Hey buddy, would you mind giving a couple of scruffy characters a lift?

If you weren’t with us yesterday, this is a continuation of a Twitter serial posted by the OriginalMaxican. When we left him yesterday, the OriginalMaxican and his friend, Sam, had gone on a strenuous hike in Mineral King in the Sequoia National Park only to return to their car late in the day to find a marmot chewing up yummy engine hoses and deliriously drinking antifreeze. As the OriginalMaxican eloquently put it after evaluating the situation, “We’re fucked.”

Our story continues. (If you’d rather read the unabridged tweets, go to: http://twitter.com/OriginalMaxican.)

 

The car started, but only three cylinders were firing, and with no radiator there was no way we could drive it.

The situation was somewhat urgent because we had no camping gear, and as far as we could see nobody was camping in the valley.

Our combined food reserves comprised of an energy bar and half-empty packets of gummi bears and m&ms.

Luckily there was a pay phone at the trailhead. We started ringing towing companies. It was nearly dark.

The towing companies scoffed at our request to come out. “Nobody in their right mind would drive out there at night,” they said.

We had a quick discussion and decided to abandon my car and start walking to Sam’s car. Maybe we could hitch a ride.

After walking a ways we came across an occupied campsite on the side of the road. It was a couple and their young son.

We approached them and explained our situation, and asked if they would be willing to drive us to the other car, or at least part way.

“I don’t think I’d be comfortable with that,” the man replied. We tried to be gracious about it and resumed our walk.

Our story must have sounded absurd. And we were two scruffy men who had emerged from the dark woods wearing strange clothing.

But the reality of a 15 mile walk in the night, with no food, after hiking all day in a thunderstorm, was distressing.

To be continued…

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