studied my maps, watched a little T.V. and drifted off to sleep.
My second day of travel was pretty uneventful, the side trip to the Grand Canyon was cool, I took the desert view drive, but my mind was on gold so, just a few pictures from some of the overlooks, and back on the road. I got into Kingman, checked into my hotel, and broke out my maps to plan my next days move. I had been studying the area maps every free chance I had for the last several weeks, and I settled on some remote areas about sixty miles northwest of town that I thought looked promising. I planned to travel there first thing in the morning to start my prospecting.
With the days plan settled I got some dinner, and made my check in call to the wife. I was pretty tired from the days drive, and I noticed the hotel had a spa so I went for a soak to loosen up my old bones. The spa did me in a lot sooner than I figured, and I barely made it back to my room before passing out, and sleeping like a newborn baby.
I hadn’t set the alarm, but I woke up shortly after sunrise, I got a shower, and put together my backpack for the first day’s trip. I filled up my truck with gas, got some breakfast, and headed out of town to my destination. The drive took a little more time than I had anticipated due to the gravel back roads I was taking, but soon enough I was were I wanted to be, so I parked my truck, got out my trusty metal detector, strapped on my pistol, and backpack. I was ready to go.
I took a look around, and decided to head towards some distant hills, and washes. I was on my way, the adventure starts, so I took a second to take it all in then headed out into the desert.
I kept thinking how great was this? Miles out in the desert, nothing around, I’m walking with my metal detector, and my little shovel. In my backpack I have plenty of water, and a few energy bars to keep me going. I left my lunch in the cooler in my truck, and my plan was to make a long circle around then take a meal break when I got back to where my truck was parked. So there I was scanning the ground with my detector, when pretty soon, BEEP! I get the big hit on my detector and I dig up my first nugget if gold! Well I called it a nugget, but it was really little more than a large flake, but who cares! I’m finding Gold! A dream comes true!
In what seemed to be no time at all my pouch is holding several little pieces of gold, and all I could think about was finding the next one. I go on, and on, a nugget here, another flake there, and before long I realized the sun is starting to set, I had not circled back to my truck, I missed my lunch, and it is becoming dusk. I was so intrigued with my prospecting I had completely lost track of time. Oh well, not bad for the first day I figured, I looked around to determine where I left my truck, settled on the direction I was sure my truck was in, and headed that way.
Pretty soon the sun was down, it was getting really dark, and I hadn’t found my truck.I wasn’t too worried though, my truck has got to be just over the next hill, I’m sure I’m going the right way, and after all I didn’t walk that far did I?I started thinking about all the stories I had heard about people getting lost in the desert, and I remembered I couldn’t figure out how they could do it, dumb asses I would think, how hard do you have to work to get lost in the desert? Well, as it turns out, it’s pretty easy, so you don’t have to work at it too hard at all.
It was too dark to see more than a few feet around me by now, and I was getting a little nervous. I started trying to come up with a contingency plan, but I hadn’t even considered this possibility, so who’s the dumb ass now eh? I took stock of the supplies I had with left in my backpack, two 12 ounce bottles of water, one energy bar, I also had my knife, and my pistol. I figured all I had to do was get through the night and I’d probably find my truck within a few hundred feet of where I was, so I decided at this point it would be best to just stay put until morning, and when I got home I could have a few laughs with my buddies when I told them the story. That’s what I thought at first. Then it started getting cold, and I stopped thinking about laughing. The weather for the day was supposed to be pretty mild, so I wore some cargo shorts a tee shirt, and a baseball cap, I was beginning to think that may have been a mistake. The colder and darker it became the more I wished I had paid better attention to those survival shows I used to watch now and then, I know I should start a fire, but you can’t burn rocks, gravel or sand, and I didn’t have a lighter anyway. Dumb ass!
I had no idea it would get so dark out there, I could barely see anything, and I really wasn’t thrilled about feeling around on the ground for something to burn, and something else to try to start a fire with, so I just did a little callisthenic exercise to warm up some. First some jumping jacks then run in place a bit. At this point another revelation hit me, I was not going to keep this up for long, I’m running out of breath and I’m not warming up much. I guess I should have listened to my wife about getting in shape, but who has time for a treadmill? I had more important things to do like watch T.V. and eat snacks. I can’t stop thinking about how I ridiculed the people who I had heard about who got lost and died in the desert. Now I’m hearing voices in the back of my head telling me I might just find out how they could be so stupid! I had to get my mind on making it through the night and deal with my own arrogance and ignorance later, so I pushed those voices out of my mind and tried to think of what I should do next. I thought I would just walk in a circle, I could do that, so I tucked my arms inside my t-shirt, and pulled the collar up above my nose to at least warm up some using my breath, and I started walking in a small circle. I did the best I could to occupy my mind with thoughts of my wife, my kids, my job, and anything else I could come up with except how cold it was. Now I imagine it was only about 55 or 60 degrees, but its amazing how quickly that starts to feel like an arctic cold when you’re dressed in shorts and a tee shirt in a pitch black night.
After walking for what seemed like days I finally saw the first signs of the sunrise on the horizon, and I felt like screaming for joy. I made it! All I had to do now was find my truck and this story will end. I would learn from this experience, and make a better list of equipment for tomorrow. Yeah I said tomorrow, I planned to get back to my hotel, rest up a bit and re-supply my backpack with a flashlight, matches, a jacket, a survival blanket, some freeze dried meal packs, and my GPS to start with, then maybe I would even ask some advice from a local.
Once I had rested and re-supplied I planned on getting back to my dream, I still had a week to get it done, and after all I surely would find my truck over the next hill right?
That was my plan.
I started walking towards the sunrise, and I could not believe how good that warm sun felt, it was like a blanket from the gods warming my half frozen body, and making everything seem alright. I walked forwards first then backwards to warm my back, and I switched back and forth until I was thoroughly warmed up.
I walked over the first hill, no truck. Second hill, and third, and forth hills, still no truck. Crap! I was sure I would find my truck by now, and the temperature was climbing at a rapid rate so I certainly was not cold anymore. I was getting pretty tired but I did not want to stop so I polished off one half of my energy bar, and a bottle of water, breakfast of champions I thought, and continued walking. Surely I will find my truck soon, or at this point I would settle for a road or people or some sign of civilization.
Now my next challenge came about, I had to take a crap! I’ve been civilized, I didn’t prepare for this eventuality either, so no paper, and of course no help from plants out here, none of the comforts of home that’s for sure. I remember from my days in the military some 35 years ago that I need to dig a small trench and get a good “squat” over it then everything should be easy from there. I got my trench dug and started taking care of business, but my old knees, and balance didn’t work well for me, as I finished up and was attempting to stand I lost my balance and fell over backwards. This was not just embarrassing (if any one was around) but I landed on my butt and got a butt crack full of sand and gravel, still nothing to wipe with so I shook off as best I could and buttoned up so I could continue my “adventure”.
I covered up the trench, (at least I didn’t fall into the crap) and got on my way. The grinding and chafing of the butt crack sand was not helping my attitude, that’s for sure.
On and on I walked, over hill after hill. I didn’t remember it being so hot the day before, but I was preoccupied with gold so I guess I was just too excited to notice, I sure noticed it now though. I tried to follow the sun to the east because I was sure that’s were my truck was, but a great navigator I have never been so I was probably swerving around quite a bit. After walking for what seemed like hours I could feel the sun burning my skin to a crisp, my lips were cracking, my arms looked liked lobsters, my legs were burning from more than just the sun, my back was killing me and I just had to stop for a while.
I found a spot on the side of a hill that had a little rock ledge and I sat down to collect my thoughts and recharge a bit. I was beginning to think about whether or not anyone would even find my body, when I heard a rattling noise behind me. Son of a bitch! A
Golden Dreams Page 2
