I'm a stupid idiot.

So I got this great idea to go camping. I was going to get some people together to go up American Fork Canyon and spend the night, but no one seemed too terribly interested.

So I decided to go by myself.

Bad idea.

I got in my trusty 4Runner and headed up the canyon, drove up past Silver Lake, and followed some narrow windy path that my car barely fit up. After about an hour and a half I found myself completely isolated, deep in the canyon. Perfect.

I wanted to try and find the stream that was showing on my map about a quarter mile east of where I figured I was, so I grabbed my pack and started hiking through the woods, but as soon as I left the clearing where I had parked my car, the woods got really thick, with a bunch of undergrowth, making it pretty difficult to navigate. I found a pretty new trail, and started following it. I'm not sure if it had been made by hunters, or if it was a game trail, either way, me deciding to follow it might have been a complete lapse in judgment...

I came across a small clearing, and decided that I didn't want to wander too far from my car after all. So I set up camp, built a fire, and made some dinner. I was sitting there eating my freeze-dried rice thinking how much I love camping.

It got dark, so I grabbed my sleeping bag and jumped in my hammock for some star gazing and deep thought. I promptly fell asleep.

I woke up probably about 30 minutes later. It was completely dark, my fire was out, and it was DEAD SILENT. This was the one thing I didn't plan on. The woods at night are SO creepy. Seriously, not a single sound.

So I was sitting there, and thoughts started creeping into my head about the boy that got eaten by a bear last year in the canyon, and skin walkers and Sasquatch. I found my self just sitting and listening for some kind of sound to warn me that death was neigh.

So at about 10:30 I made the call to head home. I got out of my hammock, broke down my tent and packed up all my stuff in the dark. My next task was trying to find my way back to my car in total darkness... I'm such an idiot.

The trail wasn't easy to find in the dark, so I just started wandering in the direction of where I figured my car was. Luckily I have an amazing sense of direction, and I was able to find it without too much trouble. I loaded everything up and headed home.

The worst part was when I got home and had to tell my roommates that I was scared of the dark, so I came home early from my own camping trip. That was embarrassing.