Trail Support

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost

    A younger me would have sworn that this quote belonged to my father, as he quoted it often. I was born into a family that loved the outdoors. From an early age I was immersed in camping and hiking trips. If urban legend is true, I went on my first camping trip when I was a week old. I remember jumping over and playing in creeks, looking up at the night sky, trudging up hills and over yonder. I climbed trees. I could tell the time by the sun. I knew how to use a compass and identify animals by the tracks. Both of my parents appreciate nature, but it was my dad that taught me many of these skills. He was a Boy Scout leader back in the day, and an adventure at heart. His passion and knowledge seeped out of him and made its way into my little heart and mind. 

    As time has passed, I find myself still a lover of nature, an adventure and explore. This year, I have challenged myself to hike 1,000 miles and spend 1,000 hours outdoors. This means spending  significant amount of time both outdoors and on the trails. 

    Sometimes, I have hiking partners. Sometimes, I go it alone. But never truly alone. You see my dad, while no longer hitting the trail, he is still with me. He is my virtual hiking partner. My support. My lifeline should an emergency occur. How? Thanks to Google location sharing. Whenever I go somewhere new or far away, I share my location with my dad. He then tracks me throughout the day. I will get texts, "Stop for lunch?" He knows because I have stopped moving. As long as I keep moving, or keep checking in, he knows I am on track. If I stop moving, he checks in. If I go AWOL, he takes note. If I don't finish a trail in the time expected, he gives me a call. My dad is pretty awesome!

    Sometimes, I know the reception will be crappy and that the signal won't be reliable. If this is the case, I give him the itinerary with the intentions to check in as soon as service is available. This works. He is calm and can pretty well sense my next moves, so it works. 

    We have done well, my trusty virtual support and I, except for that one time I lost my keys in the National Forest in the UP. Well, to be far, we both did well, I just sent him into alert. Here is the full story because a picture and small caption do not do justice to the happenings of that day. 

    This particular day, I was not traveling alone but with my 19 year old son. We were on a tour of waterfalls in Michigan's upper peninsula. For most of the day we had  good cell service and dad was able to keep good tabs on us. Then Google lied to us. Instead of reading the waterfall book in the back seat, we decided to follow Google to our next destination. Mistake number one. Then we found ourselves on a two track. Going over a flowing stream, a mogul, and a few decent crevices. Mistake number two. Then we found ourselves next to the beaver dam, we inspected to see if we could make it in the Jeep and determined no, that would be unwise. Wise choice number one.

     We parked the Jeep and decided to traverse the remaining mile or so to the falls by foot. It was at this point that our Google location for the falls got deleted from the phone, mistake number three. We picked up using AllTrails, and started recording the hike, wise choice number two. Off we went on an obscure path, where probably a week prior another human had gone before us. I named the footprints, "Our Human," and tried to follow them carefully to avoid the deeper drifts. On we went, over a mile. Then a blip of service as the notifications dinged. I was able to at least get the falls back in view on Google, but it was unclear how the path connected, so on we went, with an updated distance to the falls. As we continued the number got larger instead of smaller, our human was not on the path to the falls. Bummer! We had a decision to make, make our own difficult way through the woods, or turn back. We decided to turn back. It wasn't worth the uncertainty or the risk. Wise choice number three. We turned around, and had THE BEST TRAIL MIX there is as a moral boost. Wise choice number four.

    

    Then I had to pee. I weighed the urgency of the matter and determined that it was desperate enough to pee in the woods. So I unstrapped the snow pants, hiked up the coat, dropped all three layers of bottoms and did just that, while my son waited up trail for me to finish. His resting spot was a nice downed log, so I joined back up with him there and handed over my coat so I could try and readjust my snow pants. This peeing in the woods in the winter is not an easy task for a lady. Once I had everything back in place, he made me stop and listen. Quickly I located the woodpecker that was tapping away at a nearby tree, oblivious to my clothing woes. Then we were back on our way. When we got to an intersection in the path we decided to take it to the left to see if that would get us to the waterfall. Sadly it did not. So once again we were on our way back to the Jeep. As we neared the Jeep our hunger set in and we decided it was time for some lunch. I ripped off a huge chunk of bread from the loaf in the Jeep.

     I started to get around my other food items when I decided I should probably turn on the Jeep to defrost the window. Except I couldn't find my key. I started patting down every inch of my body, checking and rechecking pockets. Nothing. No keys! Ah! I was in the middle of NOWHERE! In a national forest! On a remote two track and my keys were lost. Gone. Somewhere in the woods. Thankfully we had stayed on a pretty straight track. I volunteered as tribute and we quickly drew up a plan. I would retrace our steps. It should take me less than an hour to get to the two locations most likely to have the keys. My bathroom spot and the woodpecker spot as they were when I was fussing with clothes and had the highest probability of falling out. We planned for my boy to stay at the vehicle and only come looking for me after an hour. I also relayed my plan to make arrows at the intersection so he would know which way I went and at what time. Wise choice number five.

    Off I went at a fast pace as I was now racing daylight. Thankfully the ground was a solid white making for an easy contrast for my black key remote. I got to the intersection and made my arrow and time stamped it. Then I made it to the spot where my phone dinged with service. I tried to send a message out to my dad with a picture of our location but it didn't go through. Instead, the phone rang seconds later. It was Dad. "Everything good?" Me: "No. We have an issue. Repeat we have an issue." Dad-"Wait, things aren't good, what's going on?" Me- "We lost our keys to the Jeep in the national forest." Then the phone connection is lost. Ah! Such is remote locations and spotty cell service. I keep moving on, in need of finding the keys, when he calls back. Dad- "Alright, what is going on? Me- "We lost our keys. I am on a two track that is called 399 to the best of my knowledge It is next to a beaver dam." Dad- "Hold on a second, you keep going in and out." So I repeat and the call is dropped. Now Dad starts trying to figure out where I am and weighing his options on getting us help if needed.  I push on. I get to the woodpecker spot. No keys. I dig through the snow a bit, just to be sure. I time stamp my arrival to the spot. Then my bathroom spot. Sweet hallelujah! There they were. They had dropped out of my pocket when I pulled up my pants and I failed to look around before meeting back up with my boy. My mistake, what number is that? But the keys were found and we were going to survive. 

    I may have failed to mention that people get lost in the woods in the UP in winter and it can take weeks to get rescued. Two sisters once survived on Cheetos and Girl scout cookies for 13 days until they were found. We thought about these two ladies when we were without our keys. My son decided in my absence to ration food and skip the extra lunch he had planned. Just in case. He also thought of all the ways we could die or be found. Fun stuff! But we did not die. We did not need to be rescued. The keys were found. Once I had my blip of service again I called dad to let him know all was well again. Much to his relief. Then I sped my way back to the Jeep to show the good news to my son. The funny thing, right after I found the keys, the sky opened up and the sun was shining  even the heavens rejoiced. 

    We left that two track behind and were onward to our next adventure. 

    So all that to say, my dad is the best! And even if he no longer joins me on the trail, I am so thankful he still travels with me, in my head with his years of wisdom, in my heart with mutual love, and remotely with his support. I will keep hitting those trails. I will keep taking the path less traveled. Because of you, Dad! I love you!