The Road Less Travelled

In the second fattest country in the world, I choose to become a healthier me.
Only 1 out of 3 people choose to be Christian, and I am.
So where am I going with this?
This last weekend was my 3rd year at Bolar Mountain.  I always go to the beach and the outlook on the way to the store and the boat launch that has cell phone service and always make the mile long trek up to Grouse Point Overlook.
Prior to starting this journey, when faced with the decision to go a whole mile to an overlook or to take a unknown trail hike, what decision would you have made?  Yes, I drive out to the middle of nowhere just to escape the craziness of my life, but in all reality, all you really care about is that crazy awesome picture that says I did it!  So off to the overlook you go!
I'm not against this at all!  That's what I have done the last 2 times at the park.  So why am I writing about it?  Because this year when faced with making the trek up to the overlook to get that great 'I did it!' picture, I turned left onto my 'less travelled road'.

The trail I took was little more than a footpath through the woods:  mossed over and covered with leaves from last fall.  Sometimes way too much of an incline up or down depending on where I was.  Hoping and praying that the soft ground wouldn't give out from under me, leaving me sprawled on the forest floor.  I made my way down into a ravine, wondering if I was even in the right place, following blue patches on trees as my only clue that I was still where some other humans had been before.  Following a creek bed, several feet deep, seeing the harsh savagery of nature as trees came down, sliding down the mountain until something stronger stopped it, seeing the little flowers springing up in the middle of nowhere, saying I am strong enough to survive, even here.


I turn a corner on the trail and am greeted with a sight that makes me so glad my mother is not with me.  A narrow and long bridge springs up to greet me, and if that isn't enough, there is a plank missing as well.  I start out across this bridge, feeling not unlike Indiana Jones, and waiting for the bridge to collapse from underneath of me.  As I get nearer to the missing plank, I feel the bridge moving under me more and more, and all I can think about is I am ready for my big role in the movies, it is going to collapse under me and I am going to fall several hundred feet, screaming the whole way until you hear a faint splash...  In all reality, if my mother had been with me, she just would have climbed down into the creek bed and crossed.  I was probably all of 4 feet off the ground, but I was still not impressed with the swaying bridge.

Unbeknownst to me, the bridge was the least of my worries.  No sooner do I step off the bridge, then I start climbing, and by climbing, I mean digging in with all I had to get back up out of the ravine!  Eventually I do make it out of the ravine (obviously) and quickly find myself on a type of service road.  I was actually somewhat disappointed as I followed this road instead of an actual trail.  I mean what is the point of a road less travelled if someone actually built the road????

 At the top of the road, I was greeted with another choice:  continue on the loop I have been travelling or what?  Another overlook?  Why not?  I am already here, aren't I?

OMG!!!  I have never seen a more beautiful vista!  Absolutely stole my breath as I rounded the corner!!!  I sat on a bench and proceeded to enjoy the picnic lunch I had packed and just soaked in this scene that I might never have discovered if I hadn't taken that first left hand turn.
After my lunch was finished, I packed up and set out to continue my Bolar Loop journey.  I was very pleased to be back on a trail and done with the 'road' type setting.  Once again, being careful about foot placement and as most of this section was downhill, I had to be careful to keep my weight back so I didn't go tumbling down!!!  I came to another fork in the road.  Overlook this way, fee booth spur this way.  Well, even if I had been to the Grouse Point Overlook every year, that didn't mean I didn't want to go this year, so onward I travelled.

The side view of the islands seen in this picture are the same islands that were a front view in the last picture. I couldn't believe how far I had travelled!!!  But the best part was I had literally just passed the fee booth spur, so instead of continuing on the loop that I had been on many times before, I back tracked and hit the fee booth spur.  And this is where the story gets lost, well maybe not the story, but I certainly got lost!!!  You see, I came to yet another fork in the trail only this one was unmarked so I didn't know which way to go.  My choices were steep uphill and into the sun or gentle downhill and shaded.  Now, I know that for the story to be really good, I should have taken the apparent harder of the 2 paths and gone uphill and into the sun, but I was hot and tired, and while I didn't mind continuing my hike, was it really necessary to make it harder than it needed to be?  And every time I had been presented with a choice, I had chosen left, so I went left again.  This actually ended up being the hardest part of my entire journey.  The 'gentle' downhill was so misleading as the trail was so steep downhill that 'steps' had been put into place so you weren't completely trying to kill yourself.  Who were they kidding?  Zigzagging back and forth, praying for an end sometime soon and that I would end up somewhere that I knew where I was!!!  And finally, I hear traffic.  Maybe I did choose the fee booth spur!  Yahooey!!!  I see the bottom of my trail coming out onto another service road and there is a sign at the bottom that reads Sugar Hollow Trail.  (not the fee booth spur)  Note to self:  Next years trail is the whole Sugar Hollow Trail, not just the really scary part that I decided to traverse.  But that is another story.  I head for the traffic, because I am done for the day.  

My trail hike ended by walking down these steps.  This is not the first time I have seen these steps since they are on the side of the road leading into the campground, nor is this the first time I have taken a picture of these steps, but I had to take the picture, once more, because this time, I walked down those steps and the trail on the other side too.

All told, I walked over 6 miles this day, climbed and descended at least 115 flights of stairs (1150 ft altitude change either up or down).  It was an amazing trip and one I will not soon forget and I cannot wait to go back and do it all again next year.  I wish I didn't have to wait that long, but hey, that is part of what makes it so magical!  

Maybe to tide me over I will head out to the Blue Ridge, which are certainly a lot closer and spend a day hiking this summer!!!

Just remember, it is that first step that is the hardest.  Once you get moving, just keep on going, and soon you will be taking all left turns onto roads less travelled too!