Roads End

By

Will Novey

I was fidgeting in the passenger seat while relacing my muddy boots, trying to get them tighter. In my mind I went over all the things I had packed. Sleeping bag, bear canister, a few pairs of clothes, nothing but essentials.

I let out a long restless sigh then sat back in the cushions starring at the dashboard absent-mindedly. We had been on the road for over four hours now and I was beginning to get anxious.

Entering Kings Canyon National Park.

I looked at the clock, 2:15.

“Dad, what time do we need to get there?”

His eyes rolled up into the back of his head to find the answer somewhere in his brain.

“We… gotta get to Roads End by 3:30”.

“And if we don’t make it in time?”

“Well…we’d just start hiking without a permit.” He said casually nodding his head right to left. “ Don’t worry I’m sure we’ll make it in time, not that a ranger would ask to see our permits on the trail.”

I raised my eyebrows and turned to look out the window. I would prefer to avoid that inconvenience.

We arrived at a checkpoint where stood a small booth with a ranger sitting inside. He smiled and asked us how long we were planning to stay in the park. My dad explained to him we were going backpacking for seven days.

“How far is it to roads end?” my dad asked politely.

“I’d say about an hours drive.” The park ranger answered. “The permit office down there closes at 3:30 but y’all should be able to make it in time.”

Dad thanked the man and then we zoomed off. We weren’t going to take any chances. We rushed down the windy road going 20 miles over the speed limit. Outside my window was a wall of towering redwood trees, light orange bark with a labyrinth of leaves. I gazed at the foliage and lost my self within. Large green ferns inundated the earth.

The car jerked as my dad swerved around a corner interrupting my moment of serenity.

“God damnit were gonna be late.” He muttered through gritted teeth.

I watched the speedometer rise steadily. 30…35...40…50. With each corner the old pickup truck gave an unnerving screech. My heart raced as we twisted and turned going faster and faster. 3:12 the clock now said. WHOOM a large SUV was forced to swerve away from us heading in the opposite direction. We gotta make it. We gotta make it. We hit a sharp corner and I could feel the truck tip slightly as the two left wheels came off the ground briefly.

I looked at my dad with wide concerned eyes but he just looked forward, intent on making it. Down and down we went racing chaotically to our end. The peaceful environment blurred into a stream of orange and green until abruptly we broke out of the net of forest into a majestic open canyon.

The exhilaration of the pursuit vanished and was replaced with an awesome tranquility. Flanked by breathtaking granite mountains I was humbled for the moment, and our ridiculous rapidity no longer seemed so intense.

We did not slow down, but the enormity of my surroundings birthed an epoch, which protracted my consciousness. For miles I witnessed enormous slabs of granite stippled with green vegetation. Like cities these mountains dominated the wilderness.

We arrived at Roads End at 3:24. Jumping out of the car, my dad and I ran over to permit office. The office was a small wooden cabin with a large opening to talk to the ranger inside. Gathered around the front of the office were 3 frustrated looking men.

“They’re closed.” One of the men despondently said as we walked up to the window. The opening was covered by a board and on it read a poorly handwritten sign saying.

Roads End Office

Hrs: 7am-2: 30pm

No Hiking Without Permit

No Hiking Without Bear Canister

I gave my father a look, half disappointed half incredulous that we had driven 5 hours, hurried the last 35 miles thinking we were on time to find out we were tardy.

“Didn’t the ranger at the check point say 3:30?” I whined.

“God damnit” my dad muttered, “This is outrageous! The permit says 3:30.”

My dad walked over to the window and assertively banged on the wood.

“Hello! Is anyone in there?” he shouted.

“Excuse me sir, I would appreciate it if you did not bang on the window. Thank you.” Came a dry lackluster voice from behind the wood.

“Hey I have a permit receipt here and I need to get my permit so me and my son can start hiking.” My dad said a little less aggressively.

“Sorry sir, you would have needed to get here an hour ago.” Replied the man in his monotonous drone.

“Well the ranger at the check point said that we needed to get here at 3:30. And my receipt says 3:30. Too. Can’t you just give us the permit?”

“Sorry sir no can do. You can come back tomorrow at seven. We’ll be open then.”

“Well I have to start hiking today.” An angry tone began to build up. “I mean I drove fucking five hours to get here and you’re telling me I can’t start hiking?”

I turned to look at one of the guys standing around listening.

“Can you believe this guy?” I said with my thumb arched pointing at the window.

“We got here like an hour ago. This guy has just been rude as hell to all of us. It’s funny, I always expect rangers to be the nice nature type but this guy is a snotty prick.”

I nodded my head at what he said and then glared past the wood at where I imagined the man was standing.

I walked over to the window.
“Excuse me, what’s your name?” I asked politely

“Eric.” He replied

“Look Eric, the permit says 3:30. The other rangers say 3:30. Don’t you think those rangers should know that this office closes at 2:30 so that this kind of thing doesn’t happen?” I said in a slightly condescending voice.

“You wanna go tell them? Be my guest.” He said sarcastically. This comment pissed me off.

“Can’t you just fucking call them?! I mean we shouldn’t have to be arguing with you because you can’t fix you’re goddamn bureaucracy. This could be avoided with a simple phone call.”

“Screw that. We got walkie talkies.”

I threw up my hands and heaved out a lungful.

“Fucking outrageous!” I muttered as I walked away. Fuming, my dad paced back and forth with clenched fists. His mouth twitched in every direction as he grunted out his rage.

“I wanna speak to someone else,” He demanded viciously “Get someone else down here, this is an absolute outrage and I need to know why such incompetence is tolerable.”

“Ok sir, you’re going to have to wait a while for them to come here an-

“Then we’ll wait!” my dad spitted interrupting Eric; none of us cared to hear the weasel say anymore.

We waited for about 10 minutes, during which we discussed how disgusted and annoyed we were with the park service and with Eric. Two rangers drove up in a small park service minivan type of vehicle. One a tall pale robust looking women and the other an aged Asian man with a graying mustache.

“We understand you’re having some problems?” the woman asked politely.

“Yea. My son and me drove 8 hours today to get here only to find out that we’re late and can’t start hiking. Now I have a receipt for our permit and on this receipt it says you guys close at 3:30. A Ranger at the park entrance told us 3:30 and we get here at 2:45.” My dad exaggerated some of the numbers, but combined with his angry tone the point was getting across.

“Ok sir, we understand you’re upset-“

“It’s his fucking attitude that’s really upsetting!” my dad hissed while nodding his head sideways towards the window. The woman smiled and mouthed “I know” with raised eyebrows and closed eyes while nodding here head and lifting her hands to her torso palms facing my dad. The expression signified a more personal understanding of her relationship with Eric. This was clearly not the first time someone complained about his behavior.

“Look sir, we completely understand your frustration and are sorry you had to go through this inconvenience. May I see your receipt?” The woman was so polite compared to Eric. It was really a shame she was not running the office.

My dad handed her our receipt.

“See right there.” My dad said pointing near the bottom of the receipt. “3:30.” He said slowly putting emphasis on each syllable.

“Ok sir lemme just fill out a few forms and then we’ll get you on your way.”

I let out a sigh of relief and smiled. I was worried we would have to camp somewhere at Roads End and lose a day of hiking. The woman filled out some papers and then handed us our permit. She was inside the office now with the window open so we could see in. I peaked in to try and see Eric but he must have hid himself to avoid confrontation.
“Thank you so much.” My dad said gratefully and then we headed back to the truck to get our packs. Finally we were going to start our trip.

I walked over to the back of the pickup and curled my hands around the straps on my heavy pack.

“Man I’m glad things worked out.” I said with a smile before lifting my pack up. My backpack weighed about 40 lbs. and was to be lifted carefully so not to injure my body. I grabbed it by the two main shoulder straps and pulled up with a thrust and a twist to get it on my back.

Snap!

All of a sudden I found myself falling backwards on top of my backpack.

“What the fuck! What happened?” I said getting up off the ground while brushing dirt off my shorts. I examined the pack; one of my shoulder straps had completely fallen off. I looked down at the pack in disbelief.

“God damnit! Pieces of shit.” My dad said angrily at no one in particular, it seemed like he was talking to the bag.

“There any way we can fix it?” I asked anxiously.

“I don’t know, we can try. I have some pins and glue in my bag.” We got out some glue and a safety pin. We pinned the shoulder strap back on and then layered a thick sheet of glue.

“Just try not to put too much weight on that side for now.” My dad said half-heartedly.

“Ok.” I said with a large exhale, “we ready?”

My dad and me were dressed pretty similarly, considering when shopping he picked out all the proper clothing. We both had on very thin long beige shorts that went just passed our knees. Above we had white long sleeve polypropylene shirts. What’s polypropylene? Apparently it’s a material that absorbs sweat very well to help keep you cool while exercising. We both had large black sunglasses, which were absolutely necessary to have. When you spend that much time outside the sun can really hurt your eyes, I learned this the hard way. I had shaved my head before we left so that it would stay cool. I wore a nice ranger cap that belonged to my dad. It had a hatband going across the body of the crown made of string with a Yosemite pin. It also had a big dark stain going across the right side of it. My dad says it got the stain when my dad was in Egypt. He had taken it off and set it on the ground, and his camel came over and pissed all over it.

“That camel knew what it was doing.” My dad would say, “never let your guard down around a camel, they are mean animals.”

We each had a pair of walking sticks. These were absolutely necessary throughout the majority of the trip. Mine were gold aluminum; my dads were some old white ski poles. My dad wore a straw hat with a beaded hatband. Underneath the hat he was pretty much bald. My dad’s head has always been a topic of conversation within my family. From the forehead to the center he is bald except long independent strands sticking straight up. The sides however give him the appearance of a Berkeley burnout. They stick out and curve at the tips so that there’s arches’ coming out from the sides of each head. My family always jokes that he has wings coming out of his head. He has very kind but crazy eyes with large bags underneath. His forehead and cheeks are dry with layers of wrinkles on them. He has a short beard and mustache that has a few gray hairs hear and there but for a fifty-nine year old man he’s looking pretty good. If only he would just cut his damn hair.

This may be my first major backpacking trip, but for my dad this is nothing. In his youth, my dad did ice climbing with some of the greatest mountain climbers of the world. He’s climbed Mustagata in China, Matterhorn in Europe, Makalu in Napal, Mount Robson and Logan in Canada, Aggregate Peaks in the artic circle and him and a small group were the first to do a direct assent up the northwest buttress of Denali. I’ve seen slides of some of these places and they all look like adventures. Some of the climbs he’s done seem almost masochistic. A few of his toes are black from frostbite and his whole body is a little numb. As for his mind, he’s a little nutty.

It’s not that my dad is insane or anything likes that, he’s just entered one too many doors of perception. He tends to trail off mid sentence or not articulate something in a manner where other people know what he’s talking about. Don’t get me wrong, I love him and would not take him any other way, but he can be an enigma at times. I think a lot of kids think their parents are nuts, but you know your parents are nuts when your friends tell you your parents are nuts. Then again, maybe he wouldn’t have done all the amazing things he’s done if he wasn’t just a little bit eccentric.

So here we were on a father son backpacking trip. We took a moment to empty the car of anything that smelled so that bears would not come and ravage it, and then we embarked.

The hike started off in a large clearing. There were a few trees here and there but it was mostly light beige dirt. The trail here was very nicely kept and was large. It was all sand so with each step my heavy boots sunk a little bit. After 15 minutes of hiking in this I could already feel the weight of the backpack straining my triceps. I wasn’t worried yet; I knew this was not going to be easy and that I would have to push myself if I wanted to make it through the seven days.

“So how far are we going?” I asked in rhythm with my paced breathing.

“Today or for the whole trip?”

“Whole trip.”

“Seventy-eight miles.”

“What about today?”

“Well…today I think we will do about 4 miles. Since we spent a lot of time driving down here and arguing with that stupid ranger we don’t have the time to do a lot, but we will need to average about twelve miles a day after today.” We walked a little farther in silence.

“The real problem isn’t the distance, anyone can walk all day on flat ground, it’s the elevation gain. Overall we have 18,000 ft. of elevation gain.”

“18,000?! No way” I said incredulously.

“Well not 18,000 straight up, but we will climb up a few thousand, and then climb back down, and then up again and down again, you see?”

“Ahhh ok I get it. How high will we get?”

“Well Forrester pass will be our highest point and that’s at 13,200 ft.”

“When will we get there?”
“Umm….we should do Forrester on the fifth day. After that the rest is all downhill.” I thought about what was in store for us. From Forrester pass I would be able to see for miles and mile beautiful mountains and forests.

After about half an hour we entered the tree line. We took gradual steps down into a cool fern forest. Now big redwoods shaded our passage, and we could feel the breeze picking up frosty droplets of water from the streams around. All the water here would be from melted snow so it was freezing cold. We remained quite for some time while hiking along the trail. At one point, we reached a small opening where reeds emerged out of the ground all over us. Hundreds of them poked up like a comb and covered the earth. I was looking at the reeds in awe, walking forward when I heard it.

“TSTSTSTSTSTST”

I immediately jumped backwards and glanced over the ground. Sure enough there was a rattlesnake directly in front of us, right where I was about to stick my pole. Its dark brown body glistened in the light and at the end of its tail, the honeycomb like rattle.

“Oh shit!” I shouted flummoxed by its seemingly random appearance. “Jesus I almost stepped right on it.”

“Just stay back, and let it go away.”

The snake slithered onto the side of trail and me and my dad passed it. For the rest of the trip I kept my eyes and ears open for snakes.

We came to a large wooden bridge that went over a calm flow of water below. I kept getting my poles caught in the cracks between each board and I would have to stop and yank them out each time. We got to the other side and continued on the trail. We had to hop over a series of streams until we got to our first switch back.

A switch back is when a trail goes back and forth in order to ease the slope when going up a hill. It takes a lot longer, but to directly attack a large hill can be very fatiguing.

We began our climb back and forth, all uphill. This was tiring. For thirty minutes or so, we had nothing but switchbacks going back and forth. As we ascended I could see where we had come from and the distance we had traveled. Between two towering granite canyons was the large forest we had just traveled through. The forest extended up into the canyons like moss on a rock. I thought about that for a minute. I felt as if I was some microscopic organism on a rock traveling through a forest of moss.

“Where are we camping tonight?”

“Sphinx Creek.”

“How much further do you think we have?”

“I’m not sure, we should know when we get there.”

We finished the first switchback tired and out of water. We walked for about five minutes and came to a rough stream of water surrounded by rocks. I took this opportunity to rest on a nice flat slab of granite and soak my feet while my dad filled up our bottles and put purifying tablets in them. We’re not supposed to drink the water directly, though I’m sure we could if we had to, so we purify them with some sort of iodine tab. It takes twenty minutes to purify so you have to wait before you can drink from them; otherwise you drink the iodine, which I believe is bad for you.

The water in the stream was freezing, and it took me a few tries before I could keep my feet in them for more then a few seconds. I put my head back and laid there listening to the burly current.

“Ok.” My dad said, “Lets get moving.”

We continued walking along the stream. The ground around us was very flat and smooth. At one point there was a large recently used fire pit and some benches made out of rocks and tree trunks. Someone must have camped here.

After about 10 minutes we came to the start of another switchback.
“How much farther do we have till camp?” I asked casually.

“It’s probably just after this switch back.” My dad said. I didn’t think much of it so we began out second ascent. This switch back quickly began very different than the last one. It was made out of enormous granite rectangular slabs.

“Imagine the work that was put in to making these steps. Those guys must have been tough.” I said.

“Yea they probably spent years with lots of mules.” My dad replied.

We continued up the staircase of granite. It reminded me of something out of Lord of the Rings, massive stone steps with no end in sight. The slabs were so large each step forced me to bring my feet up to my waist, and this caused my legs to ache with every step. Higher and higher we went waiting to see an opening so we could relax on flat ground. The view became larger and larger and all the more enjoyable, but I was getting tired. Finally we over came the last stone step, and entered another forest. The trail was now a very fine coat of dust, which kicked up with every step. My dad and I had to have some distance between each other so that we didn’t kick dust in the others face.

“The camp site must be somewhere near here.” I said confidently

“Yea I guess.” My dad said while turning his head looking around.

We walked for about five minutes before hitting another switchback.

“You’re kidding me.” I said with dismay.

“It’s probably a short switch back, and then after this we MUST hit the campsite.” My dad said uncertainly.

“How much longer do we have until dark?”

We both turned around to look at the sky. It had become a dark blue, almost purple.
“I’d say another forty-five minutes. So lets hurry.”

We started the dusty switch back at a quick pace, anxious to hit camp. That speed however did not last. We were exhausted. We had woken up early, spent five hours in the car, and hiked a fair amount.

With each step I could feel more and more the fatigue in my muscles. It became harder and harder to walk in a straight line as the placement of my feet faltered. My legs would cross my wobbliness plus the weight of my pack would drag me to one side. At one point when making the turn to go in the other direction on the switch back I fell and in the process kicked up a cloud of dust. It got in my eyes, my nose, my ears, I was utterly filthy. I couldn’t keep it up, and my dad wasn’t having an easy time either. He was strong, but he was also old now, and we both were becoming more and more discouraged.

“Ok, here is what’s gonna happen.” My dad said tiredly, “We’re gonna find a stream, fill up our water and camp at the first spot we see.”

Sounded great, but the problem was we were on a hill; we were not going to find a camping spot here. We kept moving at a sluggish pace until we came to a tiny stream going down the hill. It was so small that it took us 5 minutes just to fill up our bottles.

The sky was now a deep purple, and the sun was out of sight. Soon enough we would not be able to see anything.

“Ok…this is it.” My dad said as we came to a spot slightly less slanted.

“You serious? This is still a pretty large slope, all our blood is gonna rush down to our feet.”

“We don’t have a choice ok? Please don’t argue we me and just help set up camp.” My dad said impatiently.

It was now dark, we needed our flashlights out in order to set up the tent and use our portable stove. We had freeze-dried food. It came in a pouch and you just added hot water. We didn’t read the instructions; we just heated up the water and poured it in. sweet and sour pork. Sounded good. We mixed it quickly and then I took a spoonful and tried it.

“Yuuuuk!” I said while gagging on the mixture. It tasted terrible, way too sweet and way too sour, and it was half wet half dry.
“Just eat as much as you can and then we’ll get in the tent.” My dad didn’t mind the taste that much, he can’t taste anything anyways, all his taste buds are destroyed. I looked at the package directions.

“Dad, it says we were supposed to let the water sit in the package for 12 minutes.”
“Let me see.” He said taking the package from me. “Oh well, we’ll do it right next time.”

I ate very little, and then got into my sleeping bag in the tent.

It was a rough night. I kept sliding further down the tent because we were on a slope. My dad had given me a melatonin pill to help me sleep, but it wasn’t enough. I became very anxious. I knew I needed to sleep because I needed energy to hike the next day, but thinking about that only made me more anxious and more stressed. If I did fall asleep, I would wake up shortly after and then go through the same frustrating chain of thought. Oh man do I hope tomorrow is easier.

We woke up the next morning around what we assumed was 7:00am; we forgot to bring a watch so we were not sure. Not the best thing to forget. Cold, tired and hungry we got the stove working and made some oatmeal. It tasted awful but I didn’t care. I needed energy if I was going to make it today.

We still weren’t exactly sure where we were, but after discussion we came to the conclusion that the campsite we saw the day before that had the fire pit, was Sphinx Creek. As much as it sucked that we had passed it and had an awful night as a result, that was over and it was encouraging to think that this day might be shorter and easier.

We packed everything up and began hiking. Since we slept on a hill, immediately the hike was an uphill challenge. I was curious how much further we would have had to go to find some flat ground. About half an hour after we departed, we came across flat ground. A beautiful meadow with luscious green grasses all around and small reticulate streams flowing through tiny pebble beds. If we had not gone through the ordeal with Eric, we would have had the time to reach this spot.

We didn’t have time to enjoy this brief paradise. After the day before, my dad and me were set on getting to the next campsite in good time. We were hoping that today would be a lot easier since we had done a lot of uphill climbing the day before, but we quickly came upon the third switchback.

The switchback started off real steep. Every ten minutes or so we had to take a break, and it didn’t end. Step after step we grunted our way up for what seemed like an eternity. Every time we came to a turn we would discuss cheerfully how we must be at the end, but we were wrong every time.

We kept our eyes out for a sign that read Avalanche Pass. Once we hit the sign, we would be done with the uphill attack and enjoy some flat ground. This switchback was tiring us to an extreme, and it was getting hard to breath.

“God the altitude is harsh,” I said to my dad.

“Tell me about it! I mean I’m really struggling here. It shouldn’t be this hard to breath yet.”

“I mean we’re both coughing here. And do you smell that? It smells like...smells like something's burning!” I shouted becoming more alert. We looked at each other then jetted our heads around to find the source. I looked up and saw what I thought before was just a cloud.

“Look at that!” I said pointing up. “It’s smoke!”

“Yea well look at that!” My dad was pointing up hill through the trees. I followed his finger and couldn’t make out what he was pointing to at first and then I saw it.

“Oh shit!” Enormous flames engulfed fallen redwoods in the distance. The fire was huge, and was polluting the air heavily. It was too big for us to put out, and as we looked around we spotted more and more plumes of smoke in the trees. After a quick discussion, we came to the conclusion that we had to make it up the trail, and fast!

That was not so easy. We were already tired, and the smoke in the air made every breath a painful incursion. Coughing, we slowly made our way higher and higher until finally we made it.

“Avalanche Pass!” I exclaimed excitedly. “We made it.” The whole switchback took us around two hours. Two harsh ours of grunting through fire and smoke. Now we had a long downhill path.

Since we were on the other side of the mountain now the air was much cleaner, though we could still see behind us tiny plumes of smoke. Here the ground was dusty and covered with large boulders. We were exposed to the sun and could see for miles large mountains.

“Where do you think we’re gonna end up?” I asked searching through all the open space.

“Only one way to find out.”

The next ten minutes were all downhill. We practically ran down it was so steep, something I greatly regretted because my knees were in a world of pain the next day. The ground gradually leveled out and began to appear more like a desert. The brown dusty soil became a light red sand and the foliage around went from ferns and redwoods to shrubs and succulents. I don’t know why this patch of land was so different from the rest but I was enjoying the variety of environments I was being exposed to. Big Blue Belly lizards, or more formally known as Western Fence Lizards, were running in every direction. Garter snakes slithered around creating smooth lines in the sand.

After about an hour we entered the tree line and were now hiking in a peaceful shady forest. For the next four hours the environment changed little. We ran into a park ranger on horse back along the way and immediately told her about the fire on Avalanche pass.

“Yea…that fire’s been aburning up there for two weeks now.” She said calmly. “Dry Lightning fire. Burned a few acres so far. Nutin ta be scared of though, that fire will die out in a few days.”

“It was really close to the trail while we were hiking.” I said cautiously “You don’t think the trail should be closed or something?”

“Nah nah this happens during this season. We keep a good eye on it, no need to fret.”

We said goodbye and left the ranger. She sounded pretty confident that everything was ok. Not too soon after our encounter with the ranger, we found camp. The sun was still pretty high but we figured it would be best to camp and not take a risk.

It was maybe three more hours before the sun set. We had greatly underestimated how much time we had left. We could have covered a few more miles easily but we played it safe. I passed the time sitting on a nice rock with my feet in the Roaring River, which is actually the name of the campsite, and carved spears out of sticks on the ground. I tried spearing a few fish but I predictably unsuccessful.

That night we ate Pad Thai. This time we took the time to read the instructions and cook it right. It wasn’t delicious, but it felt good on the stomach and after a day of strenuous hiking I could feel my body absorb all the nutrients the second it hit my stomach.

I laid back on the hard rocks with grin on my face, just daydreaming. Watching birds fly by, listening to the flow of the water. I thought none about T.V. or video games. No thoughts of school or work. Just reflection on the day. The simple schedule of waking up, hiking then sleeping was humbling and cleansed my mind of social anxieties. That night, I slept extremely well.

We woke up the next morning fresh and eager to hit the trail. We ate and packed quickly then started hiking on a nice sandy path. The First hour was pretty monotonous but afterwards became awesome. We entered a passageway completely surrounded by birch trees. The ground was covered with smooth gray stones that matched the coloring of the park of the birch trees. The sun was shining brightly on the path making the whole path reflective, illuminating the bright green leaves of the trees. For twenty minutes or so we walked through this fantastical pathway in awe. I smiled and stared at my surroundings until we came out of a clear exit from the path and my jaw dropped.

Before us was a huge lush meadow surrounded by redwoods and stuck between two enormous granite canyon walls. The meadow had a curvy stream running through it that was as clear as thin air. There was a tall grass completely blanketing the field with a shade of light green, spotted with a large variety of wildflowers protruding reds and blues and yellows. Butterflies and waved freely around the foliage while three brilliant Red Tail Hawks circled above. I felt as if I was in a Disney movie like Bambie or something.

On the other side of the meadow between the two canyon walls was a thick forest, and right dead in the center of the two walls was a large mountain. I could see two sides of this mountain so that it created a triangle. One side of the mountain sloped down into the right wall, the other into the left wall, creating two paths separated by a mountain. At the time we didn’t think about which way we were going to go, we just continued walking.

We hiked through the meadow and hit the thick forest. Here the trail became a little bit iffy but we managed to stay on. We twisted and turned until we went over a short wooden bridge. At the end of this bridge was a fork in the trail with no sign.

We stopped for a moment to examine both trails. To the left was a very thin indistinguishable trail that curved into the direction we had just come from. To the right was a very sturdy and solid trail that seemed very welcoming. Directly in front of us was an enormous granite wall that we could not see the top of. Without second thought we went for the right trail.

The trail was solid and ran parallel to a stream. We had a handbook that talked about the trip we were doing, and it said that at our point the trail should become windy and hard to follow. It wasn’t too bad for ten minutes or so, until it completely disappeared.

The trail lead perpendicular to the stream, so we hopped along rocks to cross it. On the other side, the trail was gone. At this point, we were wedged between two mountains, so we really only had one direction to go, forward.

We walked along the stream for about an hour until the stream disappeared into a field of boulders. For almost a mile, we could see just a pile of boulders, each one maybe three or four tons. At the end of this field was a large stonewall with a waterfall running down the center, so the water must have been flowing underneath the boulders somewhere.

My dad and I checked the handbook for signs of something we saw. Sure enough there was a marker called the Stone Table that was said to be a giant stonewall with a waterfall, sounded right. Right?

So we hopped from boulder to boulder to make it across. For me it was a lot of fun. I hopped from rock to rock like a rabbit. My dad on the other hand, being a fifty-nine-year-old man, was struggling. He took his sweet time positioning each foot precisely on the next boulder, making sure not to slip.

We made it to the stonewall, and were forced to go all the way to one side where the mountain sloped up level to the wall. Once over the stonewall, was a big wet meadow. Sure enough, the handbook said the next marker was…Big Wet Meadow. Great!

“Where are we camping?” I asked.

“Colby Lake. It’s real big. You’ll know when you see it.”

I nodded and continued on.

The next landmark was Shorty’s Cabin. The handbook gave a brief story about a man who built a series of cabins in the Sierras while hunting for furs and selling them. The guide said that from the meadow, to our right would be a mountain covered with trees.

We looked right. Trees. We looked left. No trees. So far so good. The guide continued in saying “You ascent the northeast mountain and go through those trees, where you will find Shorty’s Cabin.” We took out our compass.

“Uh…wait, northeast or northwest?” I asked worriedly.

“The guide says northeast.” My dad replied. We were both getting anxious.

“Do you think maybe they meant northwest?”

“Maybe.”

We stood there for a while looking at our surroundings trying to figure out the situation.

“The guide does say that we should see trees to our right…”

“That’s true.” My dad said agreeing.

We looked to where the trees were. From where we were, the top of the mountain could not be seen. We were too close to get the full perspective, but we could see a cut off.

“Colby Lake could be right over that climb there. I say we go to where those trees are and maybe we’ll spot Shorty’s Cabin.”