Labor Day weekend, we were back up north. Labor Day weekend is part of the hunting tradition. The 4 families get together, do some trap shooting, walk woods and fix stands. At the cabin, there is a sauna for use. It’s a 3 room outdoor building with a wood stove that heats the water in a water tank, so split wood is required. There is a shower and benches. The wood stove has a shelf on top. The shelf is full of rocks. Pouring water on the hot rocks will create a nice steam bath with a shower to follow. With so many people at the cabin, it’s nice to have another space with a shower. There is a dressing room. The 3rd space is storage. Until a few years ago, the cabin was heated by a wood stove. So, Labor Day weekend has also a time for cutting and splitting wood.
Labor Day weekend this last year was in between signing a purchase agreement and actually getting through closing. The owner had given us permission to walk the land and do some planning. We wanted to figure out where we could put up portable stands for deer hunting. We would have time to put up stands in October after we got through closing. One of our sons and a grandson were with us that day. We were about 1/3 of the way in on the trail when J, our grandson saw a deer. It seemed like a good omen. To see a deer on the first day we were really going through the woods.
I cannot believe what I did that day. I told J later, to not ever do what I did. I got lost. We had walked in together, the 4 of us. The fairly established trail went past ½ of the long way through the center of the land. We were coming to the end of the trail. At that point we decided to split up. The other 3 were going to walk ahead to the South edge of the land – my husband has OnX Hunt on his phone to actively identify property lines. From there, they would go along the western edge of the land back North to the road. I was going to walk a little further south and turn east for a bit and then head back to the truck. And I got lost.
I did everything you should not do. I did not have a compass with me, J and our son did. I broke away from the group with compasses. I didn’t even have my phone. Cell reception is pretty bad in that area and it just didn’t make sense to take a phone into the woods (I had thought). I didn’t mark where I left the trail. Even though it was easy to follow the trail as far as a I did, it was getting tighter and less defined until it was just gone. Now walking through woods, I could not tell where the trail was. I couldn’t see an area that was cleared enough to indicate it was the trail. I know I walked in circles.
If I was going South, I could be in trouble. South is public land and it extended uninterrupted for quite a distance. The south side of the neighbor’s land was not cleared for pasture, I could walk East on the South side of their property without seeing pasture. I did know there is a north/south road to the East of the farm about 1/3 of a mile. I would hit that if I was going East. West is a strip of public land that includes a snowmobile trail, which is mostly low ground. I may or may not realize if I hit the trail. I could walk quite a distance. And all of that is presuming that I would actually walk a straight line, if I was going in circles, I could walk a very long time and not get anywhere.
The pickup was North, on the road. It was late morning. I thought if I could just walk away from the sun, I’d being going north. Didn’t work though, it was such a cloudy day and I was in the woods covered by a ceiling of tree branches. I couldn’t see the sun. At least it wasn’t raining.
It didn’t work to use moss on the trees. That only works when moss is growing on only one side of the tree. The old saying is that moss will usually grow on the north side of the trees. But, when you are in the woods and there is so much shade, moss will grow on all sides of the trees, so that wasn’t going to help.
There wasn’t any sound that I could count on, the neighbors to the East had cattle in pasture, but when we had driven by, the cattle were in a pasture on the East side of the farm. Nowhere near our property line and there was enough of a breeze moving branches in the woods that I knew I couldn’t count on hearing them from that distance.
Then I realized I had been walking for quite awhile and I wasn’t stopping to listen. The other 3 could be back to the pickup by now and realizing that I wasn’t. It would make sense that they would go down the trail again. If they were calling for me, I had to be still so I could hear. So I was. It was only a few minutes and I could hear my son, far away, but at least I could get a direction. I walked for 2 – 3 minutes toward the sound and stopped, waiting to hear him again if he was still calling. I heard him again and within another minute or so, could see his hat in the distance. Then I called back. He stopped and waited for me to join him. They had honked the horn on the pickup several times, I hadn’t even heard that or maybe it was when I was walking and not listening.
Of course, I had to confess to everyone back at the cabin. When we are hunting, we all carry a compass. Many of us have 2 just in case something happens to the first one. The woods we’ve been walking all these years, we aren’t too worried about getting lost in the woods, but when we do drives, the compass will help us stay in a straight line and avoid crossing over in front of each other. Walking in woods that I didn’t know, without a compass and getting lost; it will take some time to live that down.
