Discovering the “Gnarnians”

*Disclaimer – I am changing the names of people in this story for their privacy.

I’m starting to realize that most of my best and grandest adventures start out with someone saying, “hey do you wanna . . .” and me responding with “Yeah, that sounds awesome, let’s do it.”

So begins this adventure.

My co-worker here at Rio, Zeke, came up to me and said “hey, a group of us are doing a 10 mile hike to the base of Mt. St. Helena this weekend, are you down?”

I had already made plans for that afternoon, so I originally said no. But as luck would have it, things worked out and I was able to meet them at the trail head.

Here’s a quick summary of everyone who went, just to paint you a clearer mental image. First there was Zeke. He’s energetic, musical and always always up for a run. He gets excited about things easily, and his enthusiasm bleeds into everything he touches.

Then there was his best friend, Tyler. I hadn’t met Tyler until that day, but he is an athlete. One of the men who’s born out of his era, Tyler was wearing neon orange running shoes, a ball cap to cover choppy, disheveled bed hair (even at 6:00PM), and running shorts that would put mine to shame in several ways. He’s also a runner—one of the Forest Gump types—those who get into their heads “let’s run 40 miles today”, and then just goes out and gets it done. He’s training for a 100 mile race in a couple months.

Charlotte was next. She is Zeke’s girlfriend. She’s gentle and quirky. Small, full of energy and oozing positivity and sunlight with every move she makes. She is radiant and happy, with large brown eyes, graceful movements and tan skin. She’s more of the Dungeons and Dragons player and less of a hiker, but I admire her for her dedication to things that are out of her element.

The last two were Beth and Ben. Beth is the school counselor. She’s like a gentle springtime rain; soothing and good. She’s one of those golden, elegant souls who can make anywhere feel safe. And there’s Ben, Beth’s husband. I don’t know him well yet. He’s quieter, works with computers but also loves the outdoors. They just seem to go together. He’s tall, with light hair and a nice smile. Someone who’s easy to like and easy to be around.

Now you know the team.

We set out on this hike. 10 miles to go, about 2 hours to sundown. We knew we’d be hiking in the dark, and had planned accordingly. The path was uphill for most of the trail it felt like. It wasn’t the uncomfortable, miserable type of uphill that makes your calves and lungs burn, but the gentle, meandering type. We talked a little about a lot of different things, but the biggest conversation holder was running—Zeke tried to convince everyone to run the 50K with him in a few months. *cue the sound of my internal laughing at how terrible that sounds.

Once we climbed out of the forest (not above where trees can grow, just above where they do grow on this trail), we could see the sun setting over the Napa Valley. It was a truly stunning sight in all aspects of the word stunning.

Note to self: Add Sunsets to my list of favorite things.

The sun disappeared completely somewhere between mile 3 and 4, and we continued to hike in the twilight. I love that sliver of time just after the sun disappears behind the horizon; just before it gets totally dark. You can still see the remnants of sunshine in the western sky, but everything else is bathed in this thick dusky blue.

The trail dipped into the forest again, and we had to pull out our lights. I had a small flashlight, but Zeke was right with his observation; “Courtney, that looks like a candle”. So I used his light ahead of me for a while. I just watched his feet, stepped in his footsteps. When it got too dark, I used the light on my phone.

The group split apart more after dark, each one of us going at our own pace, I kept up with Zeke. Tyler bounced back and forth between us and the group further back. Beth fell behind to walk with Charlotte, who was bringing up the rear.

The trail was narrow. We had to walk single file and for most of the way. The mountainside rose up steeply to our right and had a steep, downhill drop off to our left, which made it more interesting in the dark. Most of the vegetation was dried grass and small bushes, and we could see the lights from the Valley below as we hiked.

Zeke and I were at the front, and hiked together a large part of the way, just chatting and enjoying the trail. At one point we stopped to wait on the others who were behind us, and shut our lights off so we could see the stars more clearly. The milky way spread faintly across the sky above us. We saw a shooting star; one of those huge ones that leaves you standing there with that breathless childhood wonder.

It’s moments like that that take my breath away that make me want to live in the wild forever and melt myself into nature, let it become a part of me. Those moments call to my soul like the moon speaks to the ocean tides.

But soon everyone else had caught up, and we continued hiking.

We found a lot of spiders. They strung their webs across the trail and Zeke almost always saw them with his light. I think he only caught a couple with his face. Small scorpions appeared occasionally along the trail, and we heard the larger animals dancing in the shadows just beyond the reach of our lights.

The moon came out somewhere around mile 8, and it was bright enough to walk without my light again, as long as we weren’t under the trees. At the top of the last climb, right before descending into the forest and finding the parking lot, there was an open area where someone, or possibly many someones, had created a stone maze. It spread over the ground in gently swept pathways, twisting and winding itself into knots and back out again. It must have taken hours to create, but the type hours that pass effortlessly. The hours where you don’t look at your watch, or check your phone, where your mind is free to wander and able to be at peace with nature itself.

Eventually we stole into the parking lot, somewhere between 12:00 and 1:00 AM.

Ben, Beth, Charlotte and I climbed into the car that had been left at that parking lot, while Tyler and Zeke wolfed down some food, and set out for their own journey; running the same trail back.

Part of me was so tired by that point that I just wanted to fall into bed and sleep, but part of me also wanted to run back with them.

for now I’ll save 10 mile runs on mountain terrain at ungodly hours of the night for another story, and a higher fitness level, and settle for the memories made with night hiking and good conversations.