Ever been lost?
Like, really... truly lost?
I am gonna take a moment to confess...
and then I will tell you just exactly how I got myself out of the mess.
And this method will work every single time!
Our family has owned horses from the time i was 16 years old. My Dad and I loved the time we spent together training, showing, riding, and even vacationing with horses.
It was "our" time after my parents had divorced and that made it even more special to me... as we had lived in a city neighborhood prior to the divorce, and I always secretly hated it.
I knew i was born to be a country girl!
One year, we took our horses on a camping trip to the National Forrest Camping Area in North West Arkansas.
click here To check out some amazing things to do at the state park!
We gathered up our horses one early morning to spend the weekend exploring the park on horseback. We packed a few things in our saddle bags for a lunch out in the woods...but not much, as we weren't planning on a long morning ride. We planned to be gone just a few hours, max.
The summer had been harsh and several trees were down in an area... but we were explorers.. . .. so we rode our horses around the trees and up a ridge to catch the next trail pass.
Except... there wasn't one.
Keep riding...it'll be near. Won't it?
An hour later we were STILL looking for that trail pass. It was no where to be found.
Okay, lets stop and regroup. We can eat our lunch and get our bearings.
Checking my watch, we had already spent 5 hours out on the trail. It dawned on me we were
LOST
Don't worry... I am going to tell you how a 19 year old (me) successfully corrected the issue.
GUARANTEED
to work every single time.We mounted back up and pointed the horses towards promising "cleared" areas. I laugh now because we didn't even pack the compass for the morning ride. Let me tell you what we did pack in those saddlebags earlier:
- Two turkey sandwiches
- Two bottles of water
We were super-uber prepared for ANYTHING to happen.
insert eye roll here
I was sipping on my bottle of water while riding down the ridge and my horse accidentally slides on a loose rock. I dropped the water bottle in an effort not to add to the horses imbalance while i recovered my own balance. The bottle of water goes rolling down the steep embankment, where it ultimately flings itself into the air off the side of a cliff.
There was a literal Pause in time ... I am looking at my Dad like he did it. No way am I accepting responsibility for littering in a National Forrest!! (Don't all teenagers blame someone else??)
I didn't even realize it at that moment that there would be hours before I would be able to re-hydrate.
WE WERE NOW DEEEEEEEP into the National Forrest with not even a peep of anyone or anything else to guide us back.
Not even a map.
Or a compass.
Google Images
Too bad I punched the girl-scout who invited me to the girlie thing meeting back in the 4th grade.
(I don't recommend that)
How in the world are we going to find our way back to the campsite?
In a moment, I will tell you how I did just that... but first... you should know that we had to spend the night in the woods!
We unsaddled our very tired horses... built a fire... and used their wet saddle pads as blankets to sleep on.
Sort of.
We didn't sleep a lot... since we were encircled by a pack of coyotes at one point. They didn't like the fire but they were sure wondering why we were there!
Image Source Britanica Encyclopedia
When we got up at first light, we noticed a wall of cliffs that had a trickle of water dripping slowly with water from above.
Sort of like these, except no ice cycles since it was September.
We were dehydrated, tired, and hungry... but this was the chance to get some water in our ONE water bottle.
My Dad placed his shirt tail over the opening of the bottle and let the drip filter through... it seemed legit. We were able to drink enough but our horses needed water if they were to carry us anywhere. We dug a trench with our boot heels and filled the shallow trench with the water.... the horses readily drank from our earth trench but it wasn't filling up fast enough to satisfy.
Then it hit me... the horses are super thirsty.
Remember... I told you that I got us out of this mess?
It wasn't really me at all... but knowledge of horses that inspired a forgotten tidbit.
—-> The horses were thirsty enough that they would go straight to any water source that they could naturally find.
Guess what?!!
Horses can literally SMELL water from miles away.
I told my dad right away that we should just let the horses go and they would at least lead us to water. He nodded in agreement. He also knew that water, unless it was a still water, would most likely lead us to a more populated area.
Eventually.
So we hung onto their tails and walked behind our partners who probably cussed us in their mind the entire time. They led us straight (in an hour's time) to a running stream of clear water about waist deep. Dad and I just sat down in the water to cool off while the horses refilled and re-hydrated.
While we thankfully sat in the water... i know, sounds weird.... we heard a faint sound of a vehicle. I hopped aboard my horse to see if I could catch the noise, but i did not.
We rode down the creek bank. We followed the creek a ways and actually even found the water bottle I had dropped.
Apparently, we are circle masters.
You know, people who can wander in circles and never notice?
We eventually found a dirt road... and we just let the horses plod along until we seen a log cabin.
We tied the horses to nearby trees and knocked on the door for some help to guide us back to the main camping site.
No one was home.
But the door was not locked... don't judge me... I was 19 and didn't care if i got arrested, I just wanted to find a phone!
We found a Bible on the table near the phone... with someone's name on it. We picked up the phone and dialed 911. The operator put us in touch with the park ranger right away.
PLOT TWIST....
The home we were calling from actually belonged to the park ranger himself!!!
We were over 2 hours away from the main campsite.... but he was only about 20 minutes away and asked us to stay there. He even gave permission to use the shower or take a bath if we needed to because they had been searching for us for over 12 hours! Another camper had noticed we didn't return and was concerned for our dog at the campsite.
He arrived with another ranger and brought us sandwiches and drinks...
Chicken salad never tasted so good!!
I think in the future we will try to buy a team of Gypsy Vanners
https://alpha.steepshot.io/post/animals/@yassinos19/20171227t210649147z-post
or similar breed to pull a wagon instead. They will leave bigger tracks. Those are easier to find! Thank you @yassinos19 for posting such a beautiful photo of the Gypsy Vanner breed on the Steepshot platform! Thankfully, I am learning to use Steepshot through #dolphinschool bootcamp!
Banner Compliments of @papa-pepper
