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These are the actual coordinates of
the area of "our encounter". I don't
mind sharin' stuff; but if y'all decide
to venture out there, be real-dang
careful out there in them woods ...
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How y’all doin’? Hope all is well and folks are gettin’ back
out & about after that whole shut-down fiasco. I’m goin’ to be concentratin’ on a couple of
new areas to do my sloughstalkin’ … and will wait ‘til after huntin’ season to
do more time in the grime so I don’t mess-up someone else’s hunt. Both areas will be in east Texas … and both
are hot-spots for wood-ape sightin’s. I
have been studyin’ maps and satellite photos of both these areas, which are dense
and sparsely populated. I like to know
what the terrain is, mainly so I don’t screw around and get myself lost!
Any of y’all ever been lost
out there in them woods? I have, and
it ain’t fun. The first time I got lost
was when I was thirteen and deer huntin’ on the Louisiana/Mississippi
border. I was told to stay in a stand,
and after what seemed like hours … decided I was goin’ to hike back to the deer
camp my ownself. Well, my first mistake
was not doin’ what I was told; my second mistake was not havin’ a compass, and
my third mistake was not payin’ attention to where the sun was, even though it
was one of them gray, overcast winter days.
Ahhh, to be young and stupid …
Now, I had been dropped-off by my cousin
on a Honda ATC 90. If any of y’all don’t
know what that is, it’s a three-wheeled ATV which was popular back in the 70’s. It was still kind-of dark, and best as I
figured we didn’t ride more than thirty minutes from camp. My cousin continued past the stand he had
dropped me off in, and I figured I could just follow his trail back to
camp. Well, I figured wrong, ‘cause as
good of a tracker that I may have imagined
that I was … I couldn’t find no tire-tracks through all that leaf-litter. I could find a bent or broke saplin’ here and
there, but no knobby tread imprints. And
on top of that, my Army surplus canteen was almost empty, and I was gettin’
pretty-dang hungry too.
I had started my trek back at 2:00 p.m.,
and it was now pushin’ 3:30 when I finally found a dirt road. The first thing that I noticed when I come outta
them woods was what had looked-like a very large coyote crossin’ about 100
yards to my left! I took the safety off
and walked the road in the direction of the coyote, but when I finally saw its
tracks … they were much too large. Hmmm,
this must be a wolf, I remembered thinkin’!
I followed that road for another thirty-minutes and decided to continue
to my right back into them woods. Not
knowin’ what direction I needed to be goin’ in, I decided that it’d be a good
idea to keep the sun in front of me … which sets in the west. Mississippi had to be due east, and I was
bound to find another road.
When I did, I looked to my left and that
wolf crossed the road again; but this time, only about 75-yards away! At that point, I got scared … and fired a .30
cal. round at that canine as it disappeared into the thicket. Now, my heart was racin’ and saw that it was
now 4:15 p.m., and only had another hour ‘til dark. I yelled, “Hey! Is anybody out there?” … but got no response. I then fired three more rounds, rememberin’
that my cousin had said that if you ever get lost, fire three rounds in rapid
succession and somebody will find you. Really?
Well, I hoped he was right and I decided to stay on that road. I was thirsty, but was now completely out of
water. I found a marble-sized rock in
the dirt, cleaned it off as best as I could … and stuck it in my mouth. After a while, the saliva flowed and I at
least no longer had cotton mouth.
A little after 5:00 p.m. I was about to
cross an old, wooden bridge when I noticed not one, but two wolves boundin’ up
the bank and dartin’ into them woods! My
heart was racin’ faster … and I was just about to fire three more rounds when I
heard an engine comin’ down the road from behind me. My cousin came a racin’ down that road on his
ATC, and slid to a stop a foot in front of me.
“Where in the Hell have you been? I told you to stay put you dumb,
sumbitch! Now, hop-on; ‘cause if we
don’t get back to camp soon … we’re goin’ to get our asses whipped!” After we returned and I explained to everyone
what had transpired, I was told that, yes … there had been wolves sighted out
there. Life lesson learned without
becomin’ dog chow, and I never went out in them woods again without a
compass or a plan.
Sometimes, technology will bite ya! I told my buddy that I would be tryin’ to
service my cams one September mornin’ … and exactly where I’d be as well as
when I should get back. I turned on my
GPS before I left his place, knowin’ that it would take a while for my Garmin to
search for satellites. It was a weekday,
and I didn’t see another soul on the water the whole 20-minute boat trip from
my buddies dock to Smith’s Slough. I
motored in as close as I could get to that fallen tree, chained-up the boat,
grabbed my gear and took off into them woods.
Before I did, I marked the waypoint as “BOAT” and buckled the GPS back
into its case on my belt. I also marked
my way with fluorescent-orange trail tape just in case. About 45 minutes in, I found somethin’
peculiar; a saplin’ had been bent and twisted about 3’ out of the ground. It was just bigger around than what I could
get my hand around, and the rest was layin’ on the ground. Well, this was an island, and I knew that an
ATV couldn’t have done this; it was bent and then twisted ... it could only have been done by somethin’ with hands!
I took a couple of pictures, and went to
mark a waypoint on my GPS … but to my horror, it was turned off! Now, I knew damn-well that I had put
brand-spankin’ new batteries in it, so what was up? I powered the unit back on, marked the
waypoint as “LMB_TWST” and hit the go-to feature for “THING_02” … which was one
of my game-cams. The GPS showed that I
was less than 500 yards from my cam, so again … I buckled the GPS back into its
case on my belt. After about a 30-minute
scout, I found THING_02, changed the batteries, switched-out the SD card and
locked it. I reached for my GPS to hit
the go-to feature to find THING_01 … and
the damn thing was turned-off again!
Really? Well, I just figured that
if sh¡t could happen, it would damn-sure
happen to me! Somethin’ must be wrong
with my unit …
I knew which direction that THING_01 was
in, and knew that it was only another 500-600 yards ahead. After findin’ my cam, I changed those
batteries, switched-out that SD card, locked it and decided to eat some lunch. Cell phone service is sketchy at best out
there, but THING_01 was in a clearin’ where my son and I had set-up camp durin’
Spring Break of 2010. I called my buddy,
told him what I had accomplished and what I had found. I told him that I wanted to scout around some
more, and should be back around 2:30-ish.
He said he was headin’ to Marshall, so I said I’d call him as soon as I
got back to his place. I pulled-out my
GPS to hit the go-to feature for “LMB_TWST” … and noticed the damn thang was turned-off
again! O.K., now I was startin’ to get
p¡ssed. Since I was in the clearin’ of
our old camp site, I sat on a log and watched the unit search for
satellites. As soon as it said that it
was “Ready To Navigate” … I hit the "Go To" feature and watched the screen closely
as I headed back through them woods.
I made a wide circle around THING_02 and
headed for the area of the limb-twist.
All of the sudden, I watched in horror as the unit started to search for
satellites. I tried to find a clearin’
in the dense woods, but before I could, it powered off again. Well,
sh¡t on me! Evidently, them woods
are so thick that it cain’t find any satellites and powers itself off to
conserve batteries. Well, I knew the
direction I needed to go, and also knew that I’d tied quite a bit of trail tape
out there, so surely I could find my way to the limb-twist. A good hour went by, and I hadn’t seen any
fluorescent-orange tape, so I decided to find another clearin’ and call my
buddy. I pulled-out my phone, and the
first thing I saw was the low-battery warning!
Well, sh¡t on me again! Evidently, even though my phone was fully
charged when I had left … due to the fact that it was roamin’ for cell towers
all mornin’ the battery was drained. I
immediately turned it off!
It was at that point that I decided to
quit lookin’ for the limb-twist and start lookin’ for my boat. That mornin’ … the sun was out, and I had
made a mental note of where it was positioned when I chained-up my boat. But what I now noticed was that it was gettin’
overcast, and the sun was disappearin’ behind the clouds. After another half-hour of findin’ no trail
tape, I found another clearin’ and decided to call my buddy. I had minimal battery-life left when he
finally answered. I told him what my
situation was, and he told me that he was still in Marshall, a storm was
headin’ my way and that I needed to get outta them woods! He said he’d be there in 45-minutes, and to
turn-off my phone. He said that when he
found my boat, he would fire a round so I could work my way towards him and then
fire a round every five-minutes. He said
that if I was really far away, for me to fire 3 shots and we could work our way
towards each other.
Well, what another fine friggin’ mess I’d
gotten myself into! I relied on
technology, and screwed-around and didn’t think I’d need a compass when I
packed my gear. What a dip-sh¡t! I started movin’ in the direction that I
thought the boat was, and wandered into the edge of the swamp. Due to the drought, it was dry … but the dried
giant salvinia was like walkin’ on a giant sponge! Every third step, my snake-proof boot would
sink about shin-deep into the matted vegetation and find mud. I was makin’ headway when I noticed that my
legs were startin’ to cramp; not from the mire, but from dehydration. At this point, I had already drained all of
the water from my hydration pack, and only had what was left in the bottle on
my fanny-pack. My boots were waterproof,
but noticed a wet feelin’ in the soles …
I found a log and had just sat down to
check my feet when I heard the rumble of thunder off in the distance. Great!
Sounds like I was fixin’ to solve my water problem, but bein’ in them
woods durin’ a thunderstorm ain’t the safest place in the world to be. I had a great respect for lightnin’ … but if
there were any high winds associated with the approachin’ front, I didn’t wanna
have to dodge any of them drought-dead trees or fallin’ limbs! I unzipped my boot and felt the burn as I
slid it off. The insides of my
snake-proof/waterproof boots were wet from a mixture of sweat and blood. As my feet perspired durin’ the course of my
hike, the skin got completely rubbed-off the backs of both heals! I had just placed pieces of gauze from my
First-Aid Kit in between my socks and the backs of each ankle when I heard the
first shot. My buddy had come to the
rescue! I guesstimated from the report that
I was just over a half of a mile off course.
I covered that distance before he fired
his third shot, and was yellin’ to let him know where I was. Wringin’ wet with sweat, dirty and
scratched-up from crashin’ through the brush … he said that he could “smell” me
comin’ through them woods! I said, “Daaamn! I thought I’d never get outta there!” He just laughed and said, “Son, this is Horse Island; people get lost
out here all the time, and sometimes they don’t make it out!” Now, I don’t know if he was just funnin’ me
or tryin’ to make me feel good, but I was damn-sure glad to see him! The first thing he did after I shook his hand
was give me an ice-cold bottled-water.
Then he said, “Here; this is a
‘lil souvenir from your great bigfootin’ adventure!” He held out his fist and emptied two spent 9mm
shell casings into my dirty hand. The
rumble of thunder was gettin’ closer, and the sky was turnin’ purple-black to
the northwest. I stowed my gear,
unchained my boat and cranked-up the Yamaha.
We motored out of the slough, and I followed
him down Big Cypress back to his place.
We had just unloaded both boats when the sky opened-up. We sat on the porch of his guest-cabin and
drank a beer while I carefully peeled the socks off of my skinless ankles. Thank God he got me outta them woods when he
did. It rained over 11” by mornin’ … and
the temperature had dropped 30°! About
the only thing I could’ve done if I’d have gotten stuck out there over night
was to hunker-down in a tree-fall, put my “manpon” in and suck-it-up! My buddy used to
joke about that incident … until the two
of us got lost in them same woods that very next summer! We even had a compass, but it took us an hour
of wanderin’ around in circles until we came-out on the bank of Big Cypress,
and then another hour of walkin’ within’ eyesight of the bank of Smith’s Slough
to wind our way back to my boat! We
don’t joke about gettin’ lost no more …
I’m pretty-dang-sure that I’ll get lost again
somewhere, sometime in the near future; but, I’ll betcha that I’ll be a little more prepared! I now religiously carry my compass, wrap my
ankles and try to carry as much water as possible. I also pack a survival blanket and a pancho
as well. My fishin’ buddies used to
laugh at how much gear I’d pack when we’d camp-out for one of our private little
drink-and-drown bass tournaments. They’d
laugh, that is, until sh¡t would happen and somebody needed somethin’ fixed or
the right tools to fix it. I always seem
to be the go-to guy when it came to fixin’ sh¡t! But as far as gettin’ lost goes, the main
thing I do right is to always tell someone where I’m goin’ and when they can expect
me to return. Too much can happen out
there in them woods, and it’s always good to share the specifics of where
you’ll be and about when you’ll be gettin’ back. Always go prepared … and try to expect the
unexpected. I hope someone might learn
from this, and that y’all will be a little more careful out there in them woods. Take care, be cool … and y’all come back now,
you hear?
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