Read Part 1. first.
The buck wandered back and forth through the packed snow as if it were trying to throw me off the trail. The snowshoeing was easy but the tracking was hard so I was falling farther behind the deer. I was very relieved when the tracks led out of the deer park and into the more open woods. I could tell we were now headed back in a northerly direction but my deer was now traveling with the three other deer..
The snow was deep in the open woods and became even deeper as we crossed gullies and creeks. I had been snowshoeing for over four hours and I was starting to slow down. I began to get the feeling the my wounded deer was making a slight recovery. In the early part of the chase I had observed that it was favoring the right front leg as it did not lift it fully and left a slight drag mark in the snow. The drag mark was now gone.
I continued the pursuit for another hour or so and then suddenly found that tracks leading up a steep rise. When I reached the top I was stunned to find I was standing on a railway track. The C.P. Railway ran east and west and it was from five to seven miles north of the highway where I had started. They both ran parallel to the west. It was time to reconsider my options.
It was starting to get dark and the railway confirmed I was at least five miles from my starting point. I was not going to get back before it got very dark. A quick re-examination of the deer tracks up the hill to the railway showed it was now using all four legs to climb and I could not remember seeing any blood for the last mile or so. The deer had plunged down the other side of the steep railway bank and through deep snow with no sign of injury. The deer was doing better than I was.
I had no choice. I had to abandon the chase and head back to the car. While standing on the tracks I became very aware of the fact that the temperature was still falling. The sky was clearing so it was going to be a very cold night and I was still many miles from the road. I turned my back to the railway and headed for home, satisfied that I had done my best to try and locate my wounded deer. Now it was my survival that was at stake. I ate the last few cookies in my pack and started back down my snowshoe trail. Luckily there was no wind to speak of.
After about an hour I came to realize that the deer had led me on such a wandering trail I was traveling more miles than necessary to find my way back. I had to strike a new trail directly south in a straight line. The hills and valleys, not to mention all the woods, made it very difficult to proceed in a straight line.
As I plodded along through fresh snow in a somewhat southerly direction I realized it was going to be a very long night. I was getting tired and the rifle was twice as heavy as when I started. I knew I had to get out of the woods as it was now so dark I could see only a short distance ahead of me. I had to find a lake so the openness would give me more light. I was in good shape as I had done enough snowshoeing earlier in the winter to get into condition. The old mal du rackette or snowshoe sickness was not likely to strike.
When I was to the point that I thought I would never find a lake, one appeared. I also had the impression that it ran in a southerly direction so I could stay on it for some time. But, I had to make sure I was going south and not east or west. As I stood out in the middle of the lake I had no stars to guide me because it was overcast again. The silence was deafening. No wind, not even a slight breeze. Nothing but vast silent space all around and above me.
Just as I was about to make a choice of direction I heard a new sound. I listened carefully and realized it was a large truck passing to the south on the highway, many miles away. Once it passed the heavy silence returned. I was smiling to myself again because I now had a clue. South was in the direction of the only sound I heard. Off I plodded, down the middle of the lake in confidence.
The terrain and my snowshoe rhythm changed. I was now able to get into a simple long stride because the snow was not as deep as it was in the woods. The mind was no longer negotiating the hills and rocky paths and preventing nasty spills. I was almost lulled into the stupor of dragging one heavy snow shoe after the other.
The hours and miles were starting to pile up.
My mind kept focusing on how heavy the rifle was. I had borrowed it to try out. It was not my rifle, therefore I should not throw it away. Even if I set it upright in the snow it would be buried in deep snow before I ever got back. On top of that it would end up in the bottom of the lake by spring. I had to keep it.
It was better out in the lake as there was nothing to bump into but it was turning into a very long lake. I could see about ten feet ahead of me and beyond that it was a gray darkness.
I knew where I was and I was still feeling strong enough to finish my trek but I noticed my mind was wandering. I was thinking of a hundred different things beside making it back to the highway. Time seemed to drag on and on. Hunger was now creeping into my mind. I was thinking that the lake should start to run out soon and I would be back in the woods.
Then something changed……… but I did not know what.
It caused me to stop right where I was. I sensed danger. The hair on the back of my neck went up. I stood there trying to focus on what I sensed way out there in the darkness on a nameless lake.
I stood very still, the only sound was my heart beating. Each time I exhaled a cloud of steam hung about my face. There I was, motionless but listening and trying to zero in on what was wrong.
I had to move on as I was getting cold. I took one more stride and then quickly took it back.. Suddenly I realized what the change was. The snow was not as deep underfoot and after the last step I felt the snowshoe sink a little deeper. I was very alert. There was water on the ice under the snow. I was in serious trouble and I could not see ahead of me. Every nerve and muscle was quivering.
Very slowly and carefully I move awkwardly backwards on the snowshoes until there was no feeling of water and the snow got deeper. Then I stood stock still as my mind churned out my options. I knew there were no very large lakes in this area but some were long and thin. I had been walking on this lake for some time heading to the south so the lake shore should be close to the east and the west of me.
As I weighed my choice of directions I heard another truck coming from somewhere to what I judged was the south east. It got louder as it headed west but was loudest to the southwest. That was it. I needed to head to my right and then move in the direction I heard the truck. I heard no cars as they did not make enough noise. Read part 3.
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