Ha, and I thought of joining a hiking club
Holy shit, I had waaaay too much excitement today. So my best friend and her family comes upstate and we figure it would be a good idea to take them hiking up kaaterskill falls (emphasis on the falls but more on that later). So it starts off nice, with us taking pictures on the trail and on the waterfalls and little ponds and stuff, until we come to the end of the path. Now when you see the end of the path you'd normally think "Hey cool, now lets turn around and go back." Wrong, our dads think that it would be SUCH a good idea to hike in the little brushy path to go higher up on the freakin cliff. Thus the hiking quickly transforms into mountain climbing, without any of the little harnesses and just a lot of root and rock tugging, (and praying on my part). The entire time I was thinking that if I only come out of this whole ordeal with only poison ivy I'd be thankful.
Then after much climbing we reach this little pond where the water falls into and have to climb down a steep slope, walk across flat rocks and then climb another steep slope in order to get back on the mountain, climb down the rocks and steep slopes of that mountain, and then find the real damn trail. While we are climbing up the slope to the other side of the mountain, I hear a snap and then see a man tumbling down the slope opposite us and its about the most frightening moment of my life and he finally stops falling but he's not moving. Our dads rush over to help the guy because it was such a bad fall and they're both doctors, while we continue to climb up the mountain to get help. We get to the top and we meet the guy's mother and we all feel so terrible for her and all we do is wait for help to come. It takes about 30min to an hr before the rescue comes and then another 45 min for the helicopter to come. Meanwhile we have to get freakin rescued off the mountain with like volunteer firefighters tying ropes around trees and us having to scale off. It wasn't that bad since most people were able to climb it without any of that, but we were all freaked out from the accident and then the rescuers themselves made everyone scared and nervous.
We finally get off that damn waterfall about 6 hrs after we entered it and got interviewed and that whole stuff. Its so terrible how these things can happen. My dad was saying that the man was badly hurt and I just really hope that he pulls through and that he was able to be rescued in time. Its funny what goes through your head when something terrible happens. All I kept thinking about was how inappropriate it was for a rainbow to be forming by the waterfall when there was a young man seriously injured in its cliffs. But I guess also, it reinforced my faith in people. Seeing all these people and strangers banding together to help the injured man and each other down the mountain reminded me that there is decency left in this world.
Then after much climbing we reach this little pond where the water falls into and have to climb down a steep slope, walk across flat rocks and then climb another steep slope in order to get back on the mountain, climb down the rocks and steep slopes of that mountain, and then find the real damn trail. While we are climbing up the slope to the other side of the mountain, I hear a snap and then see a man tumbling down the slope opposite us and its about the most frightening moment of my life and he finally stops falling but he's not moving. Our dads rush over to help the guy because it was such a bad fall and they're both doctors, while we continue to climb up the mountain to get help. We get to the top and we meet the guy's mother and we all feel so terrible for her and all we do is wait for help to come. It takes about 30min to an hr before the rescue comes and then another 45 min for the helicopter to come. Meanwhile we have to get freakin rescued off the mountain with like volunteer firefighters tying ropes around trees and us having to scale off. It wasn't that bad since most people were able to climb it without any of that, but we were all freaked out from the accident and then the rescuers themselves made everyone scared and nervous.
We finally get off that damn waterfall about 6 hrs after we entered it and got interviewed and that whole stuff. Its so terrible how these things can happen. My dad was saying that the man was badly hurt and I just really hope that he pulls through and that he was able to be rescued in time. Its funny what goes through your head when something terrible happens. All I kept thinking about was how inappropriate it was for a rainbow to be forming by the waterfall when there was a young man seriously injured in its cliffs. But I guess also, it reinforced my faith in people. Seeing all these people and strangers banding together to help the injured man and each other down the mountain reminded me that there is decency left in this world.