Morning all, we are edging ever closer to the weekend. And I for one am looking forward to it. For now though, we have Thursday looming so let’s jump into it. Timers set and off we go.
Something untoward is going to happen. Not sure what yet, but something.
Thursday, September 18th: It was growing dark.
It was growing dark. Sam felt as though she had been wondering in the woods for hours. She was certain the trail wasn’t too far away. Admittedly she was certain the trail wasn’t too far away when the sun was still high in the sky. She knew soon she would have to stop, regroup and rest. She was certain that the rising panic wasn’t helping her. However as the shadows lengthened her panic grew.
‘Think,’ she ordered herself. She remembered the breathing lessons from her yoga class, stopped her steps and took a few minutes to focus on her breathing. She closed her eyes and felt steadier as her breath became even and her hear stopped pounding.
She opened her eyes. ‘I am going to need to stop for the night,’ she reminded herself. She knew the woods would have obstacles in general but there would also be hidden dangers like rivers and marshy ground to steep drop offs. Sam looked around her. She knew she would feel more comfortable if she could look around and at least see the location of the trail before she went to sleep.
She found a tree with a thick bole. The lower branches were just low enough that she could reach them and the upper branches seemed fairly well spaced. The tree also looked tall enough to give her a fairly decent view. She took another deep breath and walked over.
Sam adjusted the straps on her pack, making sure it wouldn’t slip off, and then began to climb. It was slow going and she periodically had to stop and take a rest, but she kept going, wanting to get at least one glimpse of the over all landscape before the night fully arrived.
Same finally made it as high up as she thought safe and looked around. The shadows were thick and the woods looked like a giant black blob stretching out for miles. She saw a slight linear depression that she thought might be the trail. It was further away than she thought it should be. Off to her left she spotted a clear wide line of open ground. It was closer. Sam peered at it and realized that the strip was cleared for power lines. They ran from the base of the mountain up.
‘Powerlines mean people and possibly a road,’ she thought. Sam felt her nerves settling. She had options. In the morning she could direct her course to the small trail or she could go to the power lines and make her way back to civilization. It felt good to have options where before she had only panic.
‘I can decide which is better in the morning,’ Sam thought. She looked down the trunk of the tree. The ground looked impossibly far away and she recalled slipping and fumbling for handholds when there was light to see. She suspected climbing down would be a fight with gravity. As her arms felt like limp noodles she knew gravity would win. She did climb down a little way into the tree canopy and found several thick branches forming a snug little v. It looked like at some point lightning struck the tree and cracked it, but then it healed growing into two stout sections. She settled easily into the v and made herself secure. Given the placement, Sam was certain that she would not fall in the night even if she fell asleep.
‘Although I doubt I’ll fall asleep. She didn’t have a blanket, but she had an extra sweatshirt she tied to the outside of her bag. She untied it and pulled it over herself, feeling better with an extra layer between her and the outside world.
Ten til Midnight 