But sometimes, it's luck that makes you prepared in the first place. Like this particular evening.
I was in Shenandoah National Park for the second time in less than a month. I came here a few weeks ago with the gf, and loved it so much I knew I had to return for more fall color photography.
Upon my arrival, I had a two small hikes planned, and then figured I would catch the sunset from one of the park's 75 lookouts. Easy... right?
Well, it's hard to plan photography sometimes, because we photographers are constantly finding different things to photograph. A mile long walk through nice looking moss and leaves can take hours, and that's all before we get the our intended destination.
So there I was on the last hike of the night, heading for White Oak Canyon Falls. A nice waterfall in a canyon full of fall color. My award winning guidebook(which cost me $2 at the Big Meadow Visitor Center) said the hike round trip was 4.6 miles.
Off I went, I was about a half-mile into the trail, at about 4:45pm when I crossed an intersection with another trail where a man was sitting. I nodded 'hi' and kept moving, until he shouted "Hey, you going all the way to the falls?
"Yes" I said,
"You gotta light? You gonna be coming back in pitch black!"
In my head I knew that I would have to walk about .5 miles per hour for me to take that long, since civil twilight provides a little bit of light after sunset.
"Really?" I said, "My book said it's only 4.6 miles round trip"
Shaking his head he said "no, more like 4 miles one way"
"ok, well I guess I will just give it a shot!" I smarted back to him as I walked away...
As I was leaving I could hear the man's wife mentioning to him that the trail was in fact, only 2.3 miles one way.
As a continued down the trail, I kept thinking to myself "man that guy was a Dbag, just because it takes him 2hrs to walk 2 miles doesn't mean it's gonna take me that long"
But for some reason, this interaction with this man made me hurry. I kept looking up at the sky reassuring myself that I had plenty of time. But my reassurances were short lived, I started to run.
And run I did! I ran pretty much all the way to the falls, cutting out a TON of walking time. Just before I got to the falls, I checked the sun calculator on my phone, and found out that the sunset was MUCH sooner than I expected. For some reason I thought it was to be around 7pm, when it was closer to 6:30pm.
I took a look at the waterfall when I got there, snapped a photo or two, then made my way back. I wasn't really concerned about the sunset, just getting out before pitch black, like the guy said earlier.
As you know, since I am typing this, I survived the dark abyss of the White Oak Canyon Trail. I got in the car and made my way back towards Big Meadow. As I passed the first overlook, what I saw was the tail end of an incredible sunset over the Shenandoah Mountains. The layers of mountains and rich color were quite the sight to see.
And then I remembered a blog post I had read earlier in the week from a photographer mentioning that a very, very young moon(super skinny crescent) would be visible just after sunset. I looked around for it but couldn't see anything, so I got back into the car and started eating an incredibly delicious turkey sandwich made with Earth Grains 100% Whole Wheat Bread. The texture of the bread and the taste of the Miracle Whip and thinly sliced turkey were truly amazing... but then, I saw it, the moon. It was behind a layer of clouds and falling fast.
I raced out of the car and started firing away, and just like that.... it was gone.
I then thought back to the man who told me to hurry, and how lazy I thought he was. I'm glad that the part of me that controls my legs actually listened to him and ran the first half of the trail. Otherwise, not only would I have been walking out of White Oak Canyon in the dark, I would have missed this awesome sliver of a moon. I most likely would have been mauled by a pack of juvenile black bears as well. :)
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| A young crescent moon sets over Shenandoah National Park |
