An Unexpected Night in the Woods
Yesterday, Thanksgiving Day, with snow on the ground I went for a walk in the woods shortly after dark. I was greatly enjoying myself when I encountered the tracks of a hunter who had trespassed earlier in the day. I heard a gun shot and followed the tracks for a while to see if he had gotten a deer. I followed one set of tracks for a while and then found several others. With no moon it was difficult to tell where the shot was fired. But none of the tracks intersected with a dead deer so I guess he missed. I had so much fun tracking in the dark that I felt I should get the horses and hang out in the snow a bit longer. When I got back with the horses it was 11.30. My wife told me she would leave the door open for me. But when I got there the house was locked up tight, and everyone was already in bed.
It was 22 degrees, snow on the ground, and I thought why sleep indoors. I had a lighter in my pocket and a barn close by with hay in it. I grabbed a bail of hay and headed into the forest. I immediately started a fire and than started collecting rock somewhere around the size of a football. I got seven and placed them around my fire. I used a lot of small stuff to get the fire hot, as fast as possible. When I thought I had adequately warmed up the ground I would push the fire with a forked stick and let it burn in a new spot. It took about an hour and a half to melt away the snow and warm the ground where I would sleep. It was not enough time to get the rocks as hot as I would have liked them to be but it was after 1 in the morning and I wanted to get to sleep. I raked the fire away and made sure there were no coals left behind that might ignite the hay. Than I cut the string on the hay, shook out the hay to cover the spot I would sleep with about 6 inches of fluffed up hay. Than I put the rocks around where my body would be, and than spread the remaining hay on top of the area. I was going to let what was left of the fire go out, so I wouldn’t have to worry about the hay catching fire. But after sleeping about an hour my feet were cold, so I got up and used the few coals that were left to start the fire back up. I heated up my feet rocks a little more and than went back to sleep with the fire blazing a few feet away.
About 2 hours later I woke to the sound of a crackling fire, and looked behind me to see my hay on fire. I put it out easily, without even getting out of bed. I moved the fire a little father away and went back to sleep. As it got light the shooting started. Before I went to sleep I hung a florescent orange vest on a branch above me, so any hunter that showed up would not make a mistake about me. The first animals to join me that morning were two lover’s in a tree next to where I was laying. I had never been around 2 squirrels so full of affection for one another. About an hour later 3 deer joined me. You could tell the gunfire was making them nervous, but I could also tell that their felt fairly safe there with me.
The most wonderful thing about this story is almost impossible to put into words. This night filled me with more joy than I think some people ever experience. For a wonderful moment in time there was only ecstasy, as I drank in the unbelievable beauty of the forest, the star’s and the snow. So seldom in my own life do I take the time to be here and be refreshed by this thing I so disparately need. The way last night lifted me up, and I feel badly for anyone who is living without something like this in their life. And I wonder why I am here so seldom.
