For today's blog post I would love to give a back story to a new image I created just this past evening. Last night I had an idea in mind for some awesome hiking boots photos! So Chloe and I set off to Lost Dog Trail, which is part of the McDowell Mountain Range in Scottsdale. As I'm always looking to build my commercial / advertising portfolio I thought this would be a great opportunity. The weather has finally settled down, as in it no longer feels like you're opening an oven door when you step outside. Perfect hiking weather! We planned accordingly to be at the top about 30 minutes before sunset, and made great time. I could feel the amazing photos flowing through my mind and into the camera as we shot at the peak of the trail. All was good in the world. Until it wasn't.
Unfortunately, we took a wrong turn right from the top of the trail and ended up 2 miles down the wrong way. So 2 miles back to the top to get back on the correct trail and another 3 miles in complete darkness to get back to the car... The price we pay for stupidity and good photographs :) On the upside, I was able to create an amazing commercial piece for my portfolio.
Now this story wouldn't be that bad, had this been the first time we walked back from the top in pitch black... Almost a year ago exactly, we hiked the Lost Dog Trail for the very first time with a couple of friends and got caught up in taking landscape photos at the top right at sunset only to realize we had 15 minutes of semi visible light left to make it to the car. Oh and did I mention one of our friends was roughly 6 months pregnant? Needless to say it took longer than 15 minutes to make it back, and we swore we would never get caught out in the dark again. Wouldn't you know it a year later, same trail, similar story.
It wasn't all bad though. When we finally made it back to the top and to the spot we took the wrong turn at, we came across another hiker. A girl just about our age who had never hiked the trail before either. After she was convinced we weren't going to kill her (can you blame her?!), we all walked and talked together.
Thanks for reading this post, and I would love to hear about your craziest hiking experiences in the comments section!