Another Hike

In what is now becoming a disappointing trend, both my scheduled football matches this weekend were canceled due to weather. However, in reality, the weather was not too bad, so my friend Chris and I decided to go on a hike. A different and more ambitious one this time.

We left Durham and began hiking south, on a sidewalk next to a country road/highway. It always amazes me how little you have to walk before you leave the city behind and are in the middle of the countryside.


After walking about three miles, we reached a river that had 3 bridges spanning it. One was a modern highway bridge, one was an incredibly old footbridge, and one was a giant railroad bridge.








After wandering around and over the three bridges, we decided we'd gone far enough and started back into Durham.



We quickly grew tired of walking along the road however, mostly because it was the exact way we'd come. We left the road on to one of the area's many public footpaths. It seemed as if it was heading in the general direction of Durham.

The path was nice and very scenic, but after around a mile it abruptly ended, leaving us in the middle of nowhere. We were not about to backtrack, so we decided to go up to the top of a hill- we were sure the road was on the other side and we'd just follow that back. When we finally got above the ridge, we were greeted not by the highway, but by rolling empty space.

(You can see Chris in the distance if you look closely)

We decided to just try and make it back through the back country. We refused to turn around. We navigated by using our general sense of direction, nothing more. Perhaps not the best idea. For the next couple miles, we trudged through deep mud, climbed under barbed wire fences, jumped over small creeks and pushed on through thick forests.

The above picture sums up the walk back- snow and ice, mud, creeks and streams, barbed wire and forest. At one point, we were literally fighting through 4 or 5 inch deep mud. Luckily both of us were wearing good hiking boots. Somewhat inexplicably, and before we were thought possible, we ended up back on a trail. After walking a few hundred yards we realized it was the same trail we'd done a few weeks ago. We were just around the corner from college. I couldn't believe it. Somehow we'd done it. It was a really fun hike- the adventure made it even more exciting. I'm looking forward to exploring the area even more when the weather improves.