seriously

Tell me this isn't scary.
It reminds me of the last time I went camping.

It was years ago. In the middle of October.

We had been hiking for hours.

This was a huge national park. The goal was to relax. To overwrite stress.

No billboards. No signage. Just the sound of birds and the wind through the trees.

A time when spiders were "ok"; dirt welcome.

And there weren't any other humans beings anywhere. It was off season.

But suddenly it became unseasonably cold. We knew the temperature would drop - but this wasn't what the weather channel predicted.

We went camping twice a year.

This time we got lost. It was five pm. The sun was going down.

We didn't panic - not out loud. Not to each other. But internally, quietly, and eventually - jokingly.
It was thirty degrees in the middle of a forest. Animals were starting to come around - and moan and howl.
I was cold.
Neither of our cell phone would work. A Freezing rain had begun to become more like snow.
It had been 65 degrees just a few hours earlier. More than that - we knew where we were a few hours earlier.
We just kept going in circles.
And what I saw was a wonderful sunset - strained through stained glass autumn trees - all beautiful and foreboding and cruel: the realization that five pm in real life wasn't five pm in this place.
Compelling as this sight was - perhaps this is what the end looks like for the unfortunate few. Those that get themselves lost. In a forest that is too big to deal with when you have no way of making a fire in the rainy, wet freezing cold..
Anyway, it's fall - there are so many things to do!
There are pumpkins to carve, apples to bake - sweaters to pick up from the dry cleaners.
I love this time of year.