Chapter Ten Excerpt

From the rock formations and the outcropping of shoved up and tumble down sedimentary layers, it was becoming obvious I was in the Badlands of the mid west. Without knowing for certain, the Colorado River, or one of its many tributaries, was the most likely course to follow. There was no way of knowing for sure, but since I was heading east, with a large mountain range behind me in the distance, the foot hills, and two peaks south to my right, I seemed to be heading in the right direction; the Grand Canyon was likely, but had no idea which side I could possibly be on.

Sweat dripping down my legs began to pool in my boots. My socks had slowly worked themselves down to a band below my ankles and were very uncomfortable. It was now high noon, and I imagined I’d been walking for five or more hours. I would need to stop and rest soon, and get my socks dried out. No problem in the heat built up in the ravines, but finding shade from the high sun to rest in would take some doing. As I plodded along with my jacket tied around my waist, and sleeves rolled up as high as they would go, my mind wandered in a dream back to my studies back in Vancouver and how my photography had really gone nowhere. There had been good opportunities, but none seemed to pan out successfully. In the present, the only audience that seemed to appreciate my circumstance was the birds circling overhead. ‘You are never really alone’, I thought to myself. My mortality began slapping me in the face when I realized that lack of water was becoming as deadly as a loaded gun. The heat became unbearable, beating down on me, while below my hat my head was sore and wet. Somehow, I mustered the will to plod on and continue down the dried tributary.  The imaginary river at the end of this wadi kept me focused while the memory of how nice it was going to be to fall head-first and lie beneath the cool surface till I could hold my breath no longer kept me moving.

The bluffs that surrounded me must have been over twenty feet tall and afforded very little, if any, shade this time of day. There were no large logs, nor small trees, only the occasional outcropping of rock that gave a foot or so of shade at its very base.

Feeling the need to rest, with desperation setting in, I took a large piece of flat stone and crawled to the base of one of the overhangs. Starting to dig at the undercut, I slowly worked away with little energy, till there was enough room for my body to lie prone in the crevice. The coolness of the newly exposed earth was short-lived, but a blessing all the same.

Slipping my boots off, I wrung out my socks and let them hang on the sides of my boots to dry in the sun. The foulest things I’d smelt for a while guarded the leather bag and its contents which I shoved hard down into my boot. The smell must have attracted someone for the next thing I recall, was staring at the ground rocking to and fro, on my belly across the back of a mule.