by Rob DeVore

Created on: September 25, 2009

The start of something beautiful

"Wow!" she said. "This is really steep right off the bat" as we descended the slanted trailhead along the 1/4 mile drop into the canyon.

"We made good time" I thought, reflecting back on our early morning drive along the winding country road with precipitous hills and small towns of Southwestern Georgia.

We had arrived at Providence Canyon State Park 30 minutes prior, laden ourselves with our packs, checked in at the ranger station, and started down from the trailhead. It was Jess' first backpacking

trip. I had met her a month before and found that she had been hiking and had been camping, but had never done both at the same time. Even though I had wanted to be more than friends as she was attractive, gregarious and smart, I had decided to play it cool and try not to screw it up by being aggressive. I was glad to have a new friend. We got her outfitted with gear and she was chomping at the bit to use it.

The trail exited into a dry creek bed that made up the canyon floor. This was the beginning mile of the 4 mile hike to our campsite located in the wooded hills adjacent to the canyon itself.

According to Wikipedia, "Providence Canyon State Park is a 1,003 acre (4.06 km2) state park located in Stewart County in west central Georgia. The park contains Providence Canyon, which is sometimes called Georgia's "Little Grand Canyon". It is considered to be one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Georgia. Providence Canyon actually is not a purely natural feature the massive gullies (the deepest being 150 feet) were caused by erosion due to poor farming in the 1800s."

The section of the trail after exiting the creek bed was flat yet winding. There wasn't a lot of wildlife that we could see, but there were the tracks of raccoon, deer and opossum in the loose soil of the trail. After a mile of this glorious December day enjoying the trail through the wooded scrub, the trail took a steep ascent up a seemingly unending 30 degree hill. I had showed Jess how to conquer hills by bending forward and allowing the weight of the pack to "pull" you forward while you push down with your poles to achieve the desired momentum. I had learned this on my trip to Rocky Mountain National Park a few months earlier. We had to stop about halfway up to catch our breath. It was a 600 foot elevation gain in less than a half mile! She was telling me that she was feeling dizzy and then, just like that, fainted. I caught her before she hit the ground of course and made

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>