16C Mostly sunny
Well no replys to my suggestion of yesterday, so now is that because no one is that interested or out of the 10-20 hits each day no one got around to saying anything?

He tried to envision what lay ahead, quelling only the negative thoughts that tried to assail his mind.

  He turned back, found a spot to sit then said aloud, “Think, think about everything you know, everything you have heard about these parts, think about the constants, the things that are the same no matter what piece of bush or wilderness you are in.”

  He stared at the ground before him, forcing his mind to go where he wanted it to go, then to impress on his conscious and subconscious he started voicing a list.

  “The Fort Nelson area has gas and oil wells drilled all over, more out in the muskeg but right up into the foothills, seismic lines are everywhere, the crews all pull out at breakup and only in a few instances do they go back before winter.  There is lots of game, bear, moose, wolves are everywhere. There are usually rabbits, but they die off every few years, the lynx population grows and dies with the rabbits. Willow and Spruce grouse are most everywhere and in the mountains there are Ptarmigan and Blue grouse.  Grayling in the mountain streams and rivers, jackfish in most of the lakes as well as ling, some lakes and the Fort Nelson river have pickerel.  Temperatures in the summer can be more than ninety Fahrenheit and down to seventy below in the winter.  Horseflies, mosquitoes and blackflies can eat you alive during the summer”.  He paused for a moment knowing that he had missed some of what he knew, then shrugged and went on.  “There are many kinds of mushrooms that can be eaten, but some can make you sick and some can kill you.  You can eat the tips of fern when it first emerges or dig up its roots, most green shoots from willow and thimble berry can be peeled and eaten for a sweet salad flavor, if your stomach can manage almost any grub, bug or worm can be eaten.  In the spring there are still usually berries on high bush cranberry, you can eat the petals on almost all the flowering plants. The gum on birch and poplar is quite edible on spruce you can chew it but don’t swallow.”  He finally quit his recitation, he was now wasting time, many of the things he had learned from his earlier years would come automatically when the time came, if it came.  However the exercise had lifted his spirits, there were some things going for him.

  He stood up and picked a distant spot where another rocky shoulder ended and the low bog lands started.  He headed out heading roughly south southeast.

                                                                         7

A

t first the change of going obliquely down hill was a pleasant change, but after awhile his knees started getting rubbery and twice almost bent backwards.  He changed direction and started a zigzag course down the hill, making much poorer time but reducing the risk of injury. 

  Occasionally he paused to roll aside a rock and scoop up the odd insect, however on this relatively barren hillside there weren’t many and niggling in the back of his mind was the question of how many was too many.

  After about an hour he found himself in a shallow draw, he decided not to maintain his course and climb again but instead followed down the draw and then went across the foot of the next incline.  Water had been present in this draw but as it was quite rocky with large boulders and he was confident that he would find water lower down he didn’t search but kept going.  Intent on watching where he was walking he lost all track of time and when the ground finally leveled and brush and scrubby trees replaced rocks he had no idea how long he had been walking. Then he asked himself, ‘does it matter? I’ll walk until I think it’s time to quit and then tomorrow, I’ll do it again’.

  Soon after he reached the level ground and once again turned southerly he found several small pools, unlike the day before the water was clear and cold.  Without hesitation he dropped beside one and drank long and deeply, took a few breaths then drank some more.  He moved away a few feet to a dry spot and sat back.  There were a few mosquitoes but not an unmanageable swarm like the night before.  The cold water had refreshed him and he just sprawled and rested.  Several minutes went by and out of the corner of his eye he caught a tiny movement in the grass.  He turned his head slowly, nothing there and as he was about to look away a small mouse scurried across the moss.  ‘Food!’ flashed through his mind but how, this was no slow moving frog.  He sat and studied the small creature, it appeared to be harvesting seeds from some dry grass from the year before and was either totally unaware of him or didn’t care.  That was it! It had no experience with humans, the odor meant nothing, a wolf or coyote would have reacted, it had no fear!