The Lost Path 1962

A story about an scary adventure i had when i was only 5 years old alone and lost in the mountains.

THE LOST PATH 1962 TRUE STORY

Well, I guess it was about 1962 or so, we, my family, were in Jasper, Alberta, Canada, I think it was autumn or thanksgiving cause I remember the leaves sort of being brown on the ground, it was a cloudy day, cool and moist though not too windy, I was about 5 or 6 years old, or maybe more.

But we kids were out playing around the cabins, as kids then did, but I sort of left the group there, at the Tekerra Lodge Cabins, I just kinda wandered off sort of exploring, maybe stretching my wings, or ?, didn't think to much of it, what could go wrong? Kinda just kept going and going and then went off the trail.... cause trails what was the point of them....? not sure why, not that there was much of a trail anyway, as the leaves on the ground were covering pretty much everything and there was sort of wide spaces between the trees and not much undergrowth, it was sort of hilly. I was small and short, so couldn't see very far out.

So I had been wandering out and out and out for about 35 minutes or so, that afternoon, Then just kind of looked up, then casually looked around and then behind me. Then yikes! total silence and stillness of the deep bush. Then I sort of had this heart stopping realization, "I have totally no clue or idea where I am. Nothing looks at all familiar to me. I can't hear anything.". I guess I sort of had to admit, I had now suddenly gained a totally new understanding and experiential appreciation for the word and concept and reality of what being lost was. Lost I was or seemed to be, cause it was cloudy and quiet. I couldn't see the sun. I wasn't certain which direction was which. Nothing looked familiar. I didn't know to look on the north side of the trees for moss and didn't really understand the concepts of north, south etc., anyway.

So then, after kinda of blacking out and trying to get my heart back in my chest and cleaning the sweat off my brow, I was sort of panicked of course but then a part of me stopped, took a deep breath and was okay with being lost, as it seemed, in a philosophical way, that a 5 year old can sometimes conjure and muster, that it was sort of interesting, in a way to be lost, as kinda of another problem or challenge to solve perhaps, but to get on with somewhat pronto, while I still had my wits about me and my belly was somewhat full and bladder okay and I was somewhat rested and warm.

So thusly equipped and in a quasi panicked calm state, I just sort of casually turned the exploring around . I guess now, instead of exploring and discovering "getting lost" and succeeding beyond my wildest dreams, not though, that that had been my exploratory intentions, so now the game or test, changed into sort of doing a 180 degree of it or so I hoped, since I had mostly lost sense of which direction I had come from, but then to start exploring none the less, in hopefully the other direction and instead of looking for new interesting things, I was looking for old and human and familiar things and to avoid the bears that were common there and in kind of a rush to do it to, as it were, as the cold and night were approaching.

Yikes that was too close for terror and comfort, as I eventually came upon what seemed to be a trail amidst the deer droppings and dead fall but my mind sort of played a trick on me and tested me once again, cause I now had to make another choice again, cause it was a trail alright but it seemed to be going in the wrong direction from what i vaguely recalled having come from and was trying to get back to. But it did granted go in only two directions itself, so the I had to decide which of its directions to go in and it got a bit maddening but I guess I chose the right or left direction, i can't recall and though it seemed to be going the wrong way some of the time, it eventually seemed or did get me back to, joy!!!!, familiar territory. And thus behold after an hour or two of lostness and no one knowing it, Found!

Funny or cruel thing? about being lost in the bush, everything looks so menacing. The seemingly pastoral landscape and nature suddenly becomes a terror to behold and one fights against a sort of madness of the unknown and not knowing and tries to keep some semblance of sanity and order. One is sort of swallowed whole by a sea of chaos and fear and utter loneliness and nature is no longer the romantic lover but a fierce dragon.

Thus to seek and find and return to some kind of human remnant or island in that desert and wilderness of fear, is such a joy and comfort, no matter how run down or bleak or shabby it may be, as such can be quite magical in its call back to reason and hope and warmth, against the cold and isolation, of an unforgiving mistress or monster that being lost in the wilds can be. How rude of nature not to respect ones or humanities knowledge of the theory of relativity, some might say but which you would gladly trade there, for matches, a warm fire, canteen and sandwich. Money, too cuts not much ice in the lost wilds, except to start fires, if you were so far sighted enough, as to carry matches.

One, thus so disposed and found again, undergoes a rebirth of sorts, in that ones return to the world of reason, order and meaning and is much more appreciative of such however rudimentary. A return to the repository of knowledge, understanding, memories and wisdom garnered by the bulk of human society, over the millenniums in the struggle to survive and forge for life itself.

And that my dears is "THE LOST PATH 1962 TRUE STORY"

Another odd thing though, about being lost and then finding your own way back, it sort of makes you to seek to  learn a lot more about the world and the bush and yourself and society and people in general and that such is not oft as it appears and such things are deeper while simultaneously being the same and thus whetting the appetite and curiosity even more somewhat, sometimes for a greater understanding of what you had thought were the knowns but are now returned to newish kinds of mysteries and wonders of life, though to it warns us all, of the dangers and twists of such, so as I don't advise or recommend or request this accidental exercise to and of anyone, and so do such at ones own risk or not at all, cause there are kids and folks and even experienced ones, who they've found dead from being lost, that have died perhaps cause they failed at the task or test or terror of such as this was.

Anyway happy trails to you.