Have you ever been lost in the forest? Have you ever had to camp with no gear at all? Well, two years ago I was in Libby, Montana visiting my aunt Joe and Uncle Phil. We were planning about a four day trip from Spokane, Washington to Libby. Since me, my brother Tyler, my dad, and my uncle all enjoyed fishing we decided we were all going to go on a fishing trip the last day we were there. So we all went out to a nearby creek called Cherry Creek. Once we got there we got all geared up with our fishing poles, bait, and also our tackle. We had to go on roughly a half mile hike through some thick brush and trees to get to the creek where we were going to begin our fishing trip.
So after I began to fish we split up in to two separate groups. My brother favored my uncle who is an experienced hunter as well as a fisherman too, so I went with my dad. We were all enjoying ourselves when my dad decided he didn’t like the section of the creek where we were fishing and we decided to climb over this hill and head down stream but what we didn’t know at the time was that we had crossed over to a separate creek named Bear Creek. The sun was suddenly disappearing in the distance, and the breeze was starting to pick up as night was approaching, and unfortunately we had no idea where we were at all, so we began attempting to retrace our footsteps. My dad and I began walking upstream at about six o clock. We were aware that we should be about an hour downstream, but as seven thirty arose we officially knew we were lost.
As we knew we were lost we began to set up camp by gathering dry wood and trying to build a reasonable sufficient shelter for us . But at about ten thirty we were sitting by a fire and huge gusts of wind began to come snuffing out our fire. After the fire snuffed out we attempted to relight it but we were unsuccessful due to the night breeze so we were forced to sit in the dark. As the night sunk in and the temperature lowered I checked my watch and it showed eleven thirty. Within the next half an hour I had almost got myself to sleep when all of a sudden rain started pouring down as if you mixed Diet Coke with Mentos. In the mere distance I was able to make out the brute noise of rescue sirens, knowing that our worried family had called search and rescue in order to find us. Since there was nothing we could do we just sat in the bitter cold and waited the storm out of rain and wind.
To wrap up, we were up and hiking before sunrise. Within an hour we were reunited with a dirt road. Tiredly we believed following the road would get us to our family, and luckily as well as momentarily we were within eye sight of them. In the end we survived our lost adventure into the forest but overall it was a fun and great learning experience. In conclusion I learned that without being prepared I can survive in the wilderness.