2 Close 4 Comfort...

If there's a hill, the man has to climb it...

As you may have noticed our lives out here in the country are never without adventure especially if Natureman is involved... Actually  I got to miss out on one such afternoon because I needed to await the cable guy's arrival Monday. I mean 6 frozen interrupted moments in the season premiere of Downton Abbey just can't be allowed!

Anyhow Natureman and I 'had' planned an outing to Duck Egg Park for either snow shoeing/ cross country skiing.  As far as I was concerned it was a bit too breezy to venture out as I watched the wind sculpture spin ferociously. (We have very scientific wind velocity instruments in the Valley.)  Well that wouldn't deter the other half so after lunch Natureman headed out sans moi with his skis.

Now one thing you have to understand is the man has no concept of time and has never worn a watch as long as I have known him. Hence as the hours ticked away and the cable issue was fixed, I didn't really think too much about Natureman's prolonged absence. Even if he had had a cell with him, there would be no reception down in the coulee.

Well, I knew it takes a good 25 minutes to get to the park... so that's about an hour just in travel time. It was getting late afternoon and I had even started thinking about dinner ... and FINALLY in walks the weary skier with very wet boots and a 'have I got a story for you...'

Natureman strikes again. Apparently during his outing admiring the park's creek's  beauty he decided to try some newly created paths but missed the sign that said to 'take care not to get lost.' Unfortunately he ended up following a deer trail vs the real trail as it appeared to be on the other side of the creek... hmmm he had skiied  up and down and around  a long time and realized for energy sake he needed to cross the creek rather than retrace his tracks. So he found a narrow part of the creek and crossed using out cropped rocks , continuing on the other side with damp boots for a long while until that trail 'dead ended. ' Now what? The creek was way too wide to cross at that juncture and he would definitely have to back track. You can imagine my reaction during this retelling.

  This second creek crossing left him with very wet feet and visions of the movie  'Into the Wild' whose own Natureman dies just 3 miles from civilization because he can't find a place to cross... OY.

Reality hit me after hearing his tale. There would have been no way to  know where he was, much less truly being in the dark.  AND who would I have gone to for a search party?  First I would have had to find this obscure horse trail park to see if his car was still there... OMG, then what?  Fortunately this wasn't the scenario but it sure makes one realize that future cross country skiing adventure might be best not done solo.  As I worried about all the possible scenarios see what Naturman's response was:  

DON'T WORRY , BE HAPPY!

You heard it straight from the End of the Rainbow Valley...