into the wild.

It was a pretty silly idea to begin with. It's been cold outside. And just because it was 70 degree weather at the time, doesn't mean the water warmed up after the first freeze and regular 50 degree weather. I had already changed my plans for the event so I wasn't willing to back down. Even know the two guys that were with us decided it wasn't something they were up for, whether it was becuase they didn't have clothes to swim in or there was a sign that specifically said, "No Swimming." It wasn't until we were about half way acorss the frigidly cold pool that we realized that it was probably the stupidest thing we've ever done. I couldn't feel my legs by this time and my adrinaline was the only thing keeping me moving. Though the spashing strokes I hear a paniced, "I'm not getting back without a boat!"

We get to the island and run up the smooth shore. It was lucky it wasn't rocky because we were both so out of it that there's no way we would have been able to get our ballance to get out of the water safely.

We climb the slope up to the mainland.The first thing we get to is a garden of poison ivy, which, I am prone to catching just by the sight of it. Staci dives in, and after some slight hesitation, I pray to Jesus that the freeze we had a week before killed it for me. About 50 feet in we get out of the patch of leaves of three and let them go back to being. It is now that we realize that the line across the map of the island that we had seen back on the other shore was not a trail.

No trail. And no GPS. What are we looking for again? A hunter green ammo box. Hidden about 2/3 into the island. More North than South. And fortunately someone posted a picture of them holding the cache. They were standing in front of a fallen tree. This is our only lead. 

We weave our way through brush, trees, and disinigrating trees. Literally, I grabbed trees for ballance and they would fall over without a second thought. Dinosaur birds were screeching as we leap frogged through fallen logs, looking for the box. We had to find it. We hadn't suffered through the needle like sensation for nothing. Our adrinaline was rushing. There was no thinking or the dispair and disheartened thought that there was no way we would be able to find what we were looking for would set in. 

After about 20 minutes of looking I see Staci behind me to my left scoping out yet another fallen tree. I forgot what the picture looked like since I've seen so many which all look the same. But as I stood there, I looked back at the "ravine" that we were calling the "trail" and looked in front of me at the row of logs in front of me and thought "this is too perfect." As the thought settled I look at Stac who had met me at the line of trees. 

"Guess what I found..."

No way. It was miraculous. Literally. I could have cried. We opened the box and picked out the best of the goods. Left our Canandian signature and made our marks in the log. Victory.

Ha! This was about the time we came to our senses. We were on an island. We swam across the lake on an October day. With no GPS to the cordinates of the hiding spot. We sang"We are the Champions!" on our way back. We also ran into a sticker bush vine thing. This is about the time that I realized that I was barefoot. And hurting. Staci had worn socks (because she didn't want to feel the pond goo at the bottom of the lake) and the thought of going into the wild without shoes didn't cross my mind.

We finally made it back to the shore, swam across the seemingly warmer water into the sunset. Showed off our loot. And headed home for a hot shower and some barbeque beef brisquet. 

The poison ivy was worth it.

<3