Into The Wild ... And Back Again

   Well, I'm back. All in all, I had a good time, but things didn't go exactly as I had planned. I wasn't able to leave until Saturday morning. Guess what happened Friday afternoon ...it snowed. Yep, it's only snowed lightly once here all year(we had some sleet and ice a while back), but mother nature gave me the ole "screw you, Caleb", so I had to deal with that. My wife dropped me off on the south edge of Wattensaw(decided not to go to Dagmar), on Saturday morning. This way I could walk the 25 miles back north and right up to my house, and be there sometime Sunday afternoon. I took with me ... my Henry .22 rifle(as I had planned on hunting squirrels, but ended up not needing to), my backpack with a few extra clothes in case I fell in the water or something, a knife(my Buck),a little pan to boil water, a flint for fires, my phone, a pen and paper, and the clothes on my back.
  Sometime Saturday afternoon I came across a flock of Speckle Belly Geese in a field on the edge of a woodline. I took a picture before I shot one, but they were about 100 yards away so it's not the clearest picture. At that distance with a .22, you gotta arch your shot a little in order to make it. I got lucky and nailed one right in the neck on the first try. I took a couple of pictures of my goose after I'd got back in the woods. I tied it to my pack and continued my hike. Before I stopped that evening, I ran across the carcass of a wild boar, which I also took a picture of. He was just about to turn too ripe(rotten), but I could have eaten him in a pinch. Of course, I had my goose so I left him for the buzzards and coyotes. I don't know how he died, but I'm guessing he was wounded by a hunter, and eventually died of his wounds.
  I continued walking north with no problems until about an hour before dark. Then I decide to make camp. This was something I'd been a little concerned about all day. You see, it got warm enough Saturday that most of the snow melted. So that meant that most of the ground was soaking wet. It was pointless to build a shelter and lay on the wet ground or a pile of wet leaves, and it was a calm night anyway(no wind), so the best plan was just to find a dry spot next to the trunk of a big tree, keep a fire in front of me, and try to sleep reclined against the tree. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Before I tried to sleep, I had to cook. I plucked my goose, removed the breasts, liver, and heart(which I also took a picture of) and cooked those over the fire.(oh yeah, I cheated and brought a little dab of spice that I sprinkled over the meat...you can see in the picture) While walking, I found a piece of stainless steel laying on the ground. It was just right to skewer some hunks of meat, so I drove it into the end of a stick and that's how I cooked. Goose is kind of gamey tasting but not bad. Canadian geese are the best. Snow geese are the worst. Speckled Bellies are somewhere in the middle. I roasted the legs later that night in between my rounds of sleep and ate those for breakfast...very tough to chew.
  So about my night ... it sucked. It got pretty cold. I'd say about 20 degrees F. I took a picture of myself somewhere around two in the morning, leaning up against my tree, and giving the situation the ole "thumbs down"...haha...told you there would be times when I'd regret this adventure...me and my big mouth. I would sleep for 30 minutes or so at a time, get up and move around to get the blood flowing and wake up my butt-cheeks and legs, and then sleep some more. It got old, but I DID get quite a bit of sleep, and it was certainly better than laying in a pile of wet grass or leaves. And like I said, I wasn't worried about having walls because it wasn't windy at all.
   I left at daylight the next morning. Nothing spectacular happened that day. I just walked. I wasn't hungry so I didn't bother trying to hunt, though I had several chances to take out small game. Oh, and I forgot...I ended up not needing to boil water to drink because I just kept stuffing left-over hunks of snow into the water resevoir in my backpack, and drinking that once it melted. I stayed pretty much hydrated that way. I came out of Wattensaw sometime around 2pm Sunday afternoon. I took a picture of the last stretch of woods beyond the edge of a field...once I crossed those, I was home.
   Then I took a nap....;)

The pictures I took are posted in my blog photos(still having trouble pasting them here). Keep in mind, I was alone, and I'm not a photographer. And it's hard to get an action shot when you need both hands and one extra to take a picture...haha..but I did my best to capture some of my time in the wild. Also, some of the pictures are bloody and kinda gruesome...so keep that in mind before you look.
  Also, I wrote these poems. They aren't very good, but I was on the move a lot, and one of them I wrote half asleep at 1 am while the coyotes were running around making a bunch of noise and keeping me awake. One little guy was curious enough about me to get rather close. The picture of me crouched in the brush was that night when I was trying to get close enough to take his picture, but he wasn't having any of it. So, I took one of myself, and the flash really got him nervous...ha...he didn't stay long after that. He had bright eyes and I named him Fletch.

My only company
Is the coyote's call
Here in the dark of the wood
I can see him there
... green eyed stare
To watch the wisp of flames
Never did he invite me here
And I am just passing by
'Til come tomorrow
When no man will borrow
Here in the dark of the wood
........................................
Here's another little jag....

When i am hungry
I will eat
When I am thirsty
I will drink
When I am tired
I will rest
In the cradle
Of nature's arms