“Come hunting with me and
my dad,” he begged me. “It’s a
beautiful day and all we do is just walk around the woods,” he convincingly
pleads. We drove in our little red
Chevy Chevette to the Adirondacks one day and I was flattered that he wanted me
to come. We held hands in the car,
we laughed and played the radio game.
We had our usual stop at McDonalds and then headed off to the cabin for
our day of walking romantically in the woods. It was going to be great! It was hunting season so I don’t have any idea what that
means except the leaves were changing colors and the air was crisp. His father was dressed in camouflage
coveralls from head to toe with an orange hat and two rifles in his arms when
we pulled up. He looked like one
of those mountain men that you drive AWAY from. Mark was obviously excited about this. He wore a camouflage flack jacket with
a zillion pockets and army green wind pants that ballooned out on the sides for
all of his supplies. I know I wore
long-johns, jeans, about 3 sweaters, a coat, mittens and a hat.
We stood in the driveway of
the camp and Mark and his dad set a plan in place. Homer had had a stroke about 4 years earlier and walking
through the woods wasn’t as easy for him as it used to be, so we agreed to
start out together down the path and then separate at some point. As we were strolling along, one man on
each side of me, with their rifles crooked over their arms, I talked about
getting lost in the Adirondacks.
Yup, that’s what I wondered about.
Here we were, walking into the thick woods of the Adirondacks and these
men were talking about separating!
I had heard stories about people that never come back from brilliant
ideas like this one. Mark told me
that he was just a few badges away from being an Eagle Scout and he had his
compass knew how to use it. Mark
and his dad convinced me that they have literally spent hundreds and hundreds
of hours in these woods and know their way around. They laughed and laughed at my nervousness. Mark put his big burly arms around my
shoulder with his rifle in the other arm and pulled me close. How could I be afraid when he was
around, he asked me? I guess he
had a good point. He said “come on
hunno, lets just enjoy this beautiful day together.” What a wonderful idea, I thought. I could feel myself begin to relax and the boys and I had a
very nice stroll through the woods.
We found a giant tree that
had fallen over to sit on and we ate some lunch. Mark and his dad decided to let me sit there for a little
bit as they walked over to the ridge.
They pointed and talked seriously and made a plan. Mark sauntered on over and said “I’m
going to walk up over the ridge and see what’s there. You stay here with my dad and I will be back in about 30
minutes.” He gave me a quick kiss
and off he went. I watched him
step off the path and climb over downed tree-limbs and rocks until he
disappeared over the hilltop.
Homer and I sat there and visited.
I can’t remember what we talked about, but I do remember it was a nice
visit. We waited some more. And then we waited longer. And waited, and waited for a while
longer. Mark and his dad had a plan
that if someone was lost, they would fire one shot as a signal and the other
man would respond with a shot so it would help with re-orienting the lost man. It sounded good at the time because who
was going to get lost, right?
Well, after about 2 hours of us sitting there, I was trying not to panic. Finally, we hear a shot in the
distance. Mark’s dad stands up,
alarmed. He takes his rifle and
tries to fire a shot but it jams.
And it jammed up good too.
Something happened with the firing pin or something like that and the
rifle is now useless! Oh, perfect,
I think to myself, just perfect.
Now I am stuck in the Adirondacks with my husband lost and my
father-in-law unable to defend me against the bears that wanted to eat us. Just fabulous…
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