The Blue Trail at Daypoint

Over the holidays, a woman decides to take a hiking trip to climb up a small mountain. She has been hiking for a few years, and tries to take small trips to hike different trails in the area on the weekends and holidays.

The mountain is located a few hours away by car and offers shuttle service from the parking lot to the bottom of the mountain. She drives to the park the night before and stays at a local hotel. She wakes up early the following day, gets ready, and drives a few miles to the park. She waits at the shuttle stop for a few minutes before a shuttle arrives. She boards the shuttle and looks out the window as it makes its way to the bottom of the mountain. Once the shuttle arrives at the stop outside the trail entrance, she spends a few minutes looking at the trail map to find the trail she plans to walk along to the top of the mountain.

The woman knows that the hike up the mountain should take approximately four hours. She is an experienced hiker and is dressed appropriately in layers that can be added or removed depending on the temperature and carries a backpack with food and water. She also wears a hat to protect her from the sun.

As she begins the hike, the sky is grey. The weather forecast indicated there was a slight chance for rain, and the woman has a light rain jacket in her backpack in case of rain.

About an hour into the hike, she starts to feel a few rain drops, and within a few minutes, it starts to rain. It is a light rain. She stops to put on her rain jacket and continues. The light rain turns into a steady drizzle.

As she continues walking along the trail, the path is muddier in some sections and there are puddles to walk around. She hopes the rain will stop, but she is familiar with hiking during rainstorms as the weather on hiking trips can be unpredictable.

The trail leading up to the mountain is a popular destination and there are a number of other people hiking up the trail. As they pass by her, they make a few lighthearted remarks about the rain.

As she continues the climb up the mountain, in addition to the steady rainfall, the temperature is getting cooler, and it is windier. The hike is becoming more challenging. She is motivated to continue the climb because of the destination. It’s a mountain she has always wanted to climb, and she drove several hours to reach the site.

After she passes the halfway point, a few hikers who are making their way down from the mountain say, “The mountain is closed due to the weather.”

The woman is not sure what to do. She doesn’t want to stop. She looks around and sees that a few of the other hikers are continuing to make their way so she continues to make the climb up the mountain.

She is getting colder and between the rain and the wind, the hike is becoming more and more challenging. She just wants to reach the top. She keeps her head down, and pulls the jacket up above her chin to minimize the impact of the rain and wind as she walks along the trail. She is becoming slightly disoriented. The constant rainfall also makes her feel lightheaded.

She makes it to the top of the mountain. The restaurants and shops are closed. She knows that it is in her best interest to begin the descent, and quickly leaves the top area to begin making her way down the mountain.

She keeps her head down to avoid the sensation of the rain and wind. Her socks and shoes are wet and cold, and she is beginning to shiver. She feels soggy and can’t wait to change into dry clothes. She feels tired and that if she stopped, she would fall over. She knows that she must continue down the mountain as stopping would only prolong the hike. She is shivering.

She finally reaches the bottom of the mountain. Fortunately, there is a first aid station. She goes to the tent to rest inside until she can warm up. She takes off her shoes and puts on a pair of extra socks she has in her backpack. The dry socks help, but she can’t stop shivering. She is also disoriented and lightheaded, and just wants to get into a warm bed to sleep.

The first aid station is heated. She begins to warm up, but her teeth continue to chatter. There are a number of other hikers in the tent, and some of them, are in worse condition. They are being treated by the attendants. After about 30 minutes, someone comes up to her and says, “Are you OK?”

The woman says, “Yes.” She waits another ten minutes before she feels ready to leave. She goes into a souvenir shop and buys a sweatshirt and sweatpants. She changes into them in a rest area. She also buys something to eat and drink. She starts to feel better and waits for the shuttle to appear to take her back to the parking lot. While the weather put a damper on things, she was glad that she made it through the climb.

A few years later the woman goes on a ski trip. She is a beginner skier and hasn’t skied in a number of years. On the first day of the trip, she takes a ski lesson and spends the day on the bunny hill. By the end of the day, she starts to feel more comfortable with her skiing abilities.

The following day, she begins the day on the bunny hill. By the end of the day, with the encouragement of some of the other people on the trip, she tries another hill. She goes slow and tries to stay out of the way of the other skiers.

At the end of the day, the group meets for dinner and they talk about the different runs they tried. One of the group member says, “We skied down the Blue trail. It’s really long and has view of the mountains.”

Another group member says, “Is it hard?”

The group member answers, “Not really. The first part of the trail has a steep slope, but after that, it’s a nice run.”

The following day, the woman and another group member are skiing together. Her friend says, “Do you want to try the Blue trail?”

The woman says, “I don’t think so. I think it might be too difficult. If you want to ski down it, I will wait for you at the bottom.”

Someone overhears the conversation between the woman and her friend, and walks over to where they are standing as says, “It’s really not that hard. I’m a beginner skier and for an “advanced” hill, it’s not that hard, and has a great view. You should try it.”

The woman is slightly hesitant, but decides to ride the chair lift with her friend up to the top of the trail. At the top of the trail, the woman looks down, and immediately sees that she made a mistake. The slope is very steep. She makes arrangements with her friend to meet her at the bottom.

The woman goes to the side of the mountain and looks down. The area where the trail begins to flatten out looks far away. She watches the other skiers in amazement as they seem to “dive right in”. She places her skis in the parallel position and tries to slowly side step down, but is quickly turned to face forward. She tries to stop the motion by placing her skies in the “snowplow” position. Her skies get tangled up and she ends up falling and hitting her head on a patch of ice.

The next thing she remembers is waking up on a stretcher. She was knocked unconscious and taken down the mountain and placed in the first aid area. She sits up from the stretcher, and begins to make preparations to leave the area by gathering her belongings that have been placed next to her.

At that point, someone approaches and says, “Are you OK?”

The woman says, “Yes. I must have fallen down, but I feel well enough to leave.”

The attendant from the first aid station says, “Before you leave, we need to make sure you don’t have a concussion.”

The first aid station checks her pupils and asks her a few questions. After the exam, the attendant says, “Have we met before?”

The woman says, “I don’t think so. I live in another state. I’m just visiting.”

The attendant looks at her, and squints his eyes as if he is trying to remember, and then says, “Did you ever climb Mt. Parkridge? I think I remember treating you for hypothermia.”

The woman laughs and says, “I did. It rained the entire hike. I have never been so cold in my life.”

The attendant says, “You should be fine. Just stay out of the cold.”

The woman’s friend approaches and says, “Are you OK?”

The woman says, “My head hurts a little, but other than that, I feel fine.”

The woman and her friend leave the first aid station, return their skis to the rental center, and make their way to their hotel room.

The following day, the woman spends the day in town to tour the local area while the other group members spend the day on the ski slopes. At one of the souvenir stores, she buys a t-shirt that says “I skied the Blue trail at Daypoint”.