You Just Have To Be Flexible

I had such plans for the weekend’s hike – but you have to roll with the flow, as they say.

Bryan was to have met me at my house at 7:15 but he forgot to set his alarm clock (I did not know that until later that evening) so I went on to the trail head by myself since I was supposed to meet somebody else there at 8:00 and didn’t want to be late. However, when I pulled in to the parking lot there was nobody there. It looked like I was on my own for the hike.

That’s when I noticed the pile of bear scat in the middle of the parking lot. I went over to inspect it and saw that it was a few hours old. “It’s probably safe enough; that bear is long gone by now.” I said to myself. 

Then I went over to the trail head to read the notices posted there – and found another pile of bear scat. When I inspected this one, I found that it was much fresher. Like, only maybe half an hour old. This one had me a little bit concerned (a lot) but I really wanted to go hiking… so I made myself a compromise: if I see one more pile of scat, I’ll turn around.

Sure enough, not 20 feet in was another pile.

That’s when I decided that maybe I didn’t really want to hike this trail after all, and maybe a drive down the coast was a better idea.

And what a pretty day it was! I pulled over at several scenic overlooks, walked along a few trails by the ocean, and just generally had a nice day out.