Stranger In The Woods
There is a road that climbs up a dense forest mountain. It is everything medieval but without the hustle and bustle of people. Or so I thought. We were driving on a forest road in the middle of Lincoln National Forest, scouting for another campsite. We had been exploring these parts for about a week and felt the need to set up basecamp. With internet service lost, using Gaia Maps to traverse was our only option. Meeting the adventure head-on and being ready for the risk is what exploring means. As we ascended to 8000 feet, we passed a deserted car off the trail. It appeared to have slid into a ditch. I wondered how a vehicle like that made it up the mountain. "This is a strange place to see a car like that," I said to my wife, for the trail was rugged, narrow, and dark. In a two-wheel drive, no faster than I could walk, we made our way up the mountain, passing melting snow drifts. But in the distance, a figure emerged from the forest. It was hard to see, but the silhouette