The Path Less Travelled

THE PATH LESS TRAVELLED

“I’ll show them!” 

Lara stomped down the path.

“They have no idea!”

She was so angry that she hadn’t realized that she had veered off the main path. Instead, she had diverted to a smaller trail. One that wasn’t nearly as well-travelled as the main path. But still she blundered forward, unaware of her mistake, mumbling to herself.

The reason that Lara was out big-footing it around the wilderness alone was because she had just left her friends — and she used the term “friends” very loosely.

“Jerks!” she said aloud.

Her friend Mya had asked her to come camping with some of the members of her social group. Reluctantly Lara had agreed to go on this stupid hiking-camping-explore-nature trip because of Mya. Lara didn’t know these people very well, but Mya had vouched for them, saying that it would be fun, and they would have a great time. Then Mya had cancelled — her grandma was in the hospital, and Mya needed to be there. The only reason Lara had decided to go without Mya was because she’d already bought all the gear, and because she thought it would be a good opportunity to get to know the others in the group better. So she went. She now believed that they didn’t really want her along, and only agreed to let her come because of Mya.

“Well, screw them!” she said, crashing along the path, not paying attention to where she was going.

She was alone now because her “friends” thought it was hilarious that she didn’t know the first thing about camping. And just so that she would know that she was inferior to them, they thought it would be funny to punk her.  

They got her to dig the latrine, and then let her use it.  

“Hahaha!” she said aloud, remembering how foolish she felt when her “friend” Nancy took her over to the existing boom box, complete with toilet seat. 

Or, when Ben and Carly thought it would be funny to get her to start the fire with her strike stick, telling her they had forgotten matches. She had used her spark stick for almost twenty minutes before she was able to catch a tiny flame on the dried grass, gently blowing the flame until the tiny twigs caught fire. Lara had then carefully fed tiny branches to the fire until she had a pretty good flame going. When she’d turned back to the group, they’d had a roaring fire going in a fire ring, hot dogs and hamburgers sizzling on the grill. Ben clicked the barbeque lighter towards her, laughing.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” she’d asked, pointing to her pitiful little fire.

“Cook your dinner?” said Nancy, snickering.

Lara looked towards the food cooking on the grill, confused. They had told her to bring her own food — best bet was boil-in-bag meals and granola, they had said.

Carly followed her gaze.

“Oh, yeah, sorry, Lara. We weren’t sure that you were coming, so we only brought enough food for the four of us.”

“You’ve known for a month that I was coming. It was Mya who cancelled.”

“Well, we figured you’d bale on us, as well. So …”

Lara wished she had.

Then Charlie had come over, looked at her pathetically small fire, and stomped it out with his stupid hiking boots.

“I’m not sure this could start a forest fire,” he’d laughed, “But just to be safe.”

All her “friends” had laughed. At her.  

But, the worst had been when they were setting up the tents. They had told Lara to bring a small, single tent. She had done just that. While she struggled erecting her tent, her “friends” had watched, smirking. Granted, it was only the second time she had put the tent up — she had set it up once in her living room, for practice — but she did okay, struggling a little. Once she finally had her little tent erected, she put her sleeping mat, and three-season sleeping bag inside, and threw in her pack.

When she came out to join the group, her “friends” had set up their tent. Not tents, but one big tent. Where they were all going to sleep together in this Taj Mahal of tents. It had three rooms plus a screened-in porch. It had an awning and a there were four folding camp chairs — not the small, compact camp chair they had told Lara to buy, but the big ones that came in a bag, with the arm rests and drink holders — set up in the screened in porch.  

Lara just looked at them, all four of them, smiling at her.

“Sorry, Lara, we didn’t think there’d be enough room for you,” said Charlie.

Lara looked at the huge tent. 

“There’s enough room in there for eight people,” she said, pointing to the bag the tent had come in. Giant pop up eight person tent was blazoned on the side.

Lara looked around the group.

“I thought this was a hiking trip?”

They looked at each other, then back to her.

“Well, it was …” started Carly, “but we changed our minds. We’re using this as the base camp, and just doing day hikes.”

“Then why did I bring all my hiking equipment?”

No one said anything. Instead they just walked away, over to the fire and Ben started serving up dinner. No one inviting her to join them.

Lara turned on her heel, walked over to her tent, and began dismantling her campsite.

Carly came over to her.

“Lara, we’re only kidding.” She tried to hand Lara a hamburger. “Here. There’s always enough food for one more.”

Lara looked at the woman.  

“No, thanks, I’ve got my freeze-dried rations. I’m good.”

She continued to break camp, stowing her tent, sleeping bag and mat on the back of her pack. Hitching it up to her shoulders, she looked around.  

Carly watched her.

“Seriously, Lara, don’t go. It’s getting dark. It’s not safe.”

Lara looked at her. 

“Safer than staying here with you hypocrites? If I’m going to eat and sleep alone, I’d much rather be by myself, without my ‘friends’—” She made air quotes, “— ignoring and excluding me.” She looked each of them in the eye. “Why didn’t you just tell me not to come once Mya cancelled. Why be so mean?”

Again, no one said anything. Lara sighed.

“Which way to the parking lot?” she asked.

Ben pointed in the general direction that they had come from.

“Don’t worry,” she heard Charlie say, “she’ll be back.”

“Like hell,” she said to herself as she found the trail and started marching down the mountain.

They had hiked in almost four miles. Well, Lara had hiked in. Charlie and Nancy had brought their ATVs, each with room for one passenger, so Ben and Carly had ridden in. But no one had offered Lara a ride to the site. She had hiked in alone.  There wasn’t enough room on the ATVs, they had said. They didn’t have enough gas to make an extra trip, they had said. They hadn’t even offered to take her pack to the site to make her hike easier.  

Stomping through the woods now, she realized that that should have been a clue that she wasn’t really welcome on this camping trip. So, now, she wasn’t part of their camping trip. She was on her own camping trip. And she was pretty sure that she was lost. And that made her uneasy.

They were in the mountains, and dusk was coming. And the temperature was dropping. Lara stopped and took off her pack and dug out her coat, hat, and gloves. She may not have been a camper or a hiker, but man, did she know how to do research. Consequently she had the proper clothes — wool and wicking under layers, waterproof, windproof cold weather jacket, and proper hiking boots. And because she had done her due diligence, she also had bear spray, cooking utensils, a hiking stove, and of course, her strike spark. She was set for a night in the woods. Which was what it looked like she was going to be doing because dusk was falling fast, and she had no idea where she was. And it was starting to snow.  

Lara knew that she wouldn’t be able to make it to the parking lot and her car. Even if she wasn't lost. The snow was now falling fast, obliterating the trail. The wind was picking up, swirling the snow around, and the temperature was dropping.

Lara decided to keep going until she could find a sheltered spot to make camp. What had started out as a gentle snow was turning into a blizzard, reducing visibility to almost zero. She took out her head lamp and looked around while slowly making her way forward. Spotting an overhang and a shallow cave, she headed that way, carefully stepping over the slippery, snow-covered rocks and roots.

First of all, because she was in bear country, she took out her flashlight and bear spray.  She examined the cave. Empty.

Dropping her pack on the lightly packed dirt of the cave floor, she ventured outside to gather fire-making supplies before everything got too wet — grass, leaves, dead branches, bigger branches. It took almost an hour, and it was completely dark out when she finished, but Lara had managed to collect, what she hoped, would be enough fuel to keep the fire going all night.  

It was now bitterly cold, the temperature having dropped quickly and precipitously. Lara knew that she needed to warm up.

She set about starting the fire. Well, one good thing about the debacle that had been this afternoon, she thought, was that she now knew how to start a fire with a strike spark. In less time than it had taken earlier, Lara had a good fire going. And because of the overhang, she was more or less sheltered on three sides, allowing Lara to scootch up close to the flames for warmth.

But she needed to set up her tent and get some food into her before she could consider snuggling up to the fire. Third time was the charm, and she pitched her cold weather tent without incident. She was extremely thankful that she had made the investment in a minus twenty degree sleeping bag, and foil lined sleeping mat. She was also happy for her boil-in-bag rations for dinner, as well. A pot of snow quickly boiled.

“That’s not horrible,” she said into the night, tasting her pasta primavera dinner.  

A cup of instant coffee after dinner, and she was set for the night. She thought about her horrible day — the walk, the pranks, and the cruelness of people she thought of as almost friends. Sure they were part of Mya’s social group, but they had always been pleasant to Lara when she had seen them socially. Apparently she was good enough to let buy a round at the pub, but not good enough to camp with. The more she thought about it, the more angry she got.

But, she told herself, that wasn’t helping her any, right now. She looked out the into the night. Beyond the flames of her fire, Lara could see the snow had really piled up. Through her research she knew that snow storms could dump vast quantities of snow in very short periods of time in the mountains. And she was all alone out here. She hoped that her “friends” would at least contact the authorities when they realized that she hadn’t made it off the mountain.  

Her night was a restless one, but not a cold one. All her cold weather prep allowed her to stay warm, including the last minute addition of a hot water bottle to her pack. It was the blizzard raging outside her cave the kept her awake. She had gotten out of her tent twice to feed the fire as she didn’t want let it die. She wasn’t sure she could start it again. She needed the heat, and protection that a fire provided.  

Alone, listening to the howling wind, she considered her predicament. She wasn’t sure what she would have done if she hadn’t found the cave.  

I would probably have frozen to death, she admitted to herself, shivering not from cold but from the realization at how tenuous things were in the wild.

By morning the storm had passed, and the winds had died down, but it was still bitterly cold. Lara crept from her tent at first light, and surveyed the landscape. There was over two feet of snow beyond the cave’s mouth. But her fire had survived the night. She fed it some more logs, and watched it roar to life. 

But what would be her next move? Unfortunately, her research hadn’t covered what to do when lost and snowed in.

She reached into her pack, and removed her emergency GPS transponder. Her research had indicated that it was an important piece of equipment to have when back country camping and hiking. She clicked it on. The clerk at the store had given her a quick and dirty lesson on how to use it, but without him standing beside her, she was lost, both in the wilderness, and on how to use the GPS. Lara fished out her phone, and pulled up the user’s manual she had downloaded on her phone, and started reading.  

Once she finished, she pushed a couple of buttons on the unit, and her route appeared. She hadn’t realized how far she had wandered off the trail until the map flashed on the screen.  

“Damn.”

She’d have to backtrack almost a mile, and then try to find the trail in the snow. She wasn’t sure that was an option. In fact, she knew that wasn’t an option. Instead she pushed the red emergency button. The screen flashed.

Is this an emergency? it prompted.

Yes, she typed in. 

Within a few minuted the screen flashed again.

This is the IERCC (International Emergency Response Coordination Centre), what is your emergency?

I’m lost in the back country. I have food and shelter, but it is cold.

They texted back that they would be sending out search and rescue personnel within the hour, and that they expected to be to her location within three to four hours.

Lara waited, wondering how the others had faired. She realized that they had probably broken camp and headed back home, and was pissed that they didn’t think to send help. They must have seen her car in the parking lot, and known that she was still on the mountain.

Around noon she heard the high-pitched whine of snowmobiles. Lara had packed up her equipment, and was ready to go. 

When the sound got louder, she doused the fire, and stepped out of the cave and into the snow. The first driver saw her, and veered towards the mouth of the cave.

Lara hadn’t realized how stressed she was until she saw the rescue team. There was very little time for talk, just loading her onto the sled, and heading down the mountain. Even by snow machine, it took almost an hour to get down to the trail-head. Lara knew in her heart that she wouldn’t have made it alone on foot.

When they reached the parking lot, she was stunned. The group’s other vehicles were still in the lot. She turned to her rescuers.

“There are still people up on the mountain.”

She explained how she got separated from the group, and the fact that they were still up there. After much discussion, the two rescuers decided to do a wellness check on the others. They needed Lara to stay in the parking lot in case they couldn’t find the group, and needed her to show them exactly were the group has struck camp.

Within the hour, all hell broke lose. Three trucks pulled into the parking lots, each pulling a snowmobile and sled. Lara recognized the search and rescue decals on their shoulders. A Life Flight helicopter landed in the parking lot. Two ambulances arrived. During the chaos, her group members were brought down one by one, off of the mountain. Nancy had a broken leg, and head trauma, having crashed her ATV trying to make it down to the mountain. She'd been pinned under her machine and was suffering from hypothermia and exposure. She was loaded into an ambulance which sped away. Apparently there had been a fire, and the tent had caught fire. Carly and Charlie were brought down, suffering from exposure and smoke inhalation. They were loaded into the second ambulance. The last person down was Ben. He had been trapped in the tent, and had suffered severe burns, as well as exposure. He was loaded into the helicopter which swooped Ben to a trauma centre.

When all of the victims had been transported to the hospitals, the two men who had rescued Lara explained what had happened.  

Because their tent wasn’t a cold weather tent, they had built the fire too close. The flames had swirled in the wind, and the tent had caught fire. No one in their group had an emergency transponder, so there was no way to get help to the site. Nancy had decided to try and drive down, but ended up flipping her ATV. The others had spent the night huddled around their fire, but the blizzard prevented it from keeping them warm enough to prevent frost bite and exposure. None of them had proper clothing, and consequently fingers and feet had frozen.

Lara was gobsmacked.  

“You know,” said one of the rescuers. “If you hadn’t told us about them being stuck up there, I’m pretty sure they would have died. You saved their lives.”

The irony of the situation was not lost on Lara. Getting lost had saved the lives of the people who had had driven her from away.