Sometime around midnight we reach a bridge with one side of its’ railing non-existent. I sprint ahead and heave a sigh of relief when I notice the ‘Old Bridle trail’[OBT] signboard high up on a tree. This confirms this is ’the’ bridge that we’ve been looking out for, for the past few hours and that the trail head should be a few hundred feet away. Meena suggests Jyothsna and I shoot ahead while she and Sanjana would follow behind slowly. With just one headlamp we make our way as fast as possible to the Lafayette camping ground parking lot. As we turn round the corner, we hear a concerned and loud ‘PS, PS?’ cry. I’m relieved to hear Praveen’s voice and as soon he checks all four of us are safe he drops the bomb-shell. Having reached the trail head around 6pm and not hearing from us since then, he apparently had called in a search and rescue operation for us about 30 minutes back. My excitement on ‘finishing’ the hike is short lived as I think to myself - ‘This is not over yet…’. The last 20 hours have been draining, mentally more than physically. What should have been a decent eight hour hike has gone way beyond my initial estimation. Over the rest of Sunday, as we let everything sink in, Meena and I continue to hash out what possibly could have led up to this and what we should do to avoid this from recurring in future hikes.
...