Interesting how long it takes to get one self out of the holes we step in,
While show shoeing a quiet and open path in the woods yesterday, suddenly whoosh, my feet disappeared, knowingly I leaned so as to spread my weight above what ever chasm just opened up beneath me, Luckily I fell on my back with my feet down into , .. into what I asked my self. (know that in books this is usually where the author is echoing on page what the character is saying in his head, but when I take solo hikes I tend to talk out loud) so I said again to the trees,
“what have you fallen into”.
Cautiously I craned my neck, just my neck, trying not to change any pressure points on the thin crust that was holding the rest of me from falling int the pit.
“Auuu” I said,
The faint mummer of running water rose from what looked like 5 feet down below me in the blackness of cold dark watery hole in my trail.
“No, not good, not good at all”,
Taking this moment to revel in the beauty of the trees telescoping up above into the snow laden sky, hear the gentle wind rustling the final half dozen leaves on small beach trees around, what I now know, is the bank of a river.
“wow, beautiful, but guess I'll have to go around this one"
In the silence, a slight shiver ran through me thinking of the miles back to the car along a trackless, wind blown trail that I had "invented" just to follow some topographic features. Then, cool, my heart beat sores with excitement, I hear the –huff-huff- snort of a deer, and saw 2 of them running along through the woods. Probably laughing at me stuck on my back.
“after we get out of this, lets follow those tracks" I whispered, "bet they know how to avoid the thin ice.”
What to do next? It is usually to take stock and see which way is the water running. Why you may ask, well it would be best to roll away from where the current is and avoid the thinner sections cause by the water rushing into the pool below..
"looks to be running off to the left” (though I couldn't quite see where it came into the pool below me), "guess we'll just have to guess some, But good news is that the guessing will keep the suspense alive".
So gently, ever so gently, I placed my polls flat on the snow to the right of my shoulder and my butt. Then I began so scooch over onto the polls, thus spreading my weight, sliding along, and I gingerly lifted my feet out of the hole when I got closer to the bank,
“good, no cracking sounds”
Finally after half an hour I reached the trees. Funny how life is, just this week going about normal path of commute, work, dinner, shoveling snow, sleep, over again and again. When suddenly whoosh, fell into it , broken snow blower, car is rattling and needs to get fixed, heating bill is suddenly shot up higher, bank account empty, and on and on. Am I in a rut, in a hole?
The ice land hole took me a good 3/4 hour to get out of, but out of it I knew I'd eventually get, as long as I didn't panic, and moved slowly, but surely. Well thank you nature, I’ll just take stock, and listen to some beauty, enjoy what I have and slowly scooch out of this hole one foot at a time. Life has beauty all around you.