Mountain Girl Beth

A funny thing happend on the way down. I was about 2 1/2 hours out from the Trailhead campground parking lot. Out of water, and it was about midnight. Going as fast as I could, I haven't had a drop of liquid for about two hours, when I saw a young woman come up the trail. Not far from the treeline, where the little lake is. Her headlamp was very weak, something that she was unaware of. Well, having not seen a person in some hours, I stopped her, asked for the time and how far it was to the parking lot. She told me, and I mentioned that I had no water. She laughed. She said she was carrying water as ballast in her backpack. She was only doing a late practice hike and was going not much further, then right back to the car. She gave me water, and then she led the way down. I didn't have much left in me to push hard. The water was a great relief however, and I had no problems keeping up with her long-legged pace. I had told her about her feeble light, but she insisted that she had put new batteries in it. She got me back and and as I was changing clothes, a car sped up to me and stopped next to me. Beth hopped out and gave me a big hug. She said that no sooner had she gotten to her car, when her headlamp went black. Not a good thing if she had been up there on the mountain in pitch darkeness. I emailed her and asked her for some pictures. She turned out to be a daring and experienced mountain climber.