Another warm and sunny day.
Just checked back over my entries and it seems our summer "started" July 16th.
So except for four or five cloudy days and one brief rain shower one night we have had warm and very dry weather for the last 50 days and the forecast is for this weather to continue!
Out for dinner and cards last night, a nice time. We both missed bowls this am due to appointments.

He glided in a circle then felt a soft touch on his shoulder, he looked sideways and there gliding beside him was a white moose.

  The moose cocked its head and he heard a voice in his head, “Pitiful sight. How does it feel to see yourself like that?”

  Nat had no surprise not even seeing a flying moose or that it was white; shame was his only emotion.  ‘He’s tired and hungry and he is alone, it’s not his fault.’

  The thought was replied to, “Nonsense, you saw that he is not alone.  He has the memories of his youth, of the only woman he has loved.  If he wished he could seek guidance from his father, his mother and many others.  It is inside; he only has to reach within.”  The moose stared Nat in the eye, then nodded his head and was gone.  Simultaneously Nat felt himself floating back down and down and once again was staring up into the night sky.  He slept.

  

10

W

hen he awoke the sun was well above the horizon, shining full on his face.  He put one arm across his eyes and groaned aloud.  ‘God what a night.’ He thought.  Then thinking more he thought, ‘now why did I think that? I feel pretty rested but I think those mushrooms may have knocked me out’.

  He sat up, he looked about, ‘funny I sort of remember dreaming about a fire; oh well, better get going and see what the day brings’.

  He had little to prepare as he hadn’t unpacked his pack the night before, he gathered up a few more puffballs from a spot he had missed and stuffing them in his pockets slid down the embankment and made his way to where he had spotted the trickle of water.  His spirits seemed uplifted and he realized at one point he was humming under his breath.

  When he reached the water, he found it to be clear and quite cold. He ate puffballs and slurped up water, alternating until his stomach felt full, then struck out across the rocks, heading south.

  He hadn’t gone a quarter of a mile when he came to what was obviously the remnant of some kind of bulldozed road.  It came from the east and was going west.  He studied it for a few moments then with sudden inspiration, started piling rocks into a rough cairn in the very middle of the road.  This was the first sign of human activity that he had seen.  In spite of the condition of the road and the fact that it was old activity he felt a measure of excitement.

  He knew that the equipment had probably come from the Fort Nelson River somewhere to the east, so he decided to follow going west.  The road climbed slightly but steadily, he had decided he would follow it until approximately midday.  If he hadn’t found anything by then he would come back and either go on south or stay on last night’s bank again.

  In places he made good time then he would come to a washout and have to pick his way either around or down and back up.  However as the road climbed it got higher above the draw and the going got better. 

  As he went up a particularly steep pitch, his head down, his body bent forward, the road flattened suddenly and when he straightened up, there not two hundred yards away was a cluster of four buildings!

  He hurried forward, he knew that there would be very little to be found, but there had to be something!  The first and the second building had obviously been bunk houses.  Some worn out and abandoned clothes were scattered about, some of it piled in a corner, he could smell the tell tale odor of packrats, there could be a nest.  The next building had been a tool-shed, oil cans, rags, some partly used grease tubes, a couple of broken wrenches were all that were revealed to a cursory scan.

  The last and biggest building had been the cook-house.  The stove had been removed but several propane bottles could be seen through a rear window. As he looked about the edge went from some of his excitement, this was obviously an old site. He had been told that nowadays, all the camps were ultra modern trailer complexes and only left behind if a return was planned for another season.

  ‘Doesn’t matter’ he thought ‘this is what I’ve got so gotta see what I can use’.

  As he searched he remembered an instance, ‘I must have been about twelve or thirteen’, when he and his friend Jack had found the remnants of an old trading out-post along the shore across from where they had lived.  They had searched and pulled things away only finding colored trading beads, rusty tins and a pair of rotten old boots.  Jack had wanted to quit but Nat had said, “C’mon Jack, there has to be something.”  They pulled away some more of the collapsed roof and Nat had squirmed under and onto the rotting floor. More beads, then as he was about to turn and wiggle his way out the floor collapsed and he fell about three feet into a rectangular hole.  He was unhurt but there was very little light.  “Hey Jack make the hole in the roof bigger, I can’t see.”  He yelled up.

  Jack mumbling away did as he was bid and in a few moments with his eyes adjusted to the gloom Nat could see well enough.  More beads, a three legged stool and a small table were in one corner.  The table had a drawer in the center. When he tried to open it, it was stuck so he picked up the stool and gave it a whack, then another.  When he pulled again it didn’t open but the front panel pulled off.  He reached inside, something was there!  In seconds he pulled out three coins, he reached back in this time feeling a sharp poke in a finger as though he had hit a sliver.  He gently palmed his hand about, finally laying it on something cold and hard. He had gingerly closed his hand about the object and slowly pulled out a large knife!  To his eyes it was beautiful, it was long and curved and mounted on a deer horn handle. He reached back in; there was nothing else.