Skiing in the mountains with no snow

I'm hiking the Appalachian Trail again. A hiking buddy and I decide to take a side trip. We're wearing skis but there's no snow on the ground. We move on for hours, sometimes coming upon roller coaster like slides.

We arrive at our destination - a super steep ride that starts through a chute. I'm a bit apprehensive, but pay the $4 to get on it. I ride it down so quickly I don't remember anything about the ride. At the bottom, buses are leaving which will take us back to the trail, but decide not to pay the $12.95 fare and walk back instead. I'm disoriented and don't know which way to walk. My friend leads, claiming to know the way back. There are many deep gullies with roads on them, I become frustrated that my friend leads us over very steep grass-covered hills which a much harder to navigate than simply staying on a road.

It's late afternoon an we seem to be very near the ride still. I complain to my friend he seems to be taking us in circles and ask him how he knows where we're going. He tells me he knows we left at an elevation much higher than where we were now and that being I'm a bit taller than him he can look at me and know if we're going up or downhill. A stranger tells us our destination is three or four hours away by foot. We decide to go back and ride the bus.

Immediately after paying for our tickets, people start calling our cellphones asking if we'd like to be picked up and driven back.