I was pleased with how I handled the situation, but it wasn't flawless. Perhaps that partially had to do with white male privilege, but in this case I'll take it. For all the shit we give police forces about everything they do wrong (and there are plenty legitimate grievances to be sure), they certainly had their act together in responding here. It was impressive how quick their response time was, and it was a whole fleet of cars working in unison combined (briefly) with a helicopter search. The police were on the scene within minutes, picked me up and then scoured the area. I almost didn't call the cops because so little damage was actually done, but then decided to in case he could be stopped from committing further crimes. The whole experience felt more like a nuisance, a disappointing experience of Philadelphia, rather than a deeply traumatic experience. I feel hugely grateful I didn't have to add the fear of sexual assault on top of the experience. It felt almost like a business transaction, except clumsy and vaguely threatening.
He wasn't trying to ruin my life, just nick some quick cash off a target. He probably didn't want to risk getting tracked. I was genuinely surprised he gave me my phone and cards back. I didn't, but walked away briefly before turning around to try to follow him as he fled the scene. When he disengaged, he unconvincingly told me to run.
I could see through his eyes the situation, how he was taking this huge risk of armed robbery and coming up disappointingly short, and it was bordering on comical to me. He kept demanding my wallet, which I calmly demonstrated was an object not on my person (I only carry an ID, credit card, and small amount of cash). I was struck by how calm I remained through it, and how agitated he was. Once he did and told me to give him my wallet, at first I was incredulous: "For real, you're robbing me?" At which point he waved his gun and said he wasn't fucking around. There was something strangely human in it, watching him do this thing we all do (ending a phone call). I had been on the phone, and at some point he took the phone from me and turned it off, holding it in his hand. He did a poor job getting my attention, approaching me from behind. Only $40 was stolen, I was only threatened and not attacked, and I'm fortunate it was nothing more - both my phone and credit cards were not taken.
#LIGHTSMITH HEAD LAMP FULL#
It was a full body experience with using our arms for balance and moving us up and down the boulder fields.Ībout two hours ago (11:50pm) I was mugged at gunpoint in Philadelphia. The hiking was intense, and we wanted to keep moving at a steady clip. We were scrambling over huge rocks, up and down and back up again. Then the path became increasingly less obvious. We kept the conversation going, sharing stories and laughter. The wind wasn't terrible, we still had ~1.5 hrs of light, we had warm gear, and the path was well marked. We powered onward, not yet worried about our circumstances. The faint, growing fear was kept in check by a steady supply of breathtaking views, however. The sun was still in the sky, but light was steadily fading, and we were beginning to wonder when we'd begin descending. When we ascended the ridge, anticipating that the ridgeline part was over, we would just find. We could pretty clearly see a final ridge that we were going to ascend over. We saw lots of bizarre life up there, including this strange moss that I've never seen before. But we were treated to some truly stunning cloud movements as it rolled over the top. Roberts, a cold, bone-chilling wind buffeted us in all directions. At that point, we had climbed into the clouds, creating a haunting effect in the woods.Ĭresting onto the summit of Mt. The terrain changed several times for much of it we were hiking up the side of the mountain in switchbacks, but eventually the trail cut inward off the hillside and into the forest. Shantel and I were in great spirits the weather was overcast and cloudy, but the hike promised to be beautiful and fulfilling even without visibility. The day hike began at 1pm, a wonderful and stunning jaunt around Mt. There's a saying, "If you do something and survive, it's courageous if you die, it's stupidity." We were fortunate that it was courageous this time around. It began with a simple day hike at Nelson Lakes, and ended as one of the most intense, beautiful, and precarious backcountry adventures of my life.
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