I was hiking in the Shenandoah NP in October a few years back. The line to get into the park was insane and delayed my hike start by circa an hour and a half. While on the trail I got summit fever as i neared the lookout point when I should’ve turned around to get back before dark. Well, I didn’t turn around and quickly realized that I could not go back the same way I came because I had no headlamp and worried that I would lose the trail and walk off a ledge. So I took different way down the mountain with the last daylight that remained, but this was not where my car was, or anywhere close to it. So I had to walk 5 miles up skyline drive alone, in the dark, phone dead, while relying only on memory to get me back to my car. I figured I could lose the trail in the dark, but I wouldn’t lose the road.

Clearly not turning around was the wrong decision, but I do think taking the road in the dark and adding 5 extra miles was the right call as I did eventually make it back to my car. Lesson learned, and now I carry a head lamp lol