Life has its own ideas, yet so do People

Life always decides its own way of doing things, yet it can surprise you in the most unusual ways at the most impromptu times. I have to say sometimes meeting others, who may become your friends later, can surely "catch you off guard". It was one of these times, that as life was reintroducing itself, so was my new friend. I was really enjoying our day out and was not sure how to reply or respond to the new adventure, which was long distance hiking, that we came across a steep cliff on the path that we was taking as a short cut. I never knew that in this new friend, he was more like me than I had originally realized. How so?" you may ask. He was as stubborn and very blunt in how he would approach things in life, and that is putting this mildly, to say the least, or so I thought. I know that life can be your best friend or your worst enemy, which I had encountered many more times than I care to admit. We were, along the way, trying to decide where we may camp out at, as we were getting deeper into the wooded area and the path seem to all but have disappeared, as fog rolled in. The moment I realized I was truly in trouble, was when we came upon a small river that was becoming larger, which unfortunately for me I do not know how to swim. He had been made aware of this earlier, so it was to my surprise, when he proceeded to grab hold of my right arm and slightly drag me through the hurriedly rising waters, so that neither of us would fall in and be swept away. The moment I became scared, was as we went deeper into the water, I became petrified. I was thankful that he being stronger than I, was able to not only bring himself safely, but I as well safely to the other side. I finally had to find a spot to stop and rest, but he said " it's better to continue onward, instead of relaxing while the adrenaline was still rushing. I was hesitant at first, but not being an avid explorer, felt compelled to go forward with him. I was hoping that this new friend would be, at the very least, honest and worth trusting. I was starting to see that people, have some good qualities. I wanted to learn how to trust and be able to confide in someone without the worry of them sharing things that I did not want others to know. As we moved forward, slowly yet continually, we encountered dead trees, and small piles of debris, along with uprooted trees and parts of buildings. We realized that we had stumbled on remains of a mudslide, that maybe had happened only within a few weeks earlier. We decided to try and find another less cluttered area to camp, since this area was not problems. We turned in a different direction, heading East. We started walking in that direction, finally coming upon a faded path of some kind. We walked for what seemed forever, coming upon another group of uprooted trees and debris. I was beginning to wonder had we gotten lost and was feeling less that hopeful. My new friend, was trying to reassure me that he had not gotten lost, but was unable to locate his compass. I produced my own compass, which he then retrieved and began using to see exactly where we were at that moment. I was getting my sandwich ready to be eaten, but he stated that there would time later for relaxing and eating after we had gotten settled. We then started up again, climbing over debris and old rotting wood, all the while we became slightly more exhausted as we walked along. He was not sure whether to continue onward in the same direction, but then we both noticed a small campfire, along with tents pitched and at least 10 other people, knowing we had finally arrived at the place we would camp out. My new friend and I were happy to be with others, but the moment was short lived when we both noticed one of the other campers had a slight sprain. It did not seem important at that time, but this could be what caused them to set up camp when and where they did. My friend had with him, his cell phone, so he was looking for a signal, which was to no avail. I, then volunteered to go to higher ground, to find a better signal and was able to find one not far from where we all had setup camp at. I was able to notify a park ranger of our present dilemma and that where we were. I was in such a hurry to return with the good news, that I was not paying attention to all the debris in the path that I was running down. As I was running, my sudden falling down got my full attention, to say the least, the immediate sharp pain in my own ankle. I winced from the pain that was hurting and was not sure I was able to upright myself and proceed forward. Then I looked up and my new friend, had in his hands two large branches and some gauze, to use for my possibly sprained ankle. He then helped me stand up, proceeding to move slowly and awkwardly towards the campsite. The other camper, with the sprain, noticed I was also limping. I proceeded to explain what had happened, then they all were relieved to hear that I had succeeded in getting help. It must have been around an hour before help did arrive and by this time it was starting to get dark, especially in this part of the forest. The park ranger and the others were helping the two of us to get to the area where several jeeps were waiting for us. My new friend, was by my side the whole time, kept asking me "was I ok?" and "did I need anything?", which to both I replied "no". What seemed like forever, was not much longer than an hour. My new friend was able to find his vehicle, which had been brought by flat bed truck to the ranger's station. We then followed the park ranger to the entrance of the park, both relieved we were once again able to head back to civilization on the two lane highway that was filled with more cars and signs of life.