“In the Wilderness the Shortest Distance

is not a Straight Line!”

 

 

 

Soon it was time to set up camp. We found an open place, my dad said, “Put on the snowshoes and help me pack down the snow.”  We walked around and around packing down a hard place to set up the tent.

 With the tent standing, we fired up our camp stove and soon had snow melted and soup cooking.   The meal done we sat back to enjoy our hot chocolate and peppermint tea.

 The inevitable call of nature became urgent!  Wanting to take care of these things before dark, I stepped from the trail to relieve myself.   I promptly sank to my armpits in 5 feet of powder snow! With great surprise I kicked my feet around searching in vain for the ground! 

 Realizing that this was not going to work. I rolled and crawled back to the trail and decided that in the wilderness sometimes privacy takes second place to reality and that I would just be peeing in the trail from now on! 

  I was also beginning to learn another very important lesson of the wilderness that the shortest distance between two points is not a straight line……….it's the trail!

 After a comfortable night on our very soft snow mattress we began another arduous day of breaking trail.  We pushed deeper into the wilderness toward that dot on the map and our piece of wilderness.

 With evening falling again, we found ourselves at the base of a small hill in a large clearing.  Too tired to go on we decided this clearing would be big enough for us and our friends who would be joining us at any time.

 Once our tent was up and supper was on, we could finally sit down and rest.  We brought out our topographical map, studying it to figure out where we were and how close we were to our destination. 

 We took stock of the fuel we had used and how much we had left.  There was not enough fuel to continue breaking trail with the machines. We would have to continue on foot!  Continuing to break trail with the machines, we would not make it back to town.

 

As the early darkness settled over the forest we could hear the faint sound of an engine.  Soon the glow of a single headlight flashed from the trees.  Then several more followed as our friends joined us. 

Their tents erected and water heating, we began to discuss our plans for the next day or two.  Would we turn around now or would we continue on foot?