Blackberry canes reached above my head, and small shrubs entangled me up to the knees. More blackberry stalks had whipped themselves around my boots, ripping the laces into untied strings.
I could see up; but around, front and behind were lost in the dense shrubbery: pines, voracious blackberry briers, other trees and a variety of anonymous bushes.)
"Hoop!" the shrill whoops were coming from my right. Somewhere through the pathless wilderness,Uncle Josh was still there, but I couldn't hear any of the tell-tale crashing footsteps that were supposed to be coming from both right and left of me.
Five cousins and two uncles had started through the woods. (One Uncle on either side of the younger group of cousins.) The cousin on my left hand had left his route and crossed mine a few minutes ago and I heard no footsteps from my uncle on the right, or anyone else, either. I sighed; not panicking but worrying that I wouldn't be back to the road when everyone else got there. (If I found it.)
With my heart beating hotly, I gave my right foot a terrific heave, wrenched it out of the entanglements below and crashed forward again, hoping that the two leaders (the ones who knew where we were supposed to go), hadn't angled to the right while I kept clawing straight through the woods.
I began to pray and surmised, in my racing brain, that if I couldn't, somehow, find the place that I was supposed to be in, which was between Uncle Josh and J.J. (the cousin that crossed my route a few moments ago), I'd have to keep going straight until I found the road.
Grimly, I plowed on; ducking under branches, gritting my teeth when briers pulled my hair, getting up when I tripped and fell, walking forward when thorns smacked into my top lip and a branch thwacked my face.
"Hoop!" the calls echoed every time I stopped, searching for any sign to follow.
At long last, my head-long crashing through the North American Woodland, over hill and dale, through marsh and highland, thorn bushes and tree-filled majesty...came to an end as I gratefully slowed my pace and walked into the road. Six blaze-orange vests full of six expectant people were waiting. Where was Jay. We didn't know.
Somewhere around twenty minutes of tension passed as Uncle Josh and Uncle Jonathan invaded the wilderness once more and walked the roads surrounding. They found him. He had found the road and walked to Uncle Josh's truck. Smart boy.
All of us had some lovely scratches; Kara's whole face was full of them, and her hands and her lower legs. Isaac had a few dreadful looking ones on the back of his neck (and probably lost of others that I didn't happen to see.) I'm about like Kara; only excepting the facial difficulties and adding a scratched and tender upper lip. Everybody (Minus Uncle Josh and Uncle Jeremy) admitted to having been awfully turned-around and confused in there.
I pulled numerous thorn-bearing twigs out of my messy-bun and resigned to "sitting" instead of doing the runs from them on. (I had done one run before this, too.)
After a while, we went to Grandpa and Nanny's house for a lunch of egg-nog, cake and chili. There I remained until Dad and Kara came back at dark. (They went back out to sit for a while; I thought Kara might enjoy a turn with him).
I looked at magazines, played Bananagrams with my grandmother, started typing up this post and had coffee after nearly falling asleep. (No discredit to my Grandparent's hosting abilities...I got up "early" ish. and walked through the wilderness all morning. ...Okay slight exaggeration. lol:)
Yes. Here's the run-down of our day.
5:55 (According to Isaac. He's Mr. "On time" around here.) We arose and prepared for the day. I dressed up in somewhere from three-to-four layers. Yes. I looked like a buffalo. I did fix my hair in a cuteish messy-bun though - but trees don't like hairstyles. :)
6:30 We sat around in the living room for a while. (It was really, really nice. We all just waited comfortably and chatted until it was nearly time to go.)
7:00 We crammed ourselves into Dad's pick-up truck and headed to the hunting grounds!
7:30 We stopped at the bestest donut shop around. It's hunting tradition to have donuts for breakfast. (Hunting would be a very healthy experience; all the walking and fresh air...but yet, a whole lot less fun if we would cut out all the carbs and sugar.lol:)
8:00 We met up at an undisclosed area on the Menominee Reservation (These things are a secret, you know!)
We then dispersed to our different places and positions. You could 1. Either walked through the woods, or, 2. stand with one of the hunters, waiting for the deer to come out...and we continued thus 'til somewhere around noon.
Now, it's time for me to go to bed. It's been a very productive, memorable, awesome day. :D
DISCLAIMER: This account may be slightly exaggerated, and several accounts have been combined into one story to give the reader the correct understanding of the situations. Thank you.
1 comment:
Wow lol. I've never been hunting but it sounds like fun!
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