travel and rhum

So last week I decided to hike by myself for the first time, to really get the total embrace of nature. I decided that Guadalupe National Park would be great first place to hike, as its a familiar terrain and not too far from home (about three hours). I get there and I decided to do a short hike up to Smith Springs, which at most takes an hour. I pack my bag and head off on the trail, excited to start my first true solo hike. What I didnt realize was just how genuinely quiet it gets when you're about two or three miles from any thing or anyone, and this is where my fuck up begins.

I convinced myself that the small sounds of brush rustling was in fact a mountain lion stalking me, and I freak myself out completely. I decided the best thing to do is have my pocket knife in my hand just in case (cause thats really gonna fight off a mountain lion, right?). After about 20 minutes of this I'm basically running up the trail head when I spot two other hikers at the very top. Obviously I didn't want to scare them with me running with a damn knife in my hand so I drop it into my shorts and casually walk by them and ask where the trail continues from. In the midst of this I somehow forget that the knife is still pointing straight upwards from my pants and go to grab my phone to see what time it is aaaand I slice a piece of index finger off. So now I have to hike back down about three miles gripping the tip of my finger so i spew blood all over the trail, as my measly first aid kit really did nothing. All in all I'd say it was a 6/10 and I'm going solo again today, just this time I'm not bringing a knife or letting my head get to me.

TL;DR: sliced my finger cause an imaginary mountain lion was following me