Are You Wood Wise....

I am afraid I wouldn't consider myself "wise" in any department....


Years ago I spent about three weeks hunting solo in Idaho about 1500 miles from home. There would belong stretches of days in a rowthat would go by without having any contact with another human being. It was my one "Hunt from Hell".

The first day up the mountain, after being out all day, and having depleted my water, I took awrong turn coming back to my camp and found myself coming down a very steep slope in the dark. It would be a long exhaustingdescentback to camp. In that descent Ideveloped blisters the size of fifty cent pieces on the heel of each foot (yes my boots were broke in ). They would stay with me for the rest of the trip. Every step, every day, wouldbe a painful one.

About a week into the adventure I developed an abscess in one of my teeth and my face swelled up to the point that it affected my speech; the pain became intolerable. I came down the mountain and searched for a dentist in a small town. I was told the infection was so bad all they could do was to prescribe pain killers and antibiotics. As it normally is for me the pain killers had no effect. I would have to endure the raging pressure and hope the antibodies could overcome the infection.I went back to camp and about three in the morning I couldn't stand it anymore. I grabbed a knife, a light, and a mirror and performed surgery on myself. Cutting out the infection gave me instant relief and I was able to sleep the rest of the night.

I eventually got chased off the mountain by a blizzard after having to stay up all night keeping snow from collapsing my tent. There wasn't really any place I could go to keep dry, I had to evacuate.

Coming home while crossing the great State ofWyoming at nightI hit another bad blizzard. There were miles and miles of cars and semis nearly bumper to bumper stopped on the interstate. I was afraid I was going to run out of gas in these brutal elementsso I put it in four wheel drive and drove on the shoulder for miles until I hit Rawlins. Everything but a gas station was shut down, all the motels were full, not another room to be found so I napped in my truck. When I woke up I decided to push on because I knew if I got further east there wouldn't be any snow it was justSeptember after all. It was the only time in my life I drove 100 miles on the interstate and never saw another vehicle on my side of the interstate (turns out they shut down I-80). When I hit Laramie the snow ended and shortly thereafter it was like a desert again. Two days later I made it home.....

The irony of it all was that I didn't suffer from altitude sickness on that trip. As I have gotten older, every year I deal with some form of it.