Accidental Adventure

  The bear that crossed the road in front of us did not scare me.  When we realized we’d made a wrong turn and didn’t know exactly where we were, I wasn’t too worried. When the last bit of daylight faded and the rain picked up, I still believed we’d be fine- after all, if we didn’t make it to the campsite, we could always sleep in the Land Cruiser for the night.
  But as we drove up the hill and the cruiser started slipping down the dirt road towards a dark edge of unknown depths, I entered full panic mode.
  When real danger presented itself, I immediately questioned every decision we had made that evening.
  It was just our annual camping trip at Chamber’s Lake, where we would meet up with Court’s parents who come out each year and spend a couple weeks at their favorite site. We were going up for the weekend- heading up Friday evening after work. We had packed up the car Thursday and were on the road by six knowing we’d  be around the campfire roasting marshmallows by eight.
  Or so we thought.
  Court would say later he passed his fingers over the handheld GPS, but it’s not like we were going anywhere out of the ordinary so he left it at home. The Colorado atlas was at home too, not in the backseat pocket like we thought.
  There had been some afternoon thunderstorms that Friday as there always are in Colorado at 3pm. And as we approached the turnoff for Poudre Canyon we knew why the State Troopers were turning vehicles around. Since the High Park Fire, mudslides are common and often stop travel on highway 14.
  The car was packed to the gills, Court’s parents were expecting us with no way to reach them, and we just weren’t going to let a little rain stop us from our weekend of camping.
  We are adventurous and we are stubborn. We are idiots.
  We could have gone up to Laramie and back down through Walden. We could have turned around and driven up early Saturday morning. But instead we decided to go a ‘back way’ we’ve never been before through Red Feather Lakes and on many a dirt road.
  Dirt roads. In the rain.
  “Stop. The. Car.”
  As these words came out of my mouth, I knew they were useless since Court would obviously stop the car if he could. I was deciding if I should turn around and get a sleeping Layla out of her car seat while I was still in the car or if I should jump out and get her out through the back door… As I was about to act, the car came to a full stop.
  My heart was pounding in my chest.
  It had been fun until now. I finally saw a bear in the wild, so close, that Court and I simultaneously started rolling up the windows as he passed- just in case he got curious. We saw some beautiful portions of Colorado we have yet to explore and just when I was about to get concerned that we didn't know exactly where we were the road started looking more like a road and less like a trail and power lines emerged promising that civilization was near.
  But all that meant nothing as I now sat there helpless, wondering if we were going to live through the evening or be found dead the next day at the bottom of a ravine. Victims of a single car crash that would leave everyone wondering why we’d been so naive to be on those roads in those conditions.
  But we had stopped. I wanted out of the car, but the car was our shelter. But what if it started slipping again. It would be a very long night.
  After collecting ourselves, Court decided to put the car back in drive and test it out. I closed my eyes as tight as could be and held on to the car for dear life. We made it to the top of the hill hugging the side of the road with a ditch and not the unknown darkness. I didn’t know it at the time but the worst was over.
  It was a long but uneventful drive and after detours, near disasters and wildlife galore,  we did in fact make it to the campsite around 11:30 pm. Over five hours after we'd left our driveway for a less than two hour drive.
  We got out, thanked our cruiser for delivering us safely through our accidental adventure and of course shamed ourselves for making poor decisions that not only put ourselves in danger but our little one who trusts us not to be big dummies. I know it won’t be the last time, but at the very least we learned a lesson and we will be sure to have the GPS, the atlas and common sense anytime we go into the wild.