10C sunny.
Cool out there this morning.
Have to hurry this morning as we are going out for breakfast then Scotch Pairs.

He took a south bearing once more and plunged into the spruce trees before him.

  As he walked he deliberately thought back to the day of the crash, ‘Fred had mentioned a tail wind, but they hadn’t flown in a straight line, at what point was the wind on their tail?  At some point it must have at least been quartering onto them.  If so then they would also have been moving west as they flew north, how long had they been above the clouds before they found the hole? I was daydreaming, I don’t know. The canyon where we crashed, you don’t usually get canyons like that if you are close to a broad valley.  Strengthened by his breakfast, his mind more agile than it had been in days, Nat came to realize that perhaps he had relied too much on where Fred had thought they were.  It was obvious that in spite of his experience he was capable of mistakes.  ‘And why had there been no aircraft looking for them? Yes! That’s it; searchers would for the first few days stick to where they expected the plane to have flown.  With his years of flying the area the assumption would be that Fred didn’t get lost, but would have had a mechanical problem. I have to get to where we are expected to be!’  It was so clear, that Nat shook his head and said aloud, “I am a fool.”

  He tramped on still going south, knowing this was not the time to change direction, but change he would.

13

A

bout midday, Nat came to a small clearing.  The thought of the cold meat was just too much and he decided he would have a front shoulder.  He had picked some berries and stored them in his can then sat back leaning on his pack and enjoyed cold rabbit and cranberries.  On a whim he dug out the map and studying it once more and bearing in mind his new probabilities, he got the strong feeling that he had been originally much further north and west than he originally thought.  He had almost for sure started out across the Yukon border but much further west.  He traced with his finger his likely route and took into account that he had not made as good progress as he had earlier convinced himself.  He suddenly realized he had forgotten to keep notching the days in his belt, so he spent some time counting how long it had been since the crash. ‘Five nights, I’m pretty sure its five nights, tonight will be the sixth.  If I multiply six times seven miles  each day then I’ve come about forty two miles, no the first night doesn’t count five times  seven is thirty five ,maybe a bit more when I finish today.’  He measured three inches with his thumb on the map. ‘Pretty close to the Liard if I’m even close to where I started. If I had been doing ten miles a day I’d be past it. The damn moose was right.’

  He took a swig of water and feeling the need to hurry, picked up his pace and hurried on.  At first not discernible, the ground started to rise.   Slowly as the grade increased slightly, Nat became aware of a sound, ‘what is that, it sounds like the surf along the open ocean? I wish.’ He thought.

  The ground became gradually steeper, the trees thinned out and the noise grew in volume. ‘A river, it’s a river and either a large one or a waterfall.’ He thought.  Suddenly he broke out of the last of the trees, the land fell away in an almost sheer drop for perhaps two hundred feet, at the bottom was a large raging river! He grinned, ‘I bet it’s the Liard, it has to be it’s too big to be anything else.’