Out of the Bush
August 8, 2016 5:10 pmI awoke in my tiny clearing in the middle of the bush.
I was feeling a little better from some rest and rehydration. The puddle I had camped next to was nearly dried up. I wasn’t expecting that. I dug into the middle hoping that at least some water from underneath would resurface. No luck and the water left was just a bunch of mud which wouldn’t settle. Luckily I filled my Camelback the night before. I hoped it would be enough to get me out.
I was able to get a better signal now that I was on the south side of the mountain. I decided I would use the terrain overlay on Google Maps to try and navigate my way over and down several ridge lines. Tired and not very excited about bushwacking I forced myself to begin. The going was slow and painful but using the terrain overlay on Google Maps I was able to make progress closer to the river where I was eventually supposed to come out.
After about 3hrs of exhaustive bushwacking I came to a clearing. There was a lot of very tall grass and I surmised there was likely water somewhere in there. I stepped carefully in and as I had guessed there was water. I’d have to go around and worse it looked like a uphill on the other side. Very disappointed I set out to whacking around the clearing. As I got to the other side, I once again tripped. This time a fell right onto the grown over road I was looking for. 24hrs later I literally fell out where I was supposed to be.
The road was sunk by beaver activity and it took some more bushwacking but I finally had made it out. Exhausted and quite beat up, my “survival situation” was now a “hike” again? I seriously needed some comforts so I called the Adirondack Mountain Club to see if they had any space at their nearby Loj. They did! 1 tent site left.
When distance hiking after a bad day, the next one is almost always better.
