What with the emotionally whirly winter and all this year, I decided to go walkabout again this weekend. I’d kind of hoped to bring my friend JJ, since I figured he could use some peace too, but he was busy. Off I went on my own this morning, despite a fairly fierce headache.

First stop was Big Jeff’s, where I spent an hour or so spraying Round-Up to keep the weeds down. Weeds in a driveway would be a sure giveaway that someone’s not home, so I did it up and took care of everywhere that livestock won’t be able to reach. Now, to find some livestock.

Then on up the road I went.

My intention was to walk in to the wintering area, which is closed off to vehicles this time of year, and I had my day-pack all set up for that. The ridge and the slopes are nice and open, and the snow melts there first, so the deer like to hang out there. I wanted to look around some off the beaten path to find some shed antlers, so I walked off a deer/cow trail over to the other side of the ridge.

This is the view that greeted me.

I walked down into that meadow, fiddling with my camera, and when I looked up, there was a herd of deer in the distance. Of course, when I noticed them, they also noticed me, and bounced off up the ridge in the thick brush.

I’d come over the ridge through the deer trails in the brush, so I didn’t think that going back would be that bad. Famous last words.

Lots of it looked like this manzanita tree. More of it, however, was even tighter manzanita tangled up with buck brush. And, of course, I was following nebulous deer trails, pushing through sometimes, and on my hands and knees some other times, cradling my camera and hoping my day-pack and my pistol came through it all right.

At one point, I was so stuck that I couldn’t stand up, couldn’t crawl under, and really had no idea how or why I was in there. My arms were all shredded, I’d lost my lens cap (found it!) and it was seriously time to grab a clue. This was no longer fun, and who would find me if I croaked in there? So I backed out of that one, spent ten minutes battling my way to a more open area that I could see not twenty feet from me, and popped out right on the road that I wanted. Seems that my common sense may be lacking, but my sense of direction is still OK.

And I never did find any antlers, bummer.

So once I got out of there and back down to the truck, I was feeling pretty good again. Good enough to consider going over to the trestle to take some pictures, so when I got to the end of the road, I turned left instead of right. I’d gone that way the last time I was up there, after all, and there was even less snow on the ground this time.

Except that one corner, apparently, where the snow and ice and mud had all conspired against me. I started slipping, and knocked it down from four-high to four-low. Still spinning, and creeping sideways towards the ledge now. Backwards; same story.

Well, crap. And I never did get that winch.

So, one more thing to do about it before I panic.

I hopped out, still in short sleeves from my hike, climbed into the bed to get the chains, and put them on. The chain laying over the front of the tire gave me just enough grip to roll the truck up onto them.

At this point, I realized that the universe had made its damn point already. You don’t have to hit me over the head with a sledgehammer more than five or six times for me to get the message. And besides, if that hole was nasty, the hole down by the trestle would be worse. So I backed out to firmer ground, de-chained, turned around, and went home the way I’d come in.

How boring.

But, at least I didn’t have to spend the night out there. And I think I found some more peace; at least, I’m happy with the choice that I’ve made. Good enough; now I need some decongestants and a nice nap.