A Story From the Field: Illumination at Whitaker Point (Hawksbill Crag)Posted by drfl on May 13th, 2010
It was a cool, dark morning. The sun wasn’t due to arrive for another hour and a half. My drive had been quiet and uneventful save the lone bobcat crossing the dirt road who had stared at me briefly, taunting me, knowing there is no possible way I could capture his image through the blackness. I arrived at the trail head and gathered my gear, preparing for the hour hike that lay ahead. I slid my backpack on, grabbed my flashlight, and looked for a box of energy bars that had somehow gone missing in the hour drive. I paused, I heard something. A bear? Elk? No, it was man-made, it was the sound of an approaching vehicle. As I looked back down the road, I could see headlights filtering through the trees. Here I was, in the middle of rural Arkansas, on a less-traveled dirt road, in complete darkness with an unknown individual approaching. I slammed the door to the car, turned on my flashlight, and quickly began my hike.
“Hello?!” yelled a voice through the early twilight.
I responded with a very apprehensive and much quieter, “Hello.”
