Trail Run: Round Top

It was 7:30AM on Sunday, and I forced myself out of my car at the park on Round Top. After a stretch and much complaining about the wind, we split up into groups and headed out. I again resisted going into the faster group as I keep rolling my ankle and I wanted to be able to focus on where I place my feet. I really don't want to get caught with a twisted ankle miles out on the trail.

We started with 7 people and the trail seemed decent enough at first, but about a half-hour in, we started encountering big pockets of mud and the pockets got soupier and bigger as we went along. One woman slipped and fell on her rear right in front of me, ick. At an hour out, one person turned around, I never suspected she was going to become my salvation later that day.

We hit a part of the trail where it was a weave of roots covering a sea of mud. The only way to stay out of the mud was to walk on the slippery roots. By this time, my new trail shoes were already so drenched that I could feel the mud squishing in my socks. We made a left onto Nuuanu trail and continued on. The leader had originally planned to do an out-and-back, but after discussion with the group, it was agreed to do a loop, at least that's the last I had heard.

We hit a section of really steep downhills, my favorite! Another woman and I just love these and went galloping down as fast as we can, eventually leaving the group behind. We eventually stopped to wait for everyone to catch up... crickets chirping... No one came. Thinking we must have missed a turn, we headed back up the big nasty hill. It's funny how my feelings about a hill change depending on the direction. We did spot a tiny trail to one side, but it didn't look used, so we were very confused. Did the others turn back?

Since neither of us had a map, or knew the trails, we figured our safest option was to go back the way we came. The problem with that was soon revealed in about 30 minutes when we hit a cross trail and weren't sure which way to go. Apparently neither of us were paying much attention at that point. We made a guess and headed on to see if any of it looked familiar, and then we hit another cross trail. I pointed it out to the other woman and she said she knew for sure that trail went to a road. I figured this was a good thing, far better than being lost in the forest, so we took it. Sure enough, we soon emerged out on a utility access road which took us down to what turned out to be near the top of Tantalus.

Once we hit Tantalus, it took us a minute to figure out where we were, but eventually we got oriented and started walking towards Round Top. Right about then, a car went by with a familiar face behind the wheel, it was the woman who had turned back early! She asked us how the heck we got over there and told us to get in the car, as we were way too far from the park. It turned out we were about five miles from where we needed to be. Granted that's going by the windy roads instead of over the direct trail route, but still, I was floored that we were so far away.

When we got back and hopped out of the car, we got some very strange looks and the inevitable questioning of how we came to be in someone's car. We started telling the tale, when to my dismay, the other woman basically put all the blame on me. She said she thought I knew the trail (I've never been here before, and never claimed otherwise), and that she had said she once got lost before right at the part where we got lost (she had said she had gotten lost, but not specified where, and one would think she had learned from it). Basically, she went on disclaiming all responsibility. Now, while I'm perfectly willing to own up to my own stupidity, I figured I had an equal partner in all this. She made the exact same mistakes I did, yet she's trying to make it look like I dragged her into it. Very classy. Oh well, now I have her measure.

The rest of our group showed up a few minutes later, and were stunned to see us. We both asked what happened to the other. It turned out the group leader planned on turning around right at the start of the downhills. I don't know why neither of us were aware of that, but so be it. She said they called for us, but eventually headed back.

At the least, I learned some lessons for trail running:
1.) Bring a map
2.) Bring a cell phone (we did)
3.) Program the cell numbers of the other members of your group and other groups into the cell (we didn't)
4.) Don't leave the group (duh)

Next week is out at Kaena Point, which I think I'll skip. Four hours of driving round trip to go for a run seems a little silly and a waste of a day. I'm planning on joining some friends for a bike ride instead.