At the bottom of the trail out came our thumbs, but nobody would stop to
give us a ride. We inquired at the ranger station about
transportation, but they were no help. We waylaid people getting into their cars –
no luck. Finally it was dark and we went
back to the ranger station thinking we could spend the night on the floor. Finally someone took pity on these two stupid
people who had gotten themselves stranded.
He smuggled us into the ranger’s dormitory (I’m not sure they had female
rangers then) and showed us a couple cots at the far end of the room. We slept on top of the bedding with just a
wool blanket to keep warm, but it was the middle of the summer so not freezing
cold. In the morning, just before the
sun came over the mountains, we slipped down the stairs and headed for the
road. Who should be out for her morning
constitutional but the lady in charge of the dormitories. We obviously had come from one of them and we
admitted our transgression, not knowing the name of the ranger who smuggled us
in might have kept him out of trouble.
The gorgon was not very nice about the whole thing and had no suggestion
on how we could get back to our campsite.
We walked to the concession
area and bought coffee and something to eat, and started making plans to hike
the trail back to the top of the falls and on to our campsite. As we paid the check my husband casually said
to the lady at the register, “You wouldn’t know how we could get back to our
campsite on the Tioga Road, would you?”
The girl looked thoughtful and said, “Well, you could take the bus.”
Yes, there was a bus
route that would take us right past our campground. Why nobody else had thought of it is a
mystery. We found out where to catch the
bus and were soon on our way. The driver
let us off at the campground turnoff and we walked into our campsite. That was the last time we ever went for a
hike without advanced planning and a day pack in case of emergencies. I still wonder if the ranger was punished for
his good deed.
# # #
