Ten Cats by Graham Harrop for August 17, 2024

He’s not out on the loading dock yet? Pretty sure the other cats will revolt at Chesney’s suggestion. Molly and I took a hike up in Mammoth yesterday I have been on several times before. This time, I got LOST and spent over 2 hours wandering around, continually getting blocked by masses of borders and back tracking ending up further and further away from the trail . After much climbing up trails hills and through masses of huge boulders I finally found a trail back down, only to have it end in a meadow I had not passed on the way up. More wandering for another 2 hours never finding the trail, but finally seeing the first lake we had passed. Molly and I worked our way down a slippery steep hillside to the real trail, and still had 2 miles to go to the parking lot. I took 2 bad falls and 1 slide on my but during all this, then managed to get stuck in a very marshy area and fell in waist deep mucky water. Worse hike ever and it should have been a simple up and back down. To avoid this ever happening again, I will download my hike on to an All Trails app, even for trails I think I know. I carry a satellite device to call for help if needed but was determined to find my way rather than call out a volunteer. These rescues end up on FB, usually for someone hurt, but this one would have read something like 76 year old single hiker calling for help 1/4 mile from a trail she could not find, along with a reminder to always carry a map. Embarrassing.