LOST!

Last Saturday my former coworker, Voyta, and myself went hiking into Eaton Canyon.

Voyta is a guy that I barely got to know before I left Cybersocket in December however we have still managed to stay in touch and talk from time to time. Yesterday around 3 p.m. he told me that he wanted to go hiking and I invited him over to my place to go hiking to a trail I've been thinking about venturing into to.

Voyta got to my house around 4:30 and we quickly set off to Eaton Canyon with JJ by our side. It was amazing to see JJ so concentrated on hiking and so little concerned with the other dogs that loved him. When I called his name he wouldn't even look back at me, he was way too busy smelling and making sure his every step was the correct one.

We three made our way through a small creek (JJ wasn't too happy about jumping all the rocks to avoid getting wet) and instantly started the incline hike. Other hikes I've been on the incline is gradual, Eaton is just the opposite - I loved it!

Everyone was headed back when we were barely starting our adventure. We climbed for about an hour or so and then decided that maybe we should slowly slide down this steep rock decline to follow the riverbed back to our car. This would have worked if I didn't have JJ, the drop was steep - too steep for a dog to maneuvre down so after 15 minutes of trying to decide what path to take down Voyta and I decided it was better to go back the way we came.

To quote Tony when we hiked a few weeks ago
"Isn't this how people end up on the news!?"

Hiking both down and uphill to get back to our car we were losing light fast and I was a bit anxious to get back. Voyta kept telling me that it was going to be a task getting across the creek with JJ, however I was just worried about being in total darkness.


Sure enough, WE GOT LOST!!! To make a long story short, Voyta felt that we should go back about five minutes to retrace our steps and I was sure we should keep hiking up hill and keep going back from where I thought we came from. As it grew darker I stared to lose my cool and told Voyta if he was wrong he owed me dinner and vice versa. We walked, and walked and walked, closly retracing our steps - and I have to be honest that visions of The Blair Witch Project flashed into my head. Silently I started to panic and loose it. I kept telling Voyta that I didn't want to have to call the police, ending up on the news - thankfully it was a warm night.

Voyta was right and he found a very small clearing that we came from on the uphill climb hours before. It was small and I think he found it with the aide of his cell phone - THANKFULLY! The hike down was about 30 to 45 minutes and when I saw houses and patio lights on I calmed down a lot. Even though they were far, far away I knew we weren't so alone.

Interestingly we ran into a family that was hiking in the opposite direction as we were headed back down the riverbed to their car (we assumed.) It was a father, mother and their young children - too dark and dangerous for children to be hiking in my opinion. Voyta and I finally found the creek and instead of jumping from rock to rock we decided to remove our shoes and socks and pull JJ through the creek. I am serious we really had to drag his ass through the creek - he HATES water!!

We ran into another group of hikers who helped us get out of the canyon completely - by this time it was pitch dark and the trails were at almost zero visability. Afterwards Voyta and I went to a local gay mexican restaurant La Nueva Posada to get drunk on margaritas and cerveza - my treat of course! JJ slept in the car, I am sure he was stressed and tired of hearing me freak out on poor Voyta!

Voyta and I are going to go hiking in a few weeks in the same location and seek out the waterfall (above) that everyone was talking about but we never got to see. The only thing we decided to do different is to leave earlier and bring food, water and beer! Anyone game?