I disappeared upstairs and made a quick semi stealthy departure with Tokul in the 'onda. Clara was a little distraught that she wasn't going for the "walk" with us, but she ran off with Corbin and forgot all about me.

The trouble really began when I got out of the car at the trail head and realized I had two left feet. Dang. Confused? I wear sweet toe socks (think gloves for your feet) under a pair of thicker socks for longer hikes. I've been getting on the trail enough that both pairs of toe socks wound up in the wash together and I must have paired the two lefts and the two rights. Not a disaster, however, since I just had to turn one inside out and all was good.

Next up, Tokul's mandatory bathroom break five minutes up the trail. UGH. So that went into the pack and every time the wind blew from behind me I could smell it. I've got to get some better bags.

We made really great time heading up the trail. At an hour in we passed the 2.5 mile marker right on schedule. We stopped for a water break and between the two of us polished off a liter of water.

I had forgotten how uninteresting the trail was. It's been a long time since I've gone up the main trail and aside from the area with the boardwalks and signs about the fire it's pretty lousy. All that changed at about 3.5 miles when it suddenly becomes more of an alpine setting. Of course, that lasted only half a mile before we were in the Haystack Basin. Total up was almost exactly an hour and a half.

After shooting some of the obligatory pictures I dug out my phone to call Amy. Huh. Missed call. From Amy. Uh oh. I called home to find out my sister had developed a wicked migraine and needed to go to the hospital. Amy had conned everyone else to hang around until I got home, but now I needed to hurry. I packed up and started down.

I broke one of my most important rules: Don't run unless being chased.

I expect my inexperience with the whole running thing led to one of my most... um... "special" moments on a trail. Tokul and I were cruising down. She was on leash. She went to the left of the tree. I went to the right. Each of us were swung around and we collided on the other side of the tree. I got the better part of the deal. Tokul was pulled by her neck, of course, though her head did crash into me where I rather her head didn't crash into me.

I almost wished someone had seen it and maybe even filmed it. Terribly embarrassing, but such a once in a lifetime event it would probably have made me thousands of dollars on some horrible home movie show.

So back to running. At least for another five minutes until the SAME FRICKIN THING HAPPENED AGAIN! This time we didn't collide, but now I really was embarrassed and thankful nobody was around.

The rest of the run down was pretty uneventful. I turned my ankle (yes, the formerly broken ankle) and had to limp for a short while before it righted itself.

At the parking lot I dumped my gear into the back seat and sped home to relieve the folks watching the girls. Lilly was in bed, but Clara was still up playing so even though it was way late I got to tuck her in. Looks like it was a good trip after all.

Except the whole Tokul collision thing.

Eight miles round trip and 3,200 feet of gain. An hour and a half up and 45 minutes down.