had a spectacular afternoon.
started around about 12:30, when benjamin and i fled the indoors. cold and rain notwithstanding, staying inside for the entire christmas break would be a little much for either of us to stomach. so we left. in the cold. (benjamin made sure i bundled in gloves, a hat, and christian's ski silks, so i'd be warm.) we met up with daniel and kylie for a romp around fall creek. only benjamin and i had done the trail before, and i hadn't been for a couple years. it's something like a bigger six mile creek.
started out a little rough, no mistake. the trail opens for a while into cornell land, a few big fields they use for, among other things, cross-country eventing. it's been a wet christmas here in the land of the three hills, so the ground was on the soggy side. the very soggy side. we spent a good while picking our way through mounds of less-wet grass, avoiding horse-influenced puddle pockets as far as the eye could see....on the other hand, benjamin and daniel got some great photos taking pictures of each other flying over the cross-country jumps. they each took five or six shots before they had one they liked. i got it one, naturally. (but theirs make great fake time-lapse sets!)
once we'd entered the woods again, we were greeted by a large, nearly-motionless raccoon. we crept around it, carefully--rabies is not uncommon in upstate new york. it was curled in a little cocoon, one paw over its nose, whimpering and shaking as it breathed. it couldn't move; it tried to crawl off in the opposite direction a few times, but was unable to lift itself. it was heartbreaking. i don't know if it was rabid, or shot, or pregnant...no idea, but definitely in distress. and we were helpless. at any rate, we called the local animal service, so with any luck, it won't be there long.
after we'd been walking about an hour or two, benjamin mentioned it'd be another five miles to get back. we'd cross the river at the next road, far off, and come back down the other side. well, folks, it was cold, so we explored other options. ended up at a fallen tree spanning the creek. benjamin skipped across with no difficulty, of course, and declared it an ideal crossing spot. the tree was about four feet short of the opposite bank, so benjamin found another branch to make up the difference. daniel managed to convince kylie, and off we went.now, understand, i'm not afraid of heights. on the contrary, i love them. tall buildings, roller coasts, planes, the works. however, i get a little skittish at the prospect of crossing said heights, particularly on something skinny. i am tall, i am not sanguine about my sense of balance, and i have an overactive, vivid imagination.
i always forget all that until i actually have to do something like cross a river on a fallen tree. kylie made it across without incident, slid down benjamin's extra branch like a pro. didn't even get her feet wet. i was next. did fine for the first few milliseconds, until i looked down and forgot which way was up. oh yes, thunk i. i remember this. nonetheless, i ooched my way along the main trunk to the fork, and shimmied down from there, holding on for dear life and trying desperately to ignore the ice-cold river water inches below. (which, in retrospect, was actually pretty cool. if i hadn't had a death grip on the trunk, i might have really enjoyed the experience. or if it had been july, instead of december.) by that time i was highly skeptical of benjamin's branch, which i now noticed was wet, stretching four feet from an already precarious tree-top to the slippery rocks of the bank. "you'll be fine!" he assured me. "kylie did it!"
there was nothing for it. i couldn't very well turn around and go back. i slid--roughly three inches, before i lost balance and soaked myself to the knees. (kudos to benjamin for pulling me out before i fell in completely. also for making me wear silks, which kept me warm inside the sopping cargo pants.)daniel fared better on the walk across the tree, but the tree-top broke off entirely when he tried benjamin's branch. he soaked one leg. on the whole, not a bad casualty count.
the rest of the adventure was downhill from that river crossing. we climbed a hill to find the trail again, and stepped through a second lorien. barren trees over a bed of brown-orange leaves right before twilight, sun passing between branches and glancing through old snowflakes, slowing in the evening fog. the trail opened onto yet another cornell field (agricultural research, this time?), and led to the outskirts of fall creek. one resident, loathe to let us trespass on the sanctity of his driveway gravel, helpfully pointed us to a connected trail. we crossed a bridge, met a small golden retriever, and were nearly back to the car when i realized i'd lost my phone.
that's right, folks. i'd been using it to take pictures and video all afternoon, and had unbuttoned a pants pocket to make for easier access. it was gone. $250 worth of gone, no less. benjamin was the only one who really knew where we were, at that point, so he and kylie went ahead to get the car. daniel and i backtracked. i thought i knew where i'd lost it: after we crossed the tree and climbed the hill, daniel took a picture of us all sitting on a cliff, looking toward the river we'd just conquered. i sat with my knees up; the phone must have slid from my cargo pocket.
benjamin found a road into the field, so he met us at its middle. we'd skirted it earlier, a route at least 300ft away in all directions. benjamin ran up to the ledge where we'd been sitting (600ft away from the car), calling the phone the whole way. didn't find anything; however, i thought i heard something ringing. (understand, i couldn't possibly have heard something ringing, because there's no way the phone could have been anywhere near the car, and its volume was turned low.) benjamin kept calling, and daniel and kylie heard it, as well. we found it not forty feet away from the car, in the middle of the field. where we hadn't been. where we hadn't even been near. it wasn't scratched or damaged, but the speakerphone had been turned on.
i know.i KNOW.
i have no idea how any of that happened. it could have been carried, very gently, by some animal, which dropped it as soon as it started ringing. no explanation for the speakerphone, in that case. perhaps i turned it on earlier without realizing it? i was wearing gloves. it could have been taken by a person, who turned on the speakerphone and left it in a likely place when it started ringing. no, that doesn't make any sense to me, either.
in any case, we all arrived back at home in one piece, and in time for dinner. life is good.
the great adventure
thank you, god, for giving my phone back.
