Returning to town is starting to sound better and better. Not that the hike is bad. The hills are beautiful. When I’m not worried about what strange thing is coming next, I’m enjoying the trip. I wish I could share any of this with my friends. They wouldn’t understand. Hell, I don’t understand. But we’ve been hiking for a week now. I’m ready for a break. A few more days before we get a day off the trail.
Today’s oddity, because of course there was one, was sad. At least I kept the guys out of it.
The trail looped back and forth as we headed over another hill. Mountain. I don’t know when one becomes the other. But it was steep, so instead of going straight up, there were switchbacks. On one turn, there was an overlook spot off the trail a little. We decided to stop there for lunch.
Before we started back after eating, Quinn was looking around. He called us over to see something strange. I almost didn’t want to look, except their idea of strange on this hike hasn’t come close to my strange. This was definitely strange. Not as bad as the abandoned campsite. That was weird in a threatening way. This didn’t feel like that to us. There was a path worn into the ground in a tiny clearing just off the overlook path. It was a little bit like a maze. Or maybe a Japanese rock garden. But tiny. It wasn’t people-sized. And it was strewn with little bones and a few decaying bodies of birds and rodents.
A chipmunk responded to our presence. It looked like it wanted to run away, but it only ran along the path, instead. Just back and forth along the worn path, like it couldn’t leave. Past the dead bodies and bones.
It felt like a warning. We watched it for a while and it never stepped out of the bounds of the maze. Stuck.
When we started hiking again after lunch, I grabbed Liam’s map. It showed the path, running back and forth. I suggested it would be much faster to cut across and head straight up. We were still half a day behind, what with Mish’s arbor ardor of yesterday.
It wasn’t easy going. It felt like we should stick to the path, but I kept urging them off of it every time we passed it.
I can’t help but wonder if we would have made it up the mountain if we’d stayed on the trail. Or might we still be caught, running the path like the chipmunk.