How To Disappear Completely

We found raspberries and had an adventure...

What promised to be a gentle 10 mile hike round the back of Mt Hermon, a distance stretching from Monument to Palmer Lake (two towns off I-25 on the way to Denver), became an adventure when the trail five hikers were blithely following suddenly vanished.

"We came to a fork in the road," Christa Funke, age 19, stated. "The map said to follow the 4-wheeler trail, and the path going up looked rather 4-wheeled. The other way just looked like a road." Prompted by these considerations, five hikers, all from the Colorado Springs area, decided to take the trail leading up an adjoining ridge, rather than following the road any longer. A pleasanter view and more rugged terrain rewarded the group's choice. "Yes," said Sarah Funke, age 23, "I was glad we had taken the road less traveled by." However, just as the hikers topped the crest of the ridge and managed to glimpse their destination--Palmer Lake Resevoir--the path disappeared, and the travelers were left with no distinct direction to follow. "It was like there were no omens anymore. Every choice from here on out was clearly up to us," S. Funke mused. Mrs. John, age undisclosed and family friend of the Funkes, intrepidly began bushwhacking her way down towards the resevoir. Traversing boulders, steep terrain, and undergrowth thick enough to obscure vision beyond 10-15 feet, the hikers finally reached the edge of the resevoir, only to discover that they had arrived on the wrong side. "We were pretty discouraged by that point," Anna Funke, age 21, noted. "I had spent the last stretch of downhill trying to keep from thinking too much about falling to my death." "Yeah," Sarah agreed. "I looked like I had fought a cat and lost. Speaking of cats, that place would have been perfect for mountain lions." Brief discussions regarding the possibility of walking across the resevoir dam were squelched by a large chain link fence and a "NO TRESPASSING" sign. A very wet-looking lake bordered one side of the dam, and boulders dropped off into a canyon on the other side. At this stage, the group divided over possible procedures. One half argued that the best course of action would be to return the way the group had come and find the right path. The other half looked across the canyon at the road, only a tantalizing half mile away. Mrs. Funke, age undisclosed, began to count the snack and water supplies the hikers still had left while her oldest daughter tried vainly to remember how to set up a bivouac type shelter for the night. "Nerves were getting a little tight," Mrs. Funke noted.

The group finally decided to hold a time of prayer before continuing down into the canyon. Mrs. John managed to feel out a passable way towards the creekbed. The terrain providentially leveled out enough to minimize the scraping and sliding that formed the main method of downward movement. The hikers found themselves at the creek just where two or three boulders provided a safe crossing. Some more scrambling brought them out onto the road, from which point the hikers enjoyed a leisurely and much relieved stroll back to the car, noting how steep and marked by cliff faces much of the remainder of the canyon was. Said Sarah, "On second thought, we definitely did not take the trail less traveled by. That was the trail NEVER traveled by." Mrs. John made a mental note to write "Stay on road" on her map, everyone drove back to their respective houses, and Sarah discovered that her email server had overflowed its quota and was sending emails back to sender.

But the group did find wild raspberries along the trail. No one, however, was brave enough to test what the group thought might be choke cherries, but couldn't really be sure. Another day, perhaps.