Kids, I’m starting to think that all hiking trips in which I’m involved are doomed to fail before they begin. You’ll recall I attempted a solo trip to the Cascades recently, which ended with me reaching the entrance and turning around and going home due to the overcrowding of the trail.

Yesterday, I joined a group from church in a well-intentioned trip to a place called Bald Knob (no, it’s not the same one from Fantasia, I checked). The plan was to meet in the evening, then carpool to the trail in order to reach the end in time to watch the sun set. wanting to be optimistic about this gathering, I ignored the overcast skies for as long as I could.

As we stood in the parking lot where we met, someone mentioned that they hoped the rain would hold off. I didn’t think it was supposed to rain, only stay cloudy. Deciding it as worth the risk, we piled into a couple of cars and hit the road.

Merely a few miles down the road, we saw evidence of recent rain. Maybe the rain had come and gone and our view of the sunset would be unobstructed. Maybe not.

The rain began to lightly hit the cars as we drove along. It quickly became heavier and showed no sign of stopping. We pulled into the parking lot at the start of the trail and rolled down windows to discuss options. It was decided that we would just head back to where this little adventure began (a grocery store), pick up something for dessert, then go to someone’s home for a game night.

“Uh-oh,” I heard from the girl in the driver’s seat. “Sometimes that window gets stuck,” she said, referring to my window on the passenger’s side.

“Are you telling me that this window won’t go back up?!” I shouted as rain came pouring in, soaking my right side. Of course, this met with laughter from the inhabitants of both cars.

“No,” she laughed, “you’ll just have to pull up on the glass a little.” Nothing like an impromptu adventure in the rain, kids.

The window returned to its proper place (with a little coaxing on my part) and we were soon back on the road to Blacksburg. Gradually, the rain slowed and eventually stopped. Back at the store, the ground was dry as a bone. Not a drop had fallen in town during our short time away. Just another good example of what they mean by “scattered showers.”

With the change in plans and the lack of sunset, I opted out of the dessert and games. It’s not that I don’t like these things. Sure, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth and my attempts to hide my competitive nature usually keep me from participating in gaming situations. But I knew that if I went with everyone else, I’d have been tempted to stay much later than would have been wise, making my 5 a.m. wake up call even more difficult to obey.

In leaving my friends behind, I risked, once again, becoming the Blitz. But I’m gonna go ahead and assume that it was nearly impossible for them to have an awesome time without me.All right, so that’s only two examples of failed hiking trips that I’ve attempted to involve myself in. But they’re two consecutive hiking trips. If we make it a third, I’m gonna develop a complex.