Chapter 10
It seemed like hours had passed. I finally closed my eyes and fell asleep. I'm not sure how long I slept, but as I opened my eyes, I could see from the light through the tent that it was morning. I laid there for a few minutes thinking about what had happened the night before, then I unzipped my tent and made my way outside. I glanced all around the area, then looked down at the fire. There were only a few coals left. I didn't want to put anymore wood on them because I wanted to head up the trail and find the lake, then head back down so I could still get up to the Beaver bay trail by the afternoon. As I started packing everything up, I couldn't help thinking again of the weird things that had happened last night. I shook my head and tried to play it off as just me over thinking things. Well, it wasn't long, and I had everything packed up. I took my shovel and buried the fire pit and made sure all the coals were put out, then tied my shovel back on my pack and threw it on my shoulders. I started to head back to the trail. I was happy everything seemed to be better this morning. The fog or haze that was near the trail was gone and it looked to be a good start to my day. I had made it several miles when I started noticing footprints in the trail. They almost looked like someone had been wearing socks or maybe sandals. I stopped and bent down to look closer, puzzled as to why someone would be hiking a trail in sandals or whatever that smooth print was. Strange… As I stood back up, for some reason I looked back at the trail behind me. Just a quick glance, then turned back and started heading up the trail again. I didn't make it two steps when it dawned on me something was off. I turned back around and looked at the trail again, but this time I really looked. I wasn't sure what I was looking at. It was as if there wasn't a trail further than fifty feet behind me. I turned and walked back down the trail thinking maybe this part of the trail and how the morning light made it look like it was grown over made it look that way, but the further I got the more overgrown the trail seem to be. Bewildered at what I was seeing, I turned back and looked at the trail and that seemed fine. Again, I looked back and then walked another fifty feet or so. I stopped and looked down at the ground to look for tracks, but there was none. No trail at all. It looked as if the trail wasn't even there. Again, I looked back at the trail ahead and I could clearly see it was there, so I quickly ran back up to it and then just stood there. I kept looking back and then forward again. Had I somehow gotten off onto another trail without knowing? I mean maybe I wasn't paying attention because I was thinking of what happened last night. I thought for a minute then I remembered the map I had bought at the station on the drive over here, I took off my pack and set it on the ground, then opened it up and dug out the trail map. I wanted to see if maybe there was another trail running next to the other one. I knelt and opened the map. I looked closely but something was strange. I couldn't find where the trail started. The river was on the map and I followed it from where I thought I had started. As I followed it, I noticed the trail was marked again. I studied it and I started to realize that on the map where the trail is marked it is close to where I am now, and the trail leads further up, then shows it ends at the Lakes edge, but everything behind has disappeared.
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