Finding rainbow trout in Georgia means a great vacation

Sheepishly, we admitted to the two campers that we weren't sure where we were and how long it would take us to reach our car. Van Antwerp, an Army Ranger instructor and ultra-distance athlete, politely kept his thoughts to himself about our naivete and produced a trail map. Looking at it, I realized we had a very long way to go if we continued following the west fork to the parking lot. There was no way we would make it before dark. We had no flashlights, no matches, no food and no warm clothing. And, in case I forgot to mention it, black bear frequently are sighted in the park.

Van Antwerp insisted we take some of his water, gave us his cellphone number and directed us about 50 yards down the mountain to where the east and west forks of the trail met.

"Keep walking down the west fork; the trail will get very small, but keep going till you get to a gravel road," he said. "Then, hang a left and follow it to the paved road, then make a right. That's the main park road. If I don't hear from you by 9 o'clock, I'm calling the cops."

Duly chastened, we descended the narrow trail and mercifully ended up on the gravel road about 40 minutes later. We kept going, and just like Van Antwerp said, arrived at the paved park road. We climbed the steep road to the park entrance gate — and were confronted by four snarling dogs — a Rottweiler, two small yappers and a medium-size hound of undetermined breed barreling full speed out of their front yard.

"Oh great, what else can go wrong?" I muttered.

Toussaint, fortunately, was armed with a small canister of Mace, which she readied in case the dogs charged us. Watching them closely and keeping to the opposite side of the road, we edged slowly uphill and sighed with relief when they didn't follow us.

We reached the car about 7:30 p.m. and were food-shopping hungrily at a grocery store in nearby Clayton a half-hour later. I dialed Van Antwerp to let him know we were safe, and was secretly glad when I got his voice mail.

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