Fear and Foulishness - Part 2

There are times when people are injured or killed because they aren’t experienced enough to know they are in danger. There are other times when a person becomes paralyzed with fear while another, in the same situation, may recognize there is no real danger. I’ve been in both situations.

A friend, Dan Wilson, and I were near the top of a mountain once and started across a boulder scree. Most of the rocks were small, only eight or ten inches on a side, stacked on top of each other, and the scree ran down the mountain several hundred feet. The rocks weren’t big enough to give solid footing and some would shift under foot and slide a bit. The scree was maybe a hundred feet across, and we were on a fairly steep incline. Under the circumstances, it was a bit scary to look down that steep slope. I started to wonder if we had made a mistake. Would one of the next steps result in a slippage and cause a cascading slide? Most of it seemed solid and we were, by then, over half way across - the point-of-no-return - so there was no sense in turning back. I picked every step carefully, testing each rock, and happily made it to the other side, but I still don’t know how perilous the situation was.

Another time I was on a snow machine heading up a river north of Eureka. Wilson was following on his machine, and I began passing open water near the shores. The river was wide and we were running right down the middle, but those open holes started to bother me. I could see water rushing in them and knew if I stopped my machine and turned off the engine I would hear the water flowing. I wasn’t about to stop. A moving snowmobile can pass over thin ice and be gone, but stopping is not a good idea.

I was following another snowmobile track so I felt somewhat secure as long as it did not abruptly end in a hole, but then the track suddenly made a tight 180 degree turn and went back the way we were coming. I was now riding point and entering uncharted territory. I got spooked. I went no more than another quarter mile and pulled onto a small island in the middle of the river. I told Dan I wasn’t going any further. He seemed to be a bit peeved, but did not offer to take the lead, so I guess he was no more sure of the ice than I was. Again, I don’t know if we were in any danger. Maybe someone familiar with the river might not have thought anything about it, but again, maybe those tracks that turned around had been made by a more experienced traveler or maybe the spook got them too.
GO TO: Part 3