Through the heavily fallen snow I lumbered forward. Each
step weighed me down and stole my breath. I’d been walking for almost two hours
through the frozen wasteland, but was I closer to the farm or heading further
away from it? I couldn’t tell at this point. If I could only see the farm, I’d
finally have my bearings, I thought. The snow caked my scarf and mittens and
stung my face when I touched it. ‘How did I get myself in such a mess this
time?’ I asked aloud to no one, for no one was there to hear my inquiry anyway.
The sun hid well behind the thick clouds and more snow gently
powdered the ground. It seemed much
later than it actually was, and I feared darkness would fall upon me before I
reached my destination. Grim thoughts clouded my mind, should I not make it,
when would I be found and what would be left of me. I tried to banish them. I
imagined myself as Rocky in ‘Rocky IV’ just doing training in Russia for the
big fight. But the longer this trek lasted, I started picturing Luke Skywalker
escaping the Wampa creature, only to find himself facing the hostile conditions
of the frozen ice planet.
I did not start this adventure on foot, and I’d travelled
much further than planned. This probably contributed to why my SRX 440 ran out
of gas. Although there were other unforeseen factors which attributed to me
finding myself in my current position. For starters, I probably shouldn’t have
tried to race against the neighbor’s kid, Josh. His sled was so much faster and
newer than my ’79 model and he knew the trails better than I did. But I was hell-bent
on beating him this time.
As always, he wanted to race me to the tree nursery, which meant
there were a couple of dense areas of woodland, two or three fields, and a
creek we had to cross. But this time, I decided to take another path which I’d
hoped I could use to cut him off at the pass. My father often warned me about
taking new paths which I hadn’t scouted before, sighting that a friend of his
was nearly decapitated by a low hanging branch where you had to duck to go
under. Of course in my fourteen years of wisdom, I was sure nothing like that
could happen to me.
Josh took off down the field towards the edge of the woods
where the trail that we usually took started. I still wonder to this day
exactly when he noticed that I didn’t follow. At the time, I’m sure, he thought
that he left me far behind or that I’d actually given up. I spotted the other
trail opening a little ways further down the field on my left and gunned the
throttle.
This trail had a shorter maze through the woods, but it came
out on a declining slope with thick bushes left and right of me. I was already
braking when I realized that this path crossed the highway. The highway wasn’t
a heavy traffic area, but depending on the time of day, it still got its share
of cars and trucks passing through. I kept trying to stop, but the slope was
icy. When I finally did get the sled to stop, I found myself sitting in the
middle of the highway with an 18 wheeler heading right for me. I gunned the
throttle again, but the sled was having a hard time getting traction. I let off
a scream and off the gas a bit and the sled finally took off as the honking rig
sped past.
Safely on the other side, I took a second to thank the Lord,
and tried to recollect my wits to continue. I was still hoping that despite my
little ‘prayer break’, I could make up time and beat Josh. I followed the trail
further until it came to the creek. There was a rickety bridge, but it looked
like it was safe, so I crossed. At this point I was sure that this path led to
the nursery and that it was a shorter path than what Josh was taking because
usually I had to go take three paths through the woods before I made it to the
creek. I shot out across the open field as fast as my sled could take me. The
field looked pretty flat, with only a few shallow dips, so I really didn’t
notice the patch of dirt on the field until it was too late. It was a narrow patch,
so I gunned my sled and crossed it quickly back to the snow on the other side.
It seemed a bit strange to see a patch of dirt in the middle of the field, but
it would have taken too long to drive around it, besides, the snowmobile could
drive on dirt for short distances without overheating.
Up ahead was another patch of woods that looked vaguely
familiar, so I thought I knew where I was and the nursery was just on the other
side. The woods were thicker than I had anticipated. In places the sled just
barely fit between two trees. The path continued on the spur of the hill, but
then made a sharp right turn. I of course missed the turn and drove into a deep
snowdrift hill. The sled sputtered out and I spent the next five minutes pulling
the ripcord to no avail, only giving up as I realized that the tank was empty.
So I started towards the edge of the woods where I was sure I would be able to
see Josh waiting at the nursery. Yeah, well, as I’m sure you can imagine that
was not the case and I was lost. I lost the race and I lost myself somewhere in
the woods. I decided to try and backtrack.
So back to the beginning of my story… Trudging through the
snow, cold, numb, wet, and lost.
Suddenly I heard the roar of a snowmobile. I was waving and
jumping up and down with new found life. I yelled at the top of my lungs,
though I now realize how pointless that was. It was Josh who figured out that I
didn’t give up and came looking for me. I was never so happy to see his
smirking face. “I saw your sled back there on the path. Trouble?” he asked. “Nah,
just ran out of gas, I’ll beat you next time. You just wait and see.” I
taunted. Josh just grinned and said “Speaking of beatings, you know your dad’s
gonna give you one, when he finds out you ran that sled through cow manure.”
I hope you've enjoyed this episode of "Tales from the Dorkside".
Be sure to recommend, if you did.
Thank you
