Backpacking in the Cats

We waited in Tarrytown, waiting for April to arrive,

‘The cars around me on the bridge’ she said, ‘were like bees in a hive.’

The five of us carpooled in the Toyota and the Merc, sped towards Prediger road,

We were excited about the Devil’s path, ready with our 30 pound load.

So we arrived at 10 o clock, parking in the dark,

There was not a single sound, neither of man nor of the lark.

‘Did we take all our stuff?’ someone asked,  ‘the maps, compass and the water?’

Cos we need to spend time in the woods for the next day and a quarter.

April fell down reaching for the maps, the first in a series of ten,

But boy was she tough surviving it all, like a lion in its own den.

Lean-to was soon in sight, after the one mile hike,

we tied our food in plastic bags and hung it on a tree higher than the bears would like.

We soon slept in our sleeping bags, after hanging to dry our shoe(s)

all the night the roar of a river nearby, our ears listened to.

The birds chirped, the water dripped, when day finally broke

What a crisp day it was then, its beauty made us choke.

We had our food, and filtered the river water, thanks to April’s portable device,

Little did poor Judy know then that the device had a vice.

‘Oh no, will we fall sick?’ that was Judy’s grouse,

when April revealed suddenly that she forgot the filtering element in her house.

But we had bigger problems down the trail, as slowly the Devil revealed

why so many people before us had tried the trail and failed

(Well the above line was just for fun, not the truth)

On and on the trail went, not something you would love,

Especially if it goes up and down, like a sine curve.

We did not stop for lunch at all, we were racing against time,

to get the day’s hike over with, before the end of sunshine.

First we came to Indian head, then the Twin mountain peaks,

followed by the Sugarloaf, crossing many creeks.

Then we descended in the dark, stumbling over the rocks,

cliff climbing with just headlights, not a stroll in the parks.

‘There is the lean-to’ screamed one of us,

Tired, relieved, and what-not, we changed after we undressed.

Toni, the fireman, made a valiant try,

to get a fire started but alas the wood wasn’t dry.

We all sat inside the shelter trying to get warm and cozy,

but when swirling around Toni, the draft seemed to get lazy.

‘Tis already 9 O clock, the time is just right,

to go to sleep,’ said April, ‘cos its hikers’ midnight.’

The whole night it rained, without any respite,

but the morning brought rich sunshine, much to our delight.

So for the final time, we packed our bags with the pans and pots,

and receded from the lean-to, with rather heavy hearts.

The last three miles seemed like the longest, but we crossed them after all,

to complete the first, but not the only hike of the fall.