Near Death Experience: 101

Yesterday, Shannon and I decided to hike Kennesaw Mountain.  Our husbands were going to be grabbing dinner together with a mutual friend so we decided to take the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful fall weather that has graciously appeared, by exercising!  See, this was our first mistake.  Looking back, I think sitting outside at a Starbucks would have allowed us to enjoy the beautiful weather just fine.  However, because we are slightly Type A (Shannon is one in disguise), exercising sounds better to us.  Why relax when you can “feel the burn”?

Anyways, we started our hike around 7:10 PM.  The hike is one mile up, one mile down.  As we neared the top of the mountain, dusk was starting to settle in.  So we walked faster.  Of course, we were too close to the top to turn back, so we continued onward.  We reached the top and caught our breath for about five minutes, which is when I snapped this picture with my iPhone.

What? The sun is setting you say? Disappearing? Oh, well, sorta.  We’ll still be able to see though! I mean, it's only a mile down the mountain.  About twenty steps back down the mountain and we had realized our mistake.  Somehow, unbeknownst to me before now, trees have a fabulous way of hiding the last shreds of light, especially when the sun is setting on the opposite side of the mountain.  It was dark, very dark.  Extremely dark.  (Sharon, we're alive, so breathe).

Now, if you go back to the top, where I said something about us both being Type A's?  Somehow we both missed the "adventurous" part of that personality type.  While someone may read this story and tell me they hike down mountains with no light all the time, this is not something we have done before, nor will we ever do it again.  Saying we were freaked out would be the understatement of the year. 

I decided the best thing to do would be to call Caleb to at least say "goodbye" or on a less dramatic note, to tell him where we were in-case we did get lost.  He didn't answer. So I called Shannon's husband. Imagine, this, he didn't answer either.  Well, weren't they going to feel guilty when they found out their wives were hiking running down a mountain in the dark.  No, I knew better, they'd probably find this comical. 

By the light of the iPhone we proceeded down the path.  Just so you understand the severity of this situation, envision a winding, downward sloping path, with just the right amount of rocks and roots to trip you every five feet.  It was nerve wracking and quite possibly one of the best work outs of my life.  Mix jogging down a mountain with extreme amounts of adrenaline and you feel a little spent at the end.  By the grace of GOD, I am pretty sure we got down that mountain in twenty minutes.  This was not before profound comments were exclaimed like, "This goes against everything I believe" or "maybe I shouldn't watch so many lifetime movies?" and "do you know where to punch a guy where it hurts?" or "this was our first real adventure!" followed by the other person saying, "can this be our last?"  

No, sorry Shannon, with our level of brilliance, this will probably not be our last "adventure"  Here's to hiking in DAYLIGHT!  Better yet, here's to sitting at STARBUCKS!