The Hike Where We Learned Our Lesson

It was a year ago that my my friend Yury and I went on a hike that made all our friends scream and yell at us. Was it because of where we went? No, he and I would go hike anywhere and go into every little canyon and our friends knew we were pretty nuts. It was because of when we came back down from the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu.

We went up a secluded road and park my car to the start of the trail. It was about 14.5 Km round trip and it was hot, but once we got to the top we had the ocean breeze blowing on us. At the top was a lake and Chumash Indian artifacts. There was only one thing we had to be concern with, that was Mountain Lions. We figured since we were hiking in a pair, if there was a mountain lion, it wouldn't bug us and it would keep away. The only problem was Mountain Lions had been sited recently and with increasing numbers. So we kept our eyes and ears open for anything moving in the bushes.

We were so into finding that lake and those artifacts, that we lost tract of time. We forgot the way back down was down the side of the mountain away from the sun so we would have less light to work with coming down. By the time we started coming back down, it was about 6:30 and we would have to walk down almost 9 km since when we got to the top, we made a detour. Well it started getting dark really fast and next thing we know we have barely gone 1/3 of the way down.

We had no flashlights or glow sticks. All we had was our cameras and cell phones. It was pitch black and we couldn't see a thing. So we got our cameras out and started using our flashes to give us light. Then we resorted to using our cell phones and opening them so that the light from the cell phones would gives us some light. We must have fallen and twisted our ankles about 20 times going down. Then the next thing we know, we made a wrong turn and ended up at the end of a steep cliff. Luckily we had been flashing our cameras to catch it. So we had to backtrack to go down the right way. By now, it must have been at least 8pm. Our cell phones didn't work so we had no way off calling anyone and telling them were we where.

As we kept going down the side, we would stop on our tracks because we could hear something moving along with us a few meters away. So we would flash our cameras into the bushes to freak out whatever was following us and I'm sure it wasn't a bunny or a coyote. Another concern, for me especially was rattlesnakes, since it was dark and a bit warm, that is a perfect time for those freaky things to come out and the last thing I wanted was to step on one and get bitten.

Well at about 9 pm we finally got to the bottom. Whatever had been following us, stop about 50 meters from the start of the trail and my car. We still had no cell reception till about Pacific Coast Hwy. Once we got there we both had about 15 missed calls and messages each. When we called back did we get an earful. It turns out not too far away, there had been a mountain lion attack and of course, It was late at night and they hadn't heard from us.

It didn't stop there, we got to our friends house and we got even more harsh words. Well, I can't blame them, what we did was pretty stupid. Plus we had bruising and cuts and scratches from falling down and falling in the thick bushes when we would loose the trail.

I still to this day don't know how we made it out of there that night, but wow, was that a learning experience.

I haven't been yelled at that badly by friends for a hike, but last summers hike up by the Stampeed Pass had some co-workers giving me an earful for having gone way out there near Mile Marker 74 off I-90 by myself where bear sitings are common in the summer (in the winter it's full of cross-country skiers and snowshoers).

Well, as spring is right around the corner and the snow is melting, I can't wait to go back hiking again deep in the woods, this time though, I'll be more careful and try not to loose track of time and do my best to find a hiking buddy.