David Stratton - I Think It's Time to Start Screaming Now

 

 

It was really foggy, and there was a light mist in the air when we stepped out of the car in this empty trailhead parking lot in this New Hampshire state park. But that wasn't going to stop Lia and I from enjoying this great new adventure, nature hiking. I consider it a fatherly duty to introduce my daughter to new activities and new experiences. “So, let's go for a hike.” 

 

So, of course, we made every newbie mistake a beginning hiker can make. We didn't tell anyone we were going hiking. I didn't tell the lady at the visitor center who recommended the trail that we were going that day in the fog and mist, and that my hiking companion was eight years old. [audience laughter] Probably should have. 

 

I'd never been on a trail like this before. There was no path to follow. There were just paint marks on trees about every 100ft. And in this fog, you sometimes had to walk forward on faith until the next paint mark came into view, but we made our way through the forest. Then we started up this small mountain that was just bare granite with the trail marks on the rocks. 

 

And now, by the way, in sneakers, wet granite is about as slippery as ice, but we kept on going. And at one point, we veered off the trail. We lost track of the paint marks and we were looking around, and Lia just very calmly looked up at me and said, “I think it's time to start screaming.” [audience laughter] I said, “No. No one's up here anyway, so let's just go back. [audience laughter] Let's just go back to where we last saw paint mark and try to find the next one and get back on the trail.” And we did. We made it back on the trail. We made it to the summit. We had our peanut butter sandwiches and drank our juice boxes. We were hikers now. 

 

Then we started the second half of the hike. But we noticed we were still going uphill. And as each new rise came out of the fog, we thought, “Oh-oh, that must be the summit.” Then we'd climb over that, and then there'd be another rise and there'd be, “Oh, well, that must be the summit.” I started realizing we're not at the halfway point yet. 

 

Now, I'm starting to worry about time, because it's already past 1 o’clock. And at 03:30, we're going to start losing light. It's going to be hard to see these trail marks. And at 05:30, it's going to be dark and we're going to be stuck up there. And if we're stuck up there, then hypothermia can be an issue. We had no survival gear at all. We had no blankets. We had no extra jackets. I had a cell phone, but no coverage. [audience laughter] I didn't have a lighter. And everything's wet anyway. There's no wood, so there's no way I'm rubbing two sticks together to start a fire. And who knows what kind of wild animals are up there, bears, wolves, raccoons. I don't want to find out. So, we've got to keep moving. [audience laughter] 

 

But now, the footing is really getting treacherous. At one point, we have to cross this landed section of slippery rock that's like the roof of a house, but over the edge, it's not 10ft down to a lawn, it's like 100ft down to jagged rocks. So, we crawled over that section. And I was scared shitless. 

 

Now, if you're wondering, “Well, Dave, why didn't you turn back at that point?” I'd say, “Well, smartass, you didn't see the trail map that seemed to indicate that the way down from the mountain was much shorter than the way up the mountain.” So, we kept forging ahead. It was eerily beautiful up there though in the fog. If I saw someone else's pictures of it, I would say, “Wow, that's really cool.” [audience laughter] But I wasn't taking any pictures. 

 

At one point, we were walking on this ridge that disappeared in the fog in the distance and the slippery rock just sloped down on either side, like oblivion. Lia is in front of me. I've got my hand on the back of her jacket, in case she slips. I'm literally watching every step I take, because there's no one to catch me. So, my every thought is focused on getting this little girl, this one of two people I love more than anyone else in the world, off this mountain. But with every step, I'm beating myself up for not turning around. The very moment I realized this was more dangerous than I thought it was going to be. Lia told me when it was time to start screaming. [audience laughter] 

 

Now, during this part of the hike, Lia was talking nonstop. She was telling a story to herself. It was about a detective, or maybe she was the detective, and there was an alien and there was a spacecraft in the woods that she was trying to find. It was very convoluted, which was unusual for her, because her stories are usually pretty coherent and pretty good. But I didn't care. I was just so glad that I didn't have a frightened child to deal with. I can concentrate on getting off the mountain. 

 

So, after a while, we started going downhill, and we made it back in the woods, and we followed the paint marks on the trees, and suddenly we stepped out of the woods into a clearing, and it was the parking lot for the trailhead and there was our car. And in my head, I'm thinking, “Yes, we made it. Oh, my God, we're not going to die tonight.” [audience laughter] I kept that from Lia, [audience laughter] and I just casually said, “Well, what was up with that story you were telling?” And she said, “Oh, that was nothing. I was just really scared. We were lost, and telling the story was the only way I could keep from crying.” 

 

So, I got down on my knee, and I hugged her and I told her I was really, really sorry, I put her in a situation where she didn't feel safe. She said, “That's okay. I know you didn't do it on purpose. I could tell you we were scared too.” [audience laughter] So, maybe we didn't start a father-daughter tradition of nature hiking that day, because we never went on another hike like that. [audience laughter] But it was a new level of our relationship, and that instead of always telling her what to think and what to do, I started paying a lot more attention to what she thought, because her instincts about that trail were a lot better than mine. 

 

So, Lia is a grown woman now, and she's still a lot more trustworthy than me. And in all these years, she's never mentioned that time almost got us killed on a mountain in New Hampshire, and I appreciate that. Thank you.