

1. Compass (map will be supplied).

2. Trail running shoes.

3. Trekking poles.

Trip Report

It started to get dark just as we were gearing up at the parking lot. We tried to go as long as we could without turning on our headlamps. Eventually, in the forested section of the trail, we had to.

Instead of going down the very steep trail at the end of Excelsior Ridge, we headed up a side ridge, following an intermittent trail.

We had a break in the alien landscape of the side ridge. It started to rain. We decided to head back. Partway along the ridge we finally got to a part of the trail that cuts through some dense forest. We stopped and donned rain gear. It was cold and clammy whenever we stopped. We all ran out of water. At times we were pelted by a cool rain coming in sideways, with the wind. At other times it seemed like we were in a cloud; the trail was hard to follow, even if you looked at your feet. The glow of the fog was sometimes almost blinding with the headlight.

We arrived back at the parking lot just after dusk. We were pretty tired. A lot of hassling at the border, both ways.

Funny things happen in the night
As the forest closes around you
As your focus closes out the dark.
Your feet, your path illuminated.
Companions identified by their reflective clothing
The Transformer? That’s Gerry.
The dangling red tube? That’s Geoff.
Cindy? She’s the yellow glowing stripes.

I hear the snaps and cracks of the trees
And there is no way to identify the source.
A branch blown free by the wind?
Will I see eyes reflected back at me when I turn to face the sound?
And if I do?
What if those eyes are red…
And I see a faint glistening of sharp angry teeth…
Dripping with hungry saliva…
What if they start toward me, first slowly and then gaining speed?
What if, at the moment my body collides with those enormous jaws,
I shut my eyes?
Every muscle in my body migrates to my eyes and is closing out the reality of the end of my life.
I can smell the mix of my blood and the breath emanating from those powerful jaws.
The gamey odor of wet, hot animal and the green, planty smell of the forest.
And that is that.
I have been rent asunder and eaten.

I will take up small space in the newspaper,
An inky retelling of the facts.
A quick dismissal of the events as a half-expert explains the foolishness of night hiking.
If not an animal, it would have been a cliff or a crazed bushman.
It was inevitable.
I am now a fairytale.

I listen carefully…

No, the sound was just a falling branch.
I hustle to be a bit closer to my companions.
The night plays tricks and the imagination plays along.
They laugh together and run off into the darkness.

I am brought back to the jovial, tired chatter about navigation,
And the lightening of the sky.
I notice that I can start to see through the early dawn
And I tentatively shut down my headlamp.
My eyes adjust and the sky brightens.

I am not a fairytale.

I am not a newspaper article.

I am an adventurer.

Janna

http://www.clubtread.org/excelrdg.htm

http://www.eskimo.com/~rhughes/hikes01/skylineD/

http://www.nwsource.com/outdoors/scr/of_detail.cfm?category=Hiking&rt=50

http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/mbs/recreation/activities/trails/mbrd/mbrd_0698.htm

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This was as far as we got.

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Excelsior Ridge Trail Road Map

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Excelsior Ridge Trail Map with GPS Grid

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Excelsior Ridge Trail Map

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Excelsior Ridge Trail Map

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Excelsior Ridge Trail Map

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Excelsior Ridge Trail Map