Lost

Being Lost

People believe that being lost has to do with not knowing where you are. Being lost is about not knowing where to go.

The Florida Everglades. my big playground as a kid growing up in Miami. Perfectly logical, Miles of mud, saw grass, gators and water moccasins, a real kids paradise.

In the winter time the water level in the glades rises slightly, just enough to leave small amounts of land above

that water level, and you can be sure without a doubt there will be a snake curled up along that path every 30 to 50 yards.

So it was here that my little gang of buddies hunted and explored and easily left our otherwise boring worlds behind.

There were probably five of us , our camp spot was on Loop Road, a narrow dirt road that does a 20 mile jaunt off to the west ,deep into the ever glades.

On day two of our weekend trip I decided to go for a short walk off the loop into the glade, yep, three hour cruise!

The day was chilly and overcast. I had on a long sleeve flannel over my tee shirt , my rifle, of course my pistol on my side for removing snakes from the path and off I went.

It was maybe 2 o'clock in the afternoon and I expected to be back by 4 or no later than 5 at the latest.

When you leave the loop road it is really really pretty much an automatic westerly track. I had a rifle, a 3006 that was given to me by my grandpa.

No of the guys had shot anything yet so I was hunting anything that could remotely be considered edible.

About an hour or so it started to mist a little bit, skies grew darker and the temps started to drop but still I plodded along .

Then, all of a sudden, it started officially raining, Not a blowing rain, just a steady, straight down, sopping kind of rain.

I figured at this point it was a good time to head back to camp. easy right, just turn around and go in the opposite direction , well I turned around and it was as if someone had just changed the set of a Broadway play. The sight was like looking through brand new door and wondering what room it was because I had never seen it before.

It is very hard to describe how, but when it rains in Everglades everything looks different. But still, just turn around and start walking and that is what I did. And then, it starts creeping in, this doesn’t look quite right , doesn't feel quite right, every step you take seems to become more and more directionless. Now very quickly, its getting both colder, and darker and the cold rain has now penetrated thru to the skin.

I stopped and very slowly did a 360 turn, “which way ?” and then it really sinks in and the water from the rain has sunk in and my little bit of dry path has sunk in. The sun had been totally obscured so no directional help there and there is no moss on the north side of the tree in this swamp of swamps.

I finally say it to myself, I am Lost !. You only have what your gut is telling you and when your gut starts to fill

with fear and doubt, it becomes harder to push on in any direction and then at the same time, it seemed in an instant the

total darkness comes and swallows me up, no flashlight, three hour cruise remember, no rain gear, no jacket.

In my life even till now, the glades, at night with an overcast sky, you learn the true meaning of darkness.

I put my hand in front of my face, inches away and cannot see it. and now its not just chilly, its bone chilling cold.

There was only one decision to make , stop or keep walking , so I walked and walked, not seeing a

foot in front of me. I walked, for what seemed like an eternity , shivering and now the exhaustion starts to set in and its looking like walking on is not much of an option for very much longer.

Suddenly I stopped and then I heard it , chop chop chop, chopping through the pitch black, a helicopter ! It flies almost directly over head and I am screaming my head off, jumping up and down, waving my arms and chop chop chop, as quickly as it came, its gone.

We all puffed on cigarettes' back then, mostly the non filtered camels I snuck from my dad.

The only thing in my pockets besides extra ammo and my knife was my Zippo lighter.

I had decided that maybe my underwear might be still dry enough to catch fire in case

the helicopter returned. So I took off my underwear and quickly rolled them up and put them under my arm In an attempt to keep them dry. It was good in theory because sure enough chop chop chop, a while later I could hear it coming and I’m striking this lighter and my underwear are smoldering and smoking but no flame and chop chop chop, it was gone and my underwear were now also sopping wet and of absolutely no use.

Now I am drenched to the bone, shivering with cold and too tired to continue walking and for the first time I started wondering how it was going to be , I am going to die. right here in this icy cold slick of water and mud in the middle of nowhere.

I had shot off rounds from both my pistol and rifle occasionally and then listening , hoping for a return round, Nothing, quite, soft cold rain in my dark world of water.

At this point, I pretty much collapse down into the muddy water, let me rest, just for a bit.

If I had been able to find sleep, I am quite sure I would not be here writing this story. Sleep could not find me because I was shivering so badly that it was actually making the water around me splash and I realized that I really had no options, I had to continue on,

After a time I ran smack into a big wet bush, I lit my lighter and covering it with my other hand, could see in front of me a big patch of green . I had

stumbled onto what is referred to as a cypress head. Cypress is a tree that can grown pretty much anywhere in the Glades. They are found straight out of the water or more commonly on higher ground . For me to stumble onto a Cypress head. on a mound of land above water level was at least something.

There is also another side to this stroke of luck however. Any land above water level will absolutely, with out any doubt, be

packed with water moccasins .

After a very brief deliberation with myself, I got down on my hands and knees, with my rifle stretched out in front of me and started literally beating the ground and yelling as I Inched forward just hoping beyond hope that the snakes were running and not defending.

I have seen a pissed off moccasin before, in the back of my mind I kept remembering about that earlier incident that had

happened on a prior trip. I had shot a dear a deer and dressed it and was walking back to camp with the deer over my shoulder, often killing a snake with my side arm. , not even setting the deer down , just pull your side arm, bang, bang, keep going.

I come up on this one little guy, pull my side arm, bang, I just grazed this snake and from his coiled up position he shoots himself at me, I mean as straight as a bean pole, like a shot and he’s aiming at my face and I'm Falling backwards with this deer still on my shoulders falling and scrambling because this mother fucker is racing after me, I was able to stay in front of him and eventually shoot him. I have never seen a snake do any thing like that before and till now.

So as I was banging on the weeds, crawling ahead in pitch blackness, I had extremely vivid memories of that brave ass little snake, It gave me a chills on top of the chills I already had.

I guess the snakes didn't want to tangle with my crazy ass that night and I got up onto this piece of higher ground and amazingly in this spot somehow it is almost dry.

My condition is still drenched, cold and totally exhausted. Now my boy scouts days begin to pay off. Yes, I really was a Boy Scout and aside from always being in trouble, I was only a couple merit badges away from being a Eagle Scout, which actually is a pretty big deal. It was my discovery of the wonders of the female species ended that quest.

One of the many things I learned paid off now, I had learned that to start a fire in wet conditions you take a wet stick and you whittle it down till you find dry and you shave that dry off and Just light it up, easy right. In theory yes, but I am in pitch black conditions, so now everything I'm doing is by feel, all the while shaking from the cold.

I was absolutely sure at this point, If I could not get a fire started that my skinny bag of bones would or would not be found on that little mound of dirt.

I finally managed a small assemblage of somewhat dry shavings, the problem now was that my Zippo lighter was running out of Zip. This was the old style Zippo that you fill with fluid from the bottom and it had run completely out. Strike flame, out, strike flame out. It was a no go.

The next move I did not learn In the boy scouts, it was sheer survival instinct.

I removed all of the cotton from inside the Bottom of the lighter, fluffed it up into a little ball, the flint in the lighter was still good so I struck the lighter onto the cotton ball and puff, a little, beautiful, warm , bright ball of flame, and one twig and another as fast as I could and in short order I was sitting in front of a pretty good size fire.

After a bit I could add even the damp branches from around me onto the fire as it would dry them out and they would then burn.

After a pretty good size fire was blazing I Immediately fell asleep.

As soon as the last flame flickered out the cold shook me awake and in a panic I blew and fanned and got the flames going again.

Again l dozed off. Flames went out again, I immediately woke up, same routine, blow, fan, get the flames going.

In my one pointedness I had not noticed a rather large shadow just on the opposite side of the fire. As the flames grew that shadow came in to focus. It was a very large Cotton Mouth Water Moccasin. He was motionless, but he was facing me so his little black eyes were reflecting the orange from the fire. As far as I had ever known, snakes do not like fire. It seemed like this guy was staying warm same as me. I very slowly slide my pistol out of its holster, cocked the hammer, took aim, and then for the life of me, I don't know why, I quietly release the hammer, lower my pistol, back to its place. I sat there and just stared at this shiny black coil with orange black eyes. After a time that I can not now relate to, I felt I become the cold blooded reptile and gave up my warm blooded self to this creature . With a mixture of emotion that I had never come close to experiencing in my short little life.

The fire started to die again and shook me out of this spell. I stoked the fire and even with my deadly new companion still seemingly transfixed on me, I drifted back off to sleep.

When I woke again, Daylight was finally seeping through the leaves, just enough to see a bit, my new friend was nowhere to be seen.

Very soon I crawled out of my little cypress cave. It was still totally overcast so still directional help from the sun. The fire and rest had given me new hope so off I went.

After zigging and zagging and zigging and zagging , I came upon the semblance of a trail, and pretty much flipped a coin and started off in a direction that felt best.

By early afternoon I stumbled out onto the loop road, almost exactly at the spot that I had left the day before. It was strange because no one was there. Our car and my buddies were gone. The entire road was covered in every type of gun shell casing you could Imagine, I mean covered.

Well a little later a couple of old geezers in a beat up jeep come rolling down the road and stop and stare at me. “ You the lost one” Yes sir I excitedly chimed in, like I was up for a metal or something for surviving. “Fool Kid '' we should charge you for all the ammo we used up last night , your Buddies are out there looking for you now, ruined everybody’s damn weekend,” spits a big plug of tobacco onto the brass covered road and drives off.

Well my buddies eventually made it back without incident, but now it was Sunday and time to head back to Miami.

That weekend did change me, but Instead of grasping how close I had come to my death & my mortality, I became just a little more bullet proof., or so I thought.

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