Speaker 1: One day, I'd had an argument with my then boss
Speaker 1: and decided to go out for a walk in the
Speaker 1: woods to cool off. And by a walk in the woods,
Speaker 1: I intended for it to be just that, a walk,
Speaker 1: not a high corn excursion, nor a journey, and certainly
Speaker 1: not an ordeal which could have cost me my life.
Speaker 1: The area in which I decided to go for a
Speaker 1: walk was part of a state park, so I thought
Speaker 1: stomping through the woods would be better than stomping on
Speaker 1: my boss's head and thus ending my perfectly clean record.
Speaker 1: I'd never been arrested or even suspected of anything, so
Speaker 1: I was already kind of a nerve that I'd let Keith,
Speaker 1: my boss's name, get under my skin so bad with
Speaker 1: mere words. Looking back, I'm sure he meant well and
Speaker 1: was trying to push me into give him my best,
Speaker 1: but as a then nineteen year old, I knew better
Speaker 1: than everyone else and was insulted rather than taking a
Speaker 1: spep talk to heart. I've never been a violent person
Speaker 1: and never hid anyone in anger, so this was one
Speaker 1: of my secrets, my relief mechanism. It was walking off
Speaker 1: in the forests of Ohio on this particular day, I
Speaker 1: wasn't paying too much attention to where I was going.
Speaker 1: Once I arrived at the state park, I parked my
Speaker 1: truck and locked it up in the parking area, snapped
Speaker 1: on a small day pack in my garment GPS, and
Speaker 1: stomped off into the woods and solace at long last.
Speaker 1: Now let me stop right here and say that I
Speaker 1: learned a valuable lesson that day. First of all, if
Speaker 1: you're going into the woods, even for fifteen minutes, pack
Speaker 1: enough supplies, food, water, matches, candles, extra clothing, dry socks,
Speaker 1: et cetera. As if you were going into the woods
Speaker 1: for a minimum of a day or two. Literally, this
Speaker 1: one simple act of over preparing could save your life.
Speaker 1: And oh, yes, batteries by all means, pack batteries, especially
Speaker 1: if you have things you depend on that need them,
Speaker 1: like a flashlight and a garment GPS that can lead
Speaker 1: you back to the parking lot even in total absolute darkness. Yes,
Speaker 1: the batteries of my GPS died by my estimation, about
Speaker 1: two hours into the trip. And if you've ever been
Speaker 1: in deep woods, well away from the ambient light and
Speaker 1: light pollution of the city, you realize the kind of
Speaker 1: total absolute darkness I'm describing being lost within. So here
Speaker 1: I was gathering my thoughts and getting all calm and
Speaker 1: collected in the middle of the woods. Ah, glorious nature. Now,
Speaker 1: about the time I calmed down and was once again
Speaker 1: at peace with myself, I had a few sudden revelations
Speaker 1: dawn upon me. Number one, it's getting dark. Number two,
Speaker 1: it's getting cold. Number three, I have no idea where
Speaker 1: I'm located of the Ninna State Park. And then revelation
Speaker 1: number four immediately followed when I whipped out my trusty
Speaker 1: garment GPS, only to watch it chuckle weekly then die
Speaker 1: completely as I tried to power it on. As you
Speaker 1: may have guessed, none of these myriad of revelations could
Speaker 1: be considered a good thing at the time. In fact,
Speaker 1: rest assured they were all very, very bad things. My
Speaker 1: first thought that wasn't filled with explotives, was to get
Speaker 1: a look at the night sky and see if I
Speaker 1: could chart a course by the stars. As luck would
Speaker 1: have it, I was in a low valley or what
Speaker 1: they call a holler, and down south and couldn't see
Speaker 1: the night sky due to the centuries of tree cover
Speaker 1: above my head provided by the old growth timber. Furthermore,
Speaker 1: Even if I had been on the highest point in
Speaker 1: the park and standing on my tiptoes, I still wouldn't
Speaker 1: be able to see the first celestial body with which
Speaker 1: to guide myself. The sky was completely overcast and the
Speaker 1: light rain was beginning to fall lovely, So now I
Speaker 1: was really in a predicament, lost in the dark, without food, water,
Speaker 1: extra clothing or batteries for my GPS in the cold
Speaker 1: and rain. Also, I had neglected to tell anyone where
Speaker 1: I was going or when I would be expected back. Brilliant,
Speaker 1: I thought, simply brilliant. It was the beginning of my
Speaker 1: weekend too. I was off from work and away from
Speaker 1: the Devil aka my boss, for the next two entire days,
Speaker 1: meaning it would be more than forty eight hours, more
Speaker 1: like sixty probably before I would even be missed at work.
Speaker 1: I did what anyone would do in circumstances, and in fact,
Speaker 1: it really is what most people do, and they don't
Speaker 1: even realize it. I didn't. I started walking in circles.
Speaker 1: Now that's not to say I thought about it and decided, gee,
Speaker 1: you know what, I pitifi started walking in circles. Everything
Speaker 1: will be cool and groovy. No, I was actually trying
Speaker 1: to walk back to the parking lot at my truck.
Speaker 1: I kept thinking something, anything, would look familiar, and I
Speaker 1: would find the way back. But after a couple of
Speaker 1: frustrating hours of passing what appeared to be the same
Speaker 1: rocks and trees they were, I admitted that since I
Speaker 1: was lost, I was probably walking in circles, which I was,
Speaker 1: so essentially I wasted two hours of energy for nothing,
Speaker 1: only making myself more tired, more wet, and more cold
Speaker 1: in the process. So I decided to do the next
Speaker 1: thing that most people do in these type of situations.
Speaker 1: I sat down on the ground by cher and cried,
Speaker 1: really I did. After regaining my composure from the sobbing,
Speaker 1: I decided the third best thing to do would be
Speaker 1: to try to find some kind of shelter of the
Speaker 1: increasingly heavier rain. Of course, the best time to pick
Speaker 1: out a spot to shelter is in the daytime, and
Speaker 1: plan I had for when you need it, not after
Speaker 1: it's dark and cold and rainy and you're already wet
Speaker 1: and lost all went hungry. I forgot to mention that
Speaker 1: by this time I was starving. I finally got underneath
Speaker 1: a pine tree and slept a little with fit full,
Speaker 1: miserable sleep. Looking back, I seriously doubt that I slept
Speaker 1: more than an hour, or maybe even two. I'd been
Speaker 1: up most of the night, and when I dozed and awakened,
Speaker 1: I could just make out the faintest glimmer of dawn
Speaker 1: beginning to subtly peek over the far mountain side. I
Speaker 1: groaned as I stood. Having spent the night on the cold,
Speaker 1: damp ground had definitely taken its toll on my joint.
Speaker 1: At least, I hadn't succumbed to hypothermia, at least not yet,
Speaker 1: so I had that going for me. Anyway. The rain
Speaker 1: was still falling, although it was just more of a damp,
Speaker 1: misting writing and rather than a soaking downpour. I guessed
Speaker 1: at the time I was counting my blessings that the
Speaker 1: drops were almost microscopic, but I was still soaked to
Speaker 1: the skin either way. Oddly enough, I did feel kind
Speaker 1: of warm inside my damp clothes. I supposed it was
Speaker 1: because my body was losing heat faster than normal. This
Speaker 1: thought scared me. I didn't want to die, not now,
Speaker 1: not out here in these desolate woods. On the second day,
Speaker 1: now in progress, I became convinced that I was going
Speaker 1: to die. I'd already resolved myself to accept this fate.
Speaker 1: I was going to die out here alone, deep in
Speaker 1: the woods. I'd never see my family or friends again,
Speaker 1: and the next time they saw me, if they ever did,
Speaker 1: I'd be a skeleton and soverding clothes. And that's if
Speaker 1: the animals of the forest didn't gnaw and scatter my bones.
Speaker 1: Of times I actually sat or laid down at the
Speaker 1: base of a tree, thinking this looks like a nice,
Speaker 1: comfortable place to draw my last breath. But over time,
Speaker 1: and sometimes without even realizing it, I would get up
Speaker 1: and start walking again. As I trudged along, I started
Speaker 1: hearing what I thought was my heart pounding in my ears,
Speaker 1: except that it sounded too slow for my heart. Great,
Speaker 1: I thought, my heart will just stop and I'll roll
Speaker 1: down the mountain into a gully and becomes squirrel food.
Speaker 1: I was exhausted to the point that I was, without
Speaker 1: even realizing it, basically delirious and on the verge of
Speaker 1: having visual and oral hallucinations. Then it slowly dawned on
Speaker 1: me my brain was working in slow motion that the
Speaker 1: rhythmic thud thud that I was hearing wasn't my heart
Speaker 1: beat at all, but rather someone chopping wood. Okay, cool,
Speaker 1: I thought there was a lumberjack or a woodsman about wait,
Speaker 1: another person. I was saved suddenly, after what seemed like
Speaker 1: I'd been sleepwalking for hours and hours, I was wide
Speaker 1: awake and almost run toward the sound of the woodsman's axe.
Speaker 1: Sure Enough, shortly I saw a guy in a red
Speaker 1: and black flannel floating away slowly and methodically had a
Speaker 1: tree with a double bladed axe. I staggered up to
Speaker 1: him and burned out my predicament. I vaguely remember him
Speaker 1: apologizing for not having any food or water to offer me,
Speaker 1: or any dry clothes or anything, but he could show
Speaker 1: me the way out. He just kind of pointed up
Speaker 1: a steep bank off to my left. I thanked him
Speaker 1: and began working my way up the embankment by grabbing
Speaker 1: small saplings and hoisting myself up one hundred or so
Speaker 1: feet to the top. After what seemed like an eternity,
Speaker 1: I finally made the top and collapsed on the edge
Speaker 1: of a packed dirt road. I had been this close
Speaker 1: all along, but had no idea which way to go. Exhausted,
Speaker 1: I was content just to sit for a while shortly,
Speaker 1: I heard the sound of an approaching vehicle, and as
Speaker 1: luck would have it, a park service truck appeared momentarily,
Speaker 1: and I waved the ranger down. Maybe I wasn't going
Speaker 1: to die out here after all. I imagine I looked like
Speaker 1: an insane person, and the ranger kind of eyed me
Speaker 1: unbelievably when I told him about the woodcutter just down
Speaker 1: the slope. He told me to get in help myself
Speaker 1: to bottle water and some packs of snack crackers lying
Speaker 1: on the seat. I only had to be invited once,
Speaker 1: and it all tasted like pure heaven to me. The
Speaker 1: ranger disappeared over the side of the road and reappeared
Speaker 1: a few minutes later. When I asked about the woodcutter,
Speaker 1: he only muttered something about us being at the park
Speaker 1: service station in a few minutes. When we got there,
Speaker 1: he and the other rangers decided it would be best
Speaker 1: if they called an ambulance from the county and had
Speaker 1: me go to the hospital to be looked over. I
Speaker 1: was dehydrated, and I'm sure I looked a fright. Before
Speaker 1: the ambulance came to take me away, I once again
Speaker 1: asked the ranger about the guy cutting wood. I hoped
Speaker 1: I hadn't gotten him in too much trouble. The ranger
Speaker 1: looked me straight in the eye and said, son, there
Speaker 1: wasn't anyone down there, no sign anyone had been there recently,
Speaker 1: and certainly no one cutting trees down. We sort of
Speaker 1: frown on that sort of thing, he said, smiling. He
Speaker 1: patted me on the shoulder, and that was into the discussion,
Speaker 1: so I just let it go with that. Looking back,
Speaker 1: I realized that I was probably near death, and I
Speaker 1: may have been hallucinating, but the man with the acts
Speaker 1: that I saw and talked to was as real as
Speaker 1: you or me. I can't explain it. Was he a ghost,
Speaker 1: a guardian angel? I have no idea. The only thing
Speaker 1: I'm sure of is that there are some things that
Speaker 1: can't be explained.