Bring Your Cell Phone!!!

Here is why you should ALWAYS bring your cell phone when hiking alone:

Yep, that's right. Because you just might run across an enormous gila monster in the trail and have no way of documenting the rare sighting to prove to everyone that you really did see it. (Instead of having to pull a stock photo off the internet.) Of course, if the venomous gila monster just happened to bite you, you'd also be glad you had your cell phone.

So, yeah. Last month I was hiking up Blacketts Ridge and suddenly in my peripheral vision I saw the slow ponderous movement of something large and low and black and pink. This movement happened to be right next to my ankle. I looked down and was staring right at a gila monster who was staring right back at me. I think we were both a bit shocked as we just stood there staring at each other (this is the point when I remember that I'm an idiot who left her cell phone in the car). Gila snapped out of it first, slowly turned tail and crawled back into the brush from whence it came. My heart-rate returned to normal levels (well, normal for having been in the middle of climbing Blackett's ass-kicking elevation) and I continued my hike.

But I learned my lesson. Never go hiking alone without your cell phone.
(Seriously. Worse things can happen than missing a photo op.)