September 3rd, 2010 by

Under no circumstances go hiking without a camping tent – I discovered that the almost-hard way. I say “almost” because considering that I’m not only alive to tell the tale but suffered no injuries, either, it probably wasn’t as difficult as it might have been had I not been so lucky.

I and my friends did not have a camping tent among us since it was just supposed to have been an easy day-hike over (and up) easy terrain. A thousand-foot mountain affords nice enough views, to be sure, such that the curvature of the earth could be faintly seen, but it isn’t considered a big deal by any who hike or climb real mountains.

So, of course, we didn’t bring a camping tent. And sure enough we get lost, and with only an additional two hours of sunlight left most of us decide to backtrack downhill – except for me and another friend. And although we do eventually summit, as novices we make the mistake of mistiming our descent, such that it’s already twilight by the time we decide to head back.

You see, being so inexperienced we mistook the fact that there was still light in the sky for having enough time to get back down. But of course we were at the summit, where we had a fantastic view of our surroundings – this was Mount Buck, the highest point in the whole Lake George area of New York.

And although the sun was low on the horizon it appeared wonderfully bright all around. Golds mixed with blues turned pink and white – it was a swirl of colours matching the happy dance of emotions within that we’ve finally reached the top.

Lost in our reveries, we did not recognize that not only does the sun set in seconds, but that in a forest the canopy of foliage will make even mid-afternoon seem much, much later to the human eye….