9C part sunny

  He picked up his pole snare from where it had landed when he fell, readjusted his pack and headed on towards the river.

 

  As he picked his way through the bush, Nat tried to plan ahead.  Obviously there were still planes out looking, maybe for him but also looking for fires from last nights storm.

‘That’s it’, he thought. ‘A fire, what’s that saying?  Build it and they will come?  I’ll build a bloody fire and they better damn well come!’

  It wasn’t long and he was back out on the edge of the river bank, he had now made up his mind that even if the going was more difficult he would follow the river.  ‘It’s like life, you have to have a destination and a way to get there, the easy way isn’t always the best way’, he thought.

  Once the bank gave way and he slid down almost into the river, it took several arduous minutes to claw his way back up onto the bank.  When he was again close to the trees he realized his snare pole had become a victim and was now probably a mile or more downstream.  He shrugged but then as he started off, shook his head and searched about for another suitable pole and made a new snare.  He walked for about another hour when hunger pains finally got the better of him.

  He found a small clearing near the river bank, gathered some small twigs and laboriously went through lighting a fire.  He found when he fished out a match that during one of his falls he had broken all but three of the matches and the broken ones had all snapped at the head, they were useless. He was now down to two matches.

  He skinned and gutted all three grouse then cooked them all together.  He pulled one off and ate it before it was fully cooked. The semi raw meat and the strong taste from a diet of spruce needles didn’t deflect from the pleasure of the meal.  He ate half of a second bird then wrapped up the remaining meat and stowed it in the pack.  He extinguished his fire and headed out once more.

  Nat walked through the day, twice the spruce forest changed to blackspruce and muskeg but on each occasion he found a moose trail cut into the heavy moss along the river bank.  Late in the day the river bowed to the north and flowed on through a stand of huge cottonwood. Nat found more cranberries and as before chewed and sucked them as he walked.  Finally just when he was thinking he should try and find a campsite he walked through a small thicket of willow and stumbled out onto a sloping gravel bank.

  There were two rivers; He had reached the confluence of the Liard and Fort Nelson Rivers!

 

                                                        5

H

e slumped onto a log that lay on the gravel and relished the moment.  His first thought was to start gathering wood for a fire but then realizing the lateness of the day decided he should set up camp instead.

  He walked along the edge of the sloping bank and after a few hundred yards found where a cottonwood had fallen parallel to the river, it was thick enough that it would work as an anchor for his plastic sheet and provide a sloping roof.

  He unloaded his pack and reentered the bush, in a short time he had made several trips with armfuls of spruce bows.  He made up a bed, then using the butter knife and two forks he had found at the shacks fastened his tarp to the log and the other end to the ground.  He then set about gathering wood and in a short time made ready to ignite a fire. The first match disintegrated when he struck it!  He took the second, his last and carefully warmed it on his shirt taking longer than usual then holding his breath he held the box against his tinder and struck the match.  It flared up, ignited the kerosene soaked tinder and he had a fire! 

 Tired and sore from the day’s trials, Nat desperately wanted to just kick back and rest for a while but he knew that he now had to keep his fire going as he no longer had any way of igniting another.  He walked up to the edge of the brush line and started dragging out any size of log or chunk of wood he could handle, these he piled a short distance from his fire.  He kept at this project for about an hour, occasionally pausing to ensure that the fire had fuel.  He finished up by prying and splitting of some slabs of bark from the cottonwood that helped form his shelter.

  Finally he was satisfied and went down to the river and washed his whole upper body. He removed the bandage from around his head and after hesitating for only a few seconds dunked his head in the river.  Holding his breath and let the river water flow through his hair.  Refreshed he went back to his shelter, took out the cold grouse carcasses and sat down to enjoy a much needed meal.  He fell asleep before the meal was done, he awoke some time later, replenished the fire then crawled into his bed and promptly fell asleep again.