  The most exhausted I've ever been... What comes immediately to mind is the time I got lost in the woods...in the snow...at twilight.
I was visiting Lake Tahoe with some friends. My then girlfriend, her dog, Jeroux, and I decided to go off and spend some time alone. She had gone through a relativley stressfull day involving a speeding ticket, driving for two hours in an attempt to acquire some last minute concert tickets (in vain), and Jeroux peeing on the bed.
Yeah, it's time for a quiet walk in the woods. Well, since I have this fascination with being on top of things, I decided we should try to get the top of this peak down near the southwest coast of the lake. We found a good place to park the car in a place that wasn't so much advertised as a place for just anybody to leave their car (in a neighborhood), but was nonetheless far enough out of the way as to not draw attention.
Hiking up hill in snow is tough, but we had a lovely trail to follow of previous adventurers who hit the same trailhead as we. The trip up was a lot of fun and included some jumps off rocks into snowbanks and a friendly snow ball fight. (Jesus, I loved that girl and was/am a total moron for lettting her go...another story) The daylight was fading faster than we were ascending, so we made the decision to turn back before making it to the top.
Where exactly we left the trail for the first time and why is still somewhat of a mystery to me. I remember running downhill for a bit and having fun "falling" and rolling in the snow. This was obviously something better done off the trail and in the unpacked snow off to the sides. Ok, so we left the trail to frolick. When we first crossed OVER the trail is definitely still a mystery.
I sure as hell didn't know then, because when I became aware of the fact that we needed to find the trail to make it back to the car I was convinced that direction I would lead us in for the next hour and a half was the correct way. It was after entering woods that were wholly unfamiliar and spending a great deal of time crawling through brush, and trying to wade through powder snow up to my waist, that my error in judgement became excruciatingly clear. If this had happened when the daylight wan't fading into night I might have turned around and backtracked uphill and got us on the path, but that wasn't the case, and that isn't what we did.
By the way, this whole trial was made worse by the fact that THE WHOLE TIME Colleen (the girlfriend) had been lobbying to go the other (which turned out to be the right) direction. We just headed down. Down towards the lake which would eventually put us on the road which we could follow to the car. The dog's paws started to bleed. We were occaisionally crossing stream beds that were hidden by the snow and sucked us down.
It was long, it was arduous, but the sight of the road was like a rebirth...I have never, ever been so happy to see a road. Then we had quite a nice walk just to get to the entrance of the neighborhood where we had left the car. Then the horror truly began...we had to walk UPHILL to get to the car. We had to meander through this maze of roads without the aid of light to gaive us our land marks.
Yup, we managed to take a couple of wrong turns (which we decided on together, thank you very much). When we finally made it to the car, I was so sore, so tired, so exhausted, I could barely walk. I was never so happy to see a car. Ask Colleen, I had been telling her for the twenty minutes before that moment that I didn't think I could walk anymore. But she was right, I did it for another twenty minutes. She was the strong one for us that night. I think it helped that she was a marathoner. (Is that a word??? ) Getting back to the chalet where our friends were sorta wondering where we were was a quiet car ride.
There was a brief snarl I indulged myself at the bitch friend of a friend who just had to mock people in pain and then I headed off to take a long, hot shower. Our friend Pam happened to have some Vicodin and offered me one. I was never so happy to see a Vicodin.
I then slept like a baby for a solid ten hours in the bed that I had never been so happy to see. 
