It's been two days since my wildflower walk on the Snead/Rambouillet Trail, and I'm wondering if this part of the walk contributed to my emergency room visit yesterday. I had been trying to figure out how to cross the creek.
The trail is more like a series of small trails emanating from the housing developments which surround the open space in the middle between them. I always enter from Oxen Street on a paved path with low stairs built in. A narrow dirt path parallels this. After taking the path or the stairs down the hill, I come to a creek. From the main path there is a wooden bridge that crosses the creek.
From that main path, I could see a creek on my left. I decided to take the paved path to the other path I thought connected to it, but instead I was blocked by the creek.
Since I wasn't wearing boots, I took the path back in the direction I usually take it until I reached the turn-off to a dirt path that I believed would meet the other path I wanted up near a pond. It's the path to the right in this photo. You can see the path I want to be on to the left.
The dirt path became quite steep and narrow where it follows the curve of the creek. You can see how the path leans in a slope between the trees. I have pointed to the path with the green pin.
 |
| The path on the hill had a dangerous slope and I almost fell, B. Radisavljevic |
I wanted to get to where I thought I could get on the path I wanted, so I stayed on the dirt path even though I knew the slope and loose rocks were risky for me. Since I saw the woman and her children ahead of me, I knew help would be close should I slip. I figured I'd come back by the wider level path once I was across the creek. But that didn't happen. The path again dead-ended into the creek. There was only one place to cross the creek without getting wet.
Unfortunately, I didn't want to risk the slope it would take to get to it. I was between two steep places, but I chose to go back the way I came. As I expressed my opinion about the lack of bridges to cross the creek from the paths, the mother explained that the golf course used to be very close to where we were walking before there was so much development around the open space. That's why the trails have no bridges across the creek. People used golf carts to cross the creeks where the trails stopped. Those on bikes still have no problem getting across the creeks.
After I left the the trail and went back to my car, I continued on to shop for groceries before going home. My back began to hurt just after I made it into the house with the bags of groceries. I can't help but think it was the effort to keep from slipping on the slope that caused my back to go into a spasm. Fortunately the medications they gave me at the emergency room yesterday are helping and I'm almost back to normal just before midnight tonight. I think I've learned I need to be more careful.
No comments:
Post a Comment