A few weeks ago I told y’all about my new hydration pack and how much trouble I had the first time using it.  I’m still walking, still walking the race course and having fun doing it.  I love my app MapMyWalk, and I’m using it to keep track of not only where I am but how far I walk.  Earlier this week, before the whole course was marked, I needed it to find my way home, all the roads intertwine where I am and I used the tracking to see what my relation was with where I started, whew, I was glad to have it.

Tonight, we got back from doing laundry a little after five, the course is finally fully marked, so I wanted to get out and see if I could follow it.  It’s always a good test for the boys if I can see the arrows at the snails’ pace I walk, the drivers can probably see them at speed.  So I strapped on my hydration pack, clipped a radio to the shoulder and off I went, straight west in to the setting sun.  The very first thing I did was run into a piece of rebar sticking out of the ground about yay height.  Right smack dead center, yes, you can picture it, bruised my hoo-hah.  I walked that off and continued…

Around 7, Big called my radio to see how I was doing, good, my app showed I was three miles in, only one to go.  He reminded me that it was getting dark in about twenty minutes.  No problem, I said, I’m good.  He tentatively asked if he should come get me.  No, I’m fine, and I kept walking.  Down the double caution, in to the big wash, I could still see the arrows, kind of.  I found a turn arrow and turned up out of the wash – I called Big, “hey, do I go up the right or the left line?”  I told him where I was and he asked if I had gone through the brush yet, I had no idea where he was talking about, so I kept climbing.  First up the right line – the granite boulders got huge – I decided it must be the left line, so I headed over to there.  As I’m climbing up this mountain, I realize that I can’t see a damn thing, perhaps I should ask him to come get me.

Turns out, I missed the next arrow in the wash, and had made a wrong turn, the mountain I was trying to climb was fairly impassable, not only that, I would have had to scale some boulders at the end of the course to get back to camp.  I hate being rescued, now Big’s making me add a whistle and a flashlight to my hydration pack.  Men…. rescue a damsel in distress one time and they think you need them every time!