in the woods

Set out from the campsite, actually, directly from the outhouse. No walkman, dead Ipod, no tunes, no tracker, no plan. Picked up the new shoes in Maple Ridge, and I can't quit grinning the whole way to the path, they feel great, and look grandma sharp.
I made for the 'Interpretive Forest Trail', really really hoping to see some people in the woods striking pained 'trees reaching for heaven' poses. I guess they had gotten off of work already, I was alone and it was at least 7:30. It was beautiful, the forest floor covered in rich green ferns below the mossy fir poles. It turned out to be a very short trail, so I took a left, onto the 'Fallen Giants' path. There were no such giants, but the trail was rooty and rocky and demanded my attention- a cool new challenge. I was spat out at the 'Ampitheatre', which sounded like it was going to be awesome, but was a letdown, with four or five rows of brown wooden benches on a slight slope, no grand cathedral here.
Kept on, deciding to go down towards the water, through the other camping area we accidentally-wrong-turned into earlier and got lost in, not realizing until we passed the same pink child's bicycle for the second time that we could have gotten lost in the matrix, here. My plan was to hit the beach, and then back up the trail to our own campsite that we'd hiked earlier. On the map, they connected. I guess, once I got down the long driveway into the Alouette Campground, I took an immediate wrong turn. I looped around the entire perimeter, watching for a 'beach this way' sign. Maybe I just ran right past it. Either way, one full loop. No big deal, I had wanted a longer run today. I finally came upon the sign, a trail marked only by a great dane's head with a slash through it. OK, no dogs.
I jumped into a pretty dark forest, but knew this trail was a short one. I jumped and jigged, down the steep path, loving the challenge of a not so well marked path and having to really use my legs and core to stabilize my descent. I couldn't look up, and barely slowed, just kept going down, down, down, to the waters edge, I could see the last light from the sky shining on it through the branches in my peripheral. I was suddenly held up by a treetrunk that had falled across the path with only about 3feet of clearance underneath it. I though that was pretty weird for the main trail to te beach to have something old people would have to crawl under...and then I looked around. As I was catching my breath, I saw that there was no trail here at all. I stared at the light on water below, and at this log that I was not at all comfortable crawling under inthe darkness. There was something the size of a small leaf suspended in front of my face. I watched it, really hoping it wasn't a spider, but pretty sure those were legs. Ran away. Up the way I came, I thought, then across the ridge above the water that got steeper and darker and thicker. Then I felt like I might be circling, so I stopped to quell the moment of panic that rose with that thought.
It is not possible for me to get lost in this sliver of woods between the lake and a campsite with 400 people in it, even in the middle of the night. I laughed at myself when I heard someone nearby walking their dog. So close I could hear the little furball panting. I bumbled through the brush and popped out onto the main trail, possibly causing distress to the elderly dog walked but more concerned with getting the spiderwebs and resulting spiders off of me. I'll never be Indiana Jones, I guess.
Over a bridge, along the beach, out the other side. I had planned a longer loop, down another wooded path, the 'Gold Creek Lookout', bu when I got to the mouth of the path, it looked like a black hole back into the wilderness. I sat on the rocks at the waters edge and looked out over the water. Sweat slippery on my thighs, I rubbed them and watched the sky fade some more, mentally absorbing the calm I would need to make the massive hill up the white chip rock path to my campsite. The right path.
Emma learned: No new paths after 8pm!