Advertisement
Published: June 28th 2014
Since this was going to be my first hiking experience, I didn't know what to expect. I was travelling to the Patapsco Valley State Park, in Cantonsville; a few miles outside of Baltimore. I boarded a local bus that took me to Hammonds Ferry road and then another one that took me close to Cantonsville. From there on it was a walk of a couple of kilometres, up to Hilton, the place where this park was located. It was a warm and sunny day.
Once I reached the place, I had a look at a rough map. There were many trails available; but the one that caught my attention was the Forest Glen trail. This trail would take me down the mountains, across a couple of railway tracks, to the Patapso river. A little while after taking off, I realized that this was hiking and was not as simple as walking. I had to look at the ground and try to make out the trail; in other words, I had to look for the right path to walk on. I soon reached the end of the plains and had to go down the slopes from there. It probably
had rained there recently, for the mud was soft. There were dead leaves that were wet and the slope was sharp, which made going down, tricky. I took careful steps, while maintaining my balance. I knew that coming back up, the same way, would be even more difficult, but that was a problem that I thought of dealing with when the time came.
I reached the railway tracks and had to go further down from there, on the other side. I couldn't see the river as the forest was thick, but I could hear the sound of the water flowing. I again picked up a path, that seemed safe. I got down, walked for a few minutes and finally reached the river. It was then that I realized that the warm weather had made me lose a lot of water. I rested for a while, drank water and took in some carbs. I also befriended a little dog, while doing so.
I walked by the river for a while, before deciding to head back. I knew that climbing the mountain, by the same track, that I had used for coming down, was not going
to be easy. I thought of looking for another trail and found one.
I made my way up the mountains, climbed over a couple of big logs, went past a few mean, thorny bushes and finally made it to the top.
Two hours hours later, I reached Baltimore.
So at the end of it all, I was a bit dehydrated and had some minor cuts here and there, but the experience was worth it. I then realized, that hiking is just like life. For, in both hiking and life in general, you may have a final destination in mind, but may have no idea as to how you need to get there. The important thing however, is to take the first step in the right direction and follow it up with another one. Sure you will come across several road blocks on the way and may have to change your plan; but in the end, you'll get to where you want to be.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.099s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 19; qc: 64; dbt: 0.0655s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mitul
non-member comment
Kudos. Good writing
Arjun; Write more.............its interesting. While reading I experienced hiking too. Keep living real bro.