My Journy

On a rainy day in mid-September, I was hiking deep inside the woods of the pacific northwest. When I took the wrong hiking trail I became lost, and I did not know which way to go to get back to the original trail I was hiking on. I could feel the darkness starting to fall on me, and this is when I decided to check my bag and check my supplies and hope I had what I needed to get through the night, or at least until someone came to my rescue. I looked in my bag and realized that I had only brought three things with me. What was I thinking? Well of course I didn't think I was really going to get lost. The three items I had in my bag was: a small compass, a sixteen inch machete, and a bundle of long stem water proof matches. Having these items available will help me get through, but how exactly will I use them?

The compass was old and worn with a small crack in the middle, but it still had some life left in it; at least I sure had hoped so. The first thing I did was finding the stream and followed it down the woods. The compass said that I was going west, but I was not sure if this was even the way I was supposed to go. Why didn't I listen to my father when he taught me how to read the signs of the way to go? At least I knew to go down stream of any water. Oh well, I will try and see if it the stream will take me to civilization. Walking further and further down beside the side of the stream, I found myself looking at night fall. Soon I better try to find a place to hunker down for the night and start looking for some kind of wood to get a fire going to get warm.

I pulled out my second item which was a machete. A machete with a sixteen inch blade that is as sharp as a new razor. I would use this machete to cut down a trail in front of me as a walked through the brier infested woods. I would also use this machete to cut down small trees and branches which will help me to be able to make a place where I am able to sleep at night, and hide safely away from the wilderness. I started gathering some small branches and down trees, and used them to put together my shelter for sleep. After I took the time to get everything setup for camp, I headed back over to the stream to catch me some fish to eat. Standing over the water I scanned and scanned till I finally found a trout. This trout was a nice sized trout, and I was glad to take my machete and pound it in the water stabbing the fish right into the head. Bam! First try and it is mine.

I am glad I decided to grab the water proof matches when I left the house this morning, because it is becoming a monsoon outside. Using the cut dry wood, and some underbrush, I was able to start a fire with the matches, which work extremely well in this storm. I would use the machete to cut the fish into pieces, and when I am done I will take one of the water proof matches, and take the tip off, which would make a nice skewer stick to cook my fish with. The matches were a God send, because