Today was a day of working through fears...
My friend Maja and I went for a six hour hike today. A waterfall called "Mae Yen" (sounds auspiciously like "Mayan"), we were told it was three hours in and then three hours out. We were both so excited for good excerise and it was a beautiful day, being a bit less hazy than usual. At the trailhead we were greeted by a mid-sized dog and her pup- a cute little waggly thing. Maja had just been telling me that she was afraid of dogs, and she tried to get away as the poor little pup tried to play with her. We started hiking, and the dogs decided to come too. There was no way they were going to take "no" for an answer. Like a magnet, they only wanted to be by Maja. She was nearly in a panic, and asked if there was anyway I could walk between them? I tried but it just wasn't going to happen. Im a dog lover, and I could tell they were sweet and harmless, so I just watched in amusement to see what was going to happen. It was my guess that this situation was arising to help Maja get over her fear of dogs so I just decided to let it all play out. The first hour and a half, she was nervous and uncomfortable. In an attempt to lighten the situation, we started to joke about the dogs being our porters, and "why weren't they carrying our bags?". Gradually Maja began to tolerate the dogs and even began warming up to the pup.
The hike began with a sketchy bridge crossing the river; some bamboo poles laid accross with a few old pieces of plywood on top. It sagged as we walked accross and I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of this structure. We crossed two more dodgy "bridges" near the beginning; one was a folded V-shaped piece of metal roofing, the other was a few PVC pipes laid next to each other (see pics on FB). Another interesting aspect of this trail, was that it was infested with "daddy long legs". Lucky for us, neither of us have a fear of these spiders; for many parts of the trail they were everywhere! You had to really navigate through them to try not to step on them. There were millions, and it looked like the ground was a moving carpet! I had never seen anything like it.
As we continued down the path, we noticed that it seemed to be the puppy's first time doing the full hike and she clearly had fear of the water. We were hiking along a creek and the trail crossed back and forth through the water many times. Each time the puppy crossed, she got a little more comfortable with the water and you could see her courage soar as she proudly began jumping into the river, showing off her skills. By this time, I decided we needed to name our porters. I walked along eating a bag of nuts, and "accidentally" dropping some on the ground so the puppy could eat some too. "Peanut!", I declared. Let's caller her Peanut! The other dog simply became "Mama" as she was clearly peanut's mother. Peanut and Mama...
We walked for 3 hours and still no waterfall. We were no longer following a trail, but climbing over rocks and small cascades. It was a bit tiring, and peanut was having trouble. I had to keep lifting her up onto the rocks. We decided to break for lunch and then make our way back, waterfall unseen, as it was getting later in the day and we still had a long way back. It was such a beautiful hike and we were having fun whether we saw a waterfall or not.
We started heading back after a nice lunch, and found ourselves on a different trail. It rose up, up, up a couple hundred feet. We followed it for awhile and found ourselves in a very rocky and steep area. The trail seemed to end and we found ourselves in a bit of a conundrum... If we followed the trail back the way we came and then followed the river, would we get home by dark? If we kept following the high road, would we find the trail again? If not, could we get back down to the river? We backtracked a few yards to see if we missed the trail, and saw what looked like it might be a little path. We started to follow it, descending a bit too quickly, and suddenly found ourselves in a very steep and slippery position. Now it was my turn to be afraid. Ever since my leg injury, I have had a fear of steep slippery foot placement. I continued to breahe through the experience, aggreeing to meet my fear as both Maja and Peanut had met theirs. There was no doubt this was not the path, as we ended up on the brink of a steep drip-off...Peanut, who was exhausted, and slowly lagging behind, suddenly ran down the path and up to Maja who was in front. At the vey moment we were both saying that we didn't think could be right, Peanut tried to jump up on Maja, and as gently as a puppy can, caught Majas arm in her teeth. "I think she's trying to tell me not go down here!" Maja said with surprise. She felt amazed at this act of protection from this little dog. We scrambled back up to rethink our situation. While we were discussing our options, we noticed Mama siting about 100 yards ahead of us in the direction of continuing forward. Hmmm... This dog had done this hike before. Maybe she knew the way back? We discussed the idea of trusting her to lead us forward. We decided to give it a go. We followed her through some brambles, and around through some rocky areas, and then... Whaddya know? The path!
As we skipped merrily down the path back toward the river, Maja reveled in amazement at the capacity of these dogs. She has never had a dog before, and she admitted that now she really liked them a lot. We joked about making then vests that said "tour guide" with a pocket for tips (i.e. doggie treats). The path forked many times on the way back, and we didn't hesitate to follow Mama; always ending up in just the right place. She took us on an even more beautiful route home, than the one which we had taken there.
When we arrived at the trailhead, we sat for a bit, throwing sticks for Mama to chase and giving our heartfelt thanks the the little dogs, our porters, our friends. As we climbed onto the scooter to drive home, the dogs, exhausted and tired, came running full speed up to us and stood at our feet with expressions which seemed say "please don't go!". We said goodbye again and began to drive away, with one last glance back at the two four-legged figures staring after us. After a moment of silence Maja said to me... "I think I want to get a dog."
No comments:
Post a Comment