Back in my sailing days, so long ago it barely seems possible, when I sailed my 23 foot sloop off the unforgiving Coast of Maine, I heard the following: There are three kinds of sailors: those that have run aground, those that are about to run aground, and those that lie. I was the first type of sailor. I'd had the boat less than a year when I misinterpreted a chart and slammed the boat's keel into one of Maine's many treacherous underwater granite ledges. I never did it again. Came close now and again, though.
But I wonder if the same applies to hikers? Are there three kinds of hikers: those that have gotten lost, those that are about to get lost, and those that lie about getting lost? So I thought it would be fun to put a poll out there on the subject. I've not done a poll in a good long while, so what the heck?
Even such a luminary as Daniel Boone could get lost, although he had a slightly different take on his experiences in the trackless wilderness of Virginia and Kentucky. When asked if he had ever gotten lost, the intrepid outdoorsman reportedly said, "No, but I was bewildered for three days once."
Me? I've never been lost in the woods. Nor have I ventured into trackless wilderness. I've probably been bewildered for a bit now and then, of course. And maybe I am in that second group of hikers: those that are about to be lost. But that is why I carry a compass and a topographic map, and also my trusty GPS (something that didn't exist when I would sail the "Snowbird" in Casco Bay).
How 'bout you? Ever been lost? Ever been bewildered for three days?
No thank goodness I've never been lost, not in the woods anyway.
ReplyDeleteI have gotten a bit off course when learning all the new paths where I live, but didn't take long to figure out where I was. : )
Now in the car it's a different story. I can get lost in no time at all doesn't driving.
Deinitely lost in a car - very true. usually in an unfamiliar large city after dark, no clue where to find where I need to go.
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