Post by Grubb.
When does a hike become a fright? You start off by only reading the first sentence describing the trail in the guidebook. The one that says the 3-4 mile Dome Mountain Trail is “one of the most rewarding walks in the Randolph area.” Then you say to yourself, “That sounds great to me,” and decide right then and there to make it the morning’s adventure skipping the rest of the paragraph. The one that says we’ll “enjoy scrambling up the ledges” of the “1400 ft. ascent” where we “should delight in disappearing into the cleft right before the top.” (Known to some as “the pop-up toaster”.) To make matters worse, you fail to check out who wrote the guidebook. In this case, it was the Randolph Mountain Club, which means that when they say the difficulty of a trail is “moderate” they’re assuming you’re a twenty-five-year-old training for the Olympics.
So Friday we acted out our own horror movie by climbing the Dome Mountain Trail. It started with us in a dark forest shuffling through blood-red leaves as we tried to avoid the slippery black roots knuckling up from the soggy ground. Cue eerie music followed by water churning over a stony stream bed. Wide shot of white water splashing over rocks.
Cut back to trail. Low angle shows that it’s gotten steeper. Heavy breathing, trudging footsteps. Steady cam shows jerky progress over sharp rocks covered with a mossy slime. Closeup of beech tree gashed with curling bone-white bark.
Unsteady camera comes to a stop with a medium shot looking down from a root-tangled ledge at rushing water splashing over the rocks of a questionable stream crossing.
Medium close shot of either Grubb or Ella performing 73-year-old balancing act hopping from stone
to stone accompanied by noise of roiling water crashing in the background.
Wide shot of Grubb and Ella catching their breath on stream bed. Closeup on Ella as she looks skeptically at cascade of tumbled rock indicating a path uphill. Low-angle long shot of vertigo trail. Medium shot of a stumbling Grubb oblivious to the insanity of continuing the climb. A tree branch snaps; sound of raven croaking. Cue shrill, scratchy, fortissimo violins. Extreme closeup of poisonous mushroom.
Cut to insert of foot sliding then catching itself. High-angle medium shot of Grubb clutching on to trunk of beech tree as he swings leg over a rock. Closeup of Ella darting murderous glance at Grubb. Tracking shot of jerky steady cam slip-sliding up ladder of stone before swinging out of control and staring at the sky as sound of clashing violins crescendo. Medium shot of Grubb and Ella standing on smooth granite mound poking out of the forest. They look upward. POV Grubb and Ella peering telescopically at a higher tree-covered mound showing off its Halloween colors. Medium-close of Ella and Grubb shaking their heads. This movie is over.
