Not the best idea ever

    So I've been reacquainting myself with longer distance hiking, taking advantage of the mild Spring weather. I especially wanted to cover as much ground as possible at Congaree National Park, partly because of the coming intense heat, but mostly because of the hatching intense flies. So today I took on the River Trail, one of the longest. Being a genius in my own right, I brought along: one 0.5 litre bottle of water. (Note from your friendly old neighborhood old hiking book author (who is old): don't do this.)
    I also brought along two cell phones, neither of which were a lot of help as Congaree NP is a dead area for cell service. This comes up because when I finally hit the river, one of them came alive. I had three voicemail messages. My dad fell down this morning and Margaret couldn't get him up, nor could she reach me or brother William. Fortunately, the last message was to the effect that she got him up and he was fine. If not, I would have been in a fine kettle of fish, more than an hour's walk and a half-hour's drive away. I phoned and she assured me that everything was fine, so I was a little bit relieved.
    So I continued taking the long way around, rather than the short way back. It was another situation where it's a good thing that I really, really, really like hiking in the woods, because the trail isn't outstandingly scenic. There are two spur trails to the river, and those offer nice views. Also, I had the iPod playing really outstanding old time radio shows. Not just everybody gets to listen to a show about werewolves in lonely dark woods while walking through lonely dark woods. BOO! Exactly. Also Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds." Personally, I still can't believe they pre-empted Ramon Raquello and his orchestra for that crap.:)
    There was one section that was insanely beautiful, but it just wouldn't photograph that well. Butterflies were legion and gorgeous, but they, too, declined to pose. The herd of feral hogs that I met early in the hike ran away from me, which was very much OK with me. Lizards were also very numerous, but equally camera-shy. And the kayakers I saw in a creek looked like they were having enough trouble with snags without having somebody take a picture of them, so I left them alone, too.
    In the end I was out hiking for three and a half hours. If I hadn't started in the morning, I probably would have been in all kind of trouble. As it was, I got a bit dehydrated and didn't get lunch until almost two hours late. But I think I'll live. Will I go back? Sure! This Fall.