There are some days when missing your best friend sends you straight into an adventure you didn’t plan…and that’s exactly how this one started. After a few weeks of traveling, Morgan and I were overdue for time in the great outdoors. On my drive home one quiet Sunday evening, we were talking and agreed on one thing instantly: we needed a trail, tonight. Even if it meant hiking in the dark.
I rushed home, grabbed my gear in record time, and headed out to pick up my bestie. We decided to keep things local but new to us, so off we went to the Pinnacles in Berea, Kentucky. What we didn’t expect? A big bold sign announcing the parking lot closed at dusk. Oops.
It was 6:00 PM. Sunset was at 6:35 PM.
We looked at each other wide-eyed, stubborn, chaotic and basically said, let’s see how high we can get before they lock us in.
From the very first steps, the trail reminded us who was boss. Everything was uphill. After about ten minutes we hit a split in the trail and had four options: left, right, straight up, or call it a night. Left and right clearly took us east or west and we didn’t have the sunlight for that. So we gave each other that “you ready?” look, counted to three, and aimed straight up toward Indian Fort Lookout.
Shewwiee… it was a climb.
We powered through on pure determination (and maybe a little delusion), hiking a full mile uphill on nature’s staircase. Huffing, puffing, sweating, and laughing at ourselves the entire way. But at 6:31 PM, with four whole minutes to spare, we reached the lookout.
The view was worth every burning calf muscle.
Warm light spilled across the ridges as the sun dipped low, painting the whole world golden. We soaked it in for 15 minutes, not nearly long enough, and promised each other we’d come back again, with plenty of daylight next time.
Then reality set in: if we didn’t get moving, we were spending the night behind a locked gate… and we were absolutely not prepared for that. So we booked it back down and made it to the car in 15 minutes flat. Thankfully, the gates were still open.
Sometimes the best adventures are the ones squeezed into the edges of daylight.
And sometimes, you just need your best friend on a trail to feel like yourself again.
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