Alright. Matthew has been bugging me to write this story on here so I will! ;) Saturday, Daniel, Matthew, Sarah, and I went to Lone Star Park to go hiking. Usually we go on the little trails back in the woods when we host church there sometimes. But that day the usual spot was closed. Having seen a sign for horse trails, we departed in that direction on foot. We first tried to get across into our favorite woods at the boat dock by hopping across some rubbery ground that was all cracked like towers. But Daniel, Matthew, and Sarah began sinking into the black goo so we gave that up. We continued on the gravel road. At each new little road we'd travel down it. One was only about 5 feet wide and went out as a dam in between two lakes. From what I could tell it was made of a bed of gravel and some wooden pallets. Very adventurous. But his led to nowhere unless we desired to tiptoe across a super thin metal wall. Uh-uh. Not a chance of that for us girls! :) There were still no more signs for the horse trails. We trudged on. Daniel tried to convince us girls and Matthew to go down a 15-20 foot perpendicular wall of dirt to the beach on the lake below. That didn't go over. "Matthew," I reasoned with him as he almost agreed to the wild prospect. "We all must die at some point, I know, but please live through this walk!" he just laughed and they abandoned the idea. Still we walked on. It seemed miles. "Where are the horse trails?" we wondered. We finally came to a lovely overlook and gazed into the cool blue water below longingly. We girls sat on a bench to rest. Daniel continued down the road without us. Seeing that there were no horse trails in the near vicinity, we called Daniel on his cell-phone and asked him to come back our way. "Come on back to us." I teased, "We'll be sitting here eating honeysuckle!" (The only form of liquid accesible to our parched tongues! ;) Sarah and I consumed a branch of honeysuckle each, and then Daniel joined us. On the way back down the road we met up with a park ranger. Daniel stopped him, and politely asked where the horse trails were. "Did you see a chain across the path?" he asked, eyeing us gruffly. I had the vague feeling that I personally had reputation as a renegade or an arsonist. I am sure I looked guilty, though perfectly innocent in reality. Turns out even if we had found the horse trails, they were "strictly for horses." Ho-hum. Way to ruin a long hot tramp! ;) But, determined to make some lemonade out of the lemons, we decided to go into some woods by ourselves, seeing a dock in the lake to one side of the path. Daniel charged through the underbrush, we girls in his wake, escorted by Matthew. As he helped us down a slippery hillside we heard a strange noise, seemingly coming from a den-like hole in the hill. Matthew and Sarah convinced themselves it was a bear. I was inclined to think it a bullfrog, but we never found out. We swung ourselves across a ditch, and tiptoed over the mud. It was one of those spots that feels like thin ice. Balance your weight the wrong way, and you'll plunge through. After being scared by numerous Spring Peepers catapulting into the water, we reached the dock. It was so rotten as to be quite dangerous for walking on. It was unanimously decided to return to the main road. Daniel made himself rather a "Legolas" and light-footed over the treacherous mud to the safe terrain on the opposite side. I followed. My leg promptly plunged through the crust up to my knee. I screamed, (almost gleefully. It felt good!) and Daniel yanked me out with a sturdy stick. It was Sarah's turn now. "But where do I walk?!?!" she wailed. Daniel grinned. "Just step where I did!" Well. I suppose Daniel must have weakened the ground, for no sooner did she take a step or two then both her legs plunged in. I helped drag her out, and mine up the shoe that was still stuck. Matthew made it over with a very narrow escape from the mire. There was still the poison ivy on the hill to brave. It felt rather like stepping over laser-beams to avoid triggering an alarm or something. We did a queer little dancing-thing through all the poison ivy (which I am not allergic to) and arrived at the road breathless and bedraggled. "Yuck!" Sarah cried, half in satisfaction an half in dismay, surveying her feet which were now uniformly covered in a layer of black, skunky-smelling mud. "Well, at least both my shoes match now." Daniel fumed about the poison ivy, but still admitted it had been fun. Matthew and I just laughed. "This will be something to blog about!" we both agreed. And so it was! We washed up in the lake and returned home without further incident. Voila. Our little muddy-saga. :)
-Rachel
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