LOST
Priscilla and I had quite an adventure yesterday morning. We met at the crack of dawn and headed out to a place called Emerson Point in Palmetto, 195 acres of trails, wetlands, and waterfront. Neither one of us had ever been there before, and so weren’t familiar with anything. But we both have been looking for new places to go. We started out on a beach area, then headed deeper inland in search of wildlife.
I’d say for the first half mile we stayed pretty much together, but I am usually slow and lag behind a bit, trying to observe everything. The trails were mostly rugged, winding, sometimes only a foot wide and covered with gnarled protruding roots in places. You had to really step carefully and climb over and under branches. The trees and undergrowth were very thick, and on both sides of the path there was almost always a shallow waterway filled with mangroves and other greenery and birds.
I could see P ahead of me on and off most of the time in the beginning. And sometimes I would pick up the pace and catch up with her. So after the last time I saw her, my logic was that she was always ahead of me. So for quite a while I kept thinking I would catch sight of her soon and I wasn’t worried.
After an hour of not seeing her, I was pretty sure we had lost each other. Plus, I always knew if I didn’t find her I could turn around and go back the way I came, since I always stayed on the main path. But like I said, for a long time I always thought she was just ahead of me.
Well, I kept going along the main path and suddenly---my dread --- a definite fork in the road, like a T. I didn’t know which way to go, so I said a prayer for guidance and went to the right. I thought I should mark the trail as to which way I went in case someone would actually start looking for me, so I gathered a few sticks and made an arrow and a K at the fork in the road.
This was my first trail marker. And as time went on, I made many more along the way and visualized how when people found them they would think “oh, what a smart thing to do. Ha!) After about 20 minutes, and with no hope of seeing P, I turned around and backtracked to my trail marker. I wondered if I should try going left, and I did for about 5 minutes, then turned around and went back. By that time I decided I should just follow the trail and go back the same way I came. I was getting pretty tired, and my hips and back were starting to hurt a little, so I began to backtrack.
I had my watch on, and noticed I’d been in the woods over two and a half hours, so I picked up the pace a bit going back. When I was almost to the spot I had last seen P, there coming towards me were the first human beings I’d seen since I’d started. A young couple, and they asked if I was Kathy. When I said yes, they said people were looking for me and pointed the way back (which I did know) but I thanked them. I told them they would find many markers of arrows and K’s on the pathways, and to just ignore them.
That last half mile seemed really long, and soon I heard my name being called and I started waving and then I saw P. She grabbed me and hugged me and said, “I’m never letting you out of my sight again!” She had been so, so worried about me - frantic-I quickly learned.
She told me she had called 911, and “whoever comes to the rescue of lost hikers” was on their way. I didn’t think P had a cell phone and figured she had borrowed someone’s or driven somewhere to a phone to make the call. But as soon as we got in the car, she reached her hand up to the rear view mirror and started pushing buttons and talking into it.
I said, “What! You’re calling through the mirror?” I thought she had gone daft! And we both started laughing and laughing. I am so electronically challenged with all these new gadgets out there; I didn’t know what she was doing. Anyway, I guess there is an On Star and a trial cell phone in that mirror, and we were both kind of anxious and dazed at that point, and P kept saying to them she was trying to cancel the 911 call, and the lady on the other end kept saying, “I’m sorry, there’s no such address,” over and over and over.
While all this was going on, I got my cell phone out of my purse in the back seat and gave it to her to call. Finally she got through and told them the lost hiker had been found and she was not injured and was alright. ( P later told me she had visions of me fallen, laying somewhere in the woods, not being able to get up, dying of thirst.)
As we were heading out of the back roads to the main highway, we saw them coming. Two sheriff cars. We stopped and told them I was found and okay. They were all very glad to hear that. I really felt like such a bother to everyone, and thought they would be mad, but P told me something very interesting (since she used to work a lot with the police on her job). That they would rather go on a call like this and find everyone alright, than go on a call and find someone beaten up or shot.
We started piecing everything together to find what had happened and how we lost track of each other. This is what we finally came up with by comparing our stories.
P told me about a half mile in, there was a footbridge to the right. (I remembered it, and actually stepped on to it, but didn’t go far. It disappeared around a bend and was covered by thick trees and you couldn’t see the end of it.) Well, she knew she was a ways ahead of me, so she went further on the footbridge thinking she would get back to the main path before I would get there. So while she was out of sight, I came to the footbridge, stepped on it for a moment, then continued back on the main path. She came off the footbridge and waited and waited and waited for me to catch up with her, (but of course, I had already gone past.) So finally she thought I must have turned around and gone back to the car, so she went back to the car, as I went deeper and deeper into the woods. I think we actually missed each other by just a few moments.
After all this we went to lunch at a great Mexican Restaurant, and laughed and talked about our adventure, and checked out the viewfinders in each other’s cameras to see what we got.
I did feel bad that people were worried about me and trying to find me. And poor Priscilla--she was frantic. She is such a caring friend and was so worried about me. But I have to say that through it all, I wasn’t really scared. I had one moment where I wondered what I would do if a panther or a bear or other wild animal would come at me. But mostly I felt at peace and one with nature and that I would be protected somehow. I felt like this is where I belonged.
These pictures are in no particular order. Be warned there’s quite a few of them.
P.S. If you've got a good eye, see if you can spot Priscilla in two of the photos.
To see some of what I saw
This is where we started on the beach area. That is the Skyway Bridge in the distance.
1.
2. I think this was either a limpkin or a night heron.
3. I took this with a flash, and his eye turned into a rainbow!
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. A ladder from one of the little boardwalks down into the water.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16. An oyster bed.
17.
18.
19. Everyone seems to want to carve their name in the Gumbo Limbo trees. I saw so many of them that day. They have that beautiful coppery red color right under the outer bark. This one had "Joe" carved in it, and I thought Tracy might enjoy that.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27. This was like liquid moss streaming down over a bank.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34. This little mushroom looked like it had just popped up and was still covered with sand.
35.
36.
37. One of my trail markers.
38.
39.
40. See the raccoon. It had just limped across the path in front of me dragging one of its front paws and quickly into the woods. I think it had a broken leg.
These next two are my reflection in the water.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
I’d say for the first half mile we stayed pretty much together, but I am usually slow and lag behind a bit, trying to observe everything. The trails were mostly rugged, winding, sometimes only a foot wide and covered with gnarled protruding roots in places. You had to really step carefully and climb over and under branches. The trees and undergrowth were very thick, and on both sides of the path there was almost always a shallow waterway filled with mangroves and other greenery and birds.
I could see P ahead of me on and off most of the time in the beginning. And sometimes I would pick up the pace and catch up with her. So after the last time I saw her, my logic was that she was always ahead of me. So for quite a while I kept thinking I would catch sight of her soon and I wasn’t worried.
After an hour of not seeing her, I was pretty sure we had lost each other. Plus, I always knew if I didn’t find her I could turn around and go back the way I came, since I always stayed on the main path. But like I said, for a long time I always thought she was just ahead of me.
Well, I kept going along the main path and suddenly---my dread --- a definite fork in the road, like a T. I didn’t know which way to go, so I said a prayer for guidance and went to the right. I thought I should mark the trail as to which way I went in case someone would actually start looking for me, so I gathered a few sticks and made an arrow and a K at the fork in the road.
This was my first trail marker. And as time went on, I made many more along the way and visualized how when people found them they would think “oh, what a smart thing to do. Ha!) After about 20 minutes, and with no hope of seeing P, I turned around and backtracked to my trail marker. I wondered if I should try going left, and I did for about 5 minutes, then turned around and went back. By that time I decided I should just follow the trail and go back the same way I came. I was getting pretty tired, and my hips and back were starting to hurt a little, so I began to backtrack.
I had my watch on, and noticed I’d been in the woods over two and a half hours, so I picked up the pace a bit going back. When I was almost to the spot I had last seen P, there coming towards me were the first human beings I’d seen since I’d started. A young couple, and they asked if I was Kathy. When I said yes, they said people were looking for me and pointed the way back (which I did know) but I thanked them. I told them they would find many markers of arrows and K’s on the pathways, and to just ignore them.
That last half mile seemed really long, and soon I heard my name being called and I started waving and then I saw P. She grabbed me and hugged me and said, “I’m never letting you out of my sight again!” She had been so, so worried about me - frantic-I quickly learned.
She told me she had called 911, and “whoever comes to the rescue of lost hikers” was on their way. I didn’t think P had a cell phone and figured she had borrowed someone’s or driven somewhere to a phone to make the call. But as soon as we got in the car, she reached her hand up to the rear view mirror and started pushing buttons and talking into it.
I said, “What! You’re calling through the mirror?” I thought she had gone daft! And we both started laughing and laughing. I am so electronically challenged with all these new gadgets out there; I didn’t know what she was doing. Anyway, I guess there is an On Star and a trial cell phone in that mirror, and we were both kind of anxious and dazed at that point, and P kept saying to them she was trying to cancel the 911 call, and the lady on the other end kept saying, “I’m sorry, there’s no such address,” over and over and over.
While all this was going on, I got my cell phone out of my purse in the back seat and gave it to her to call. Finally she got through and told them the lost hiker had been found and she was not injured and was alright. ( P later told me she had visions of me fallen, laying somewhere in the woods, not being able to get up, dying of thirst.)
As we were heading out of the back roads to the main highway, we saw them coming. Two sheriff cars. We stopped and told them I was found and okay. They were all very glad to hear that. I really felt like such a bother to everyone, and thought they would be mad, but P told me something very interesting (since she used to work a lot with the police on her job). That they would rather go on a call like this and find everyone alright, than go on a call and find someone beaten up or shot.
We started piecing everything together to find what had happened and how we lost track of each other. This is what we finally came up with by comparing our stories.
P told me about a half mile in, there was a footbridge to the right. (I remembered it, and actually stepped on to it, but didn’t go far. It disappeared around a bend and was covered by thick trees and you couldn’t see the end of it.) Well, she knew she was a ways ahead of me, so she went further on the footbridge thinking she would get back to the main path before I would get there. So while she was out of sight, I came to the footbridge, stepped on it for a moment, then continued back on the main path. She came off the footbridge and waited and waited and waited for me to catch up with her, (but of course, I had already gone past.) So finally she thought I must have turned around and gone back to the car, so she went back to the car, as I went deeper and deeper into the woods. I think we actually missed each other by just a few moments.
After all this we went to lunch at a great Mexican Restaurant, and laughed and talked about our adventure, and checked out the viewfinders in each other’s cameras to see what we got.
I did feel bad that people were worried about me and trying to find me. And poor Priscilla--she was frantic. She is such a caring friend and was so worried about me. But I have to say that through it all, I wasn’t really scared. I had one moment where I wondered what I would do if a panther or a bear or other wild animal would come at me. But mostly I felt at peace and one with nature and that I would be protected somehow. I felt like this is where I belonged.
These pictures are in no particular order. Be warned there’s quite a few of them.
P.S. If you've got a good eye, see if you can spot Priscilla in two of the photos.
To see some of what I saw
This is where we started on the beach area. That is the Skyway Bridge in the distance.
1.
2. I think this was either a limpkin or a night heron.
3. I took this with a flash, and his eye turned into a rainbow!
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. A ladder from one of the little boardwalks down into the water.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16. An oyster bed.
17.
18.
19. Everyone seems to want to carve their name in the Gumbo Limbo trees. I saw so many of them that day. They have that beautiful coppery red color right under the outer bark. This one had "Joe" carved in it, and I thought Tracy might enjoy that.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27. This was like liquid moss streaming down over a bank.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34. This little mushroom looked like it had just popped up and was still covered with sand.
35.
36.
37. One of my trail markers.
38.
39.
40. See the raccoon. It had just limped across the path in front of me dragging one of its front paws and quickly into the woods. I think it had a broken leg.
These next two are my reflection in the water.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.