Sometimes I picture this character named B.T. Trouble. The B.T. stands for Big Time. He’s a large, evil executive, in a huge, fancy office, with a padded, leather chair, facing a big computer monitor, and on the monitor is my life. He sits there watching me, and at his whim he tweaks my life, sending it into a tailspin of hopelessness and danger. Then he sits back and laughs as I struggle to escape my predicament. In a way there’s a little optimism mixed in with the illusion. I hope that B.T. is just there for entertainment, and that he doesn’t really want to kill me, after all that would end his fun. I do my best to keep the entertainment value going so he doesn’t get bored and knock me off. But when I am living through the trouble-stricken times of my life I often wonder if it will be my last.
That’s what happened after my storybook wedding. The day had been frustrating, humorous, and wonderful just like all weddings should be. Rusty and I were finally wed. All our family and friends were happy for us. We set out that evening on our honeymoon in wedded bliss and ended the evening in bedded bliss. We then flew off the next day to a series of adventures that I could never have imagined.
First we boarded a jet plane that took us from LAX north to St. Paul, Minnesota. I had no idea what we were doing there because Rusty had planned our trip. I didn’t even get to pack my own suitcase. Given my penchant for survival, I’d brought my hunting knife and magnesium stick. I knew I couldn’t take them on a plane so I packed them securely in my checked luggage. When we landed in St. Paul, Rusty rented a car and we drove out of town to a tiny airstrip. He had a computer printed map and got lost anyway, but we eventually pulled up to a corrugated garage with a windsock next to it. The airport. Most people would have backed out at the sight of the airport but, having been through the Marines and search and rescue, I was used to a variety of transport taking off in all kinds of conditions. However, we didn’t board an airplane at the airport. Instead, we piled into a Jeep and drove away from the airstrip to a manmade lake. Minnesota has enough lakes, I thought. Why build another? But it turned out the lake was a landing strip too. We climbed aboard a small pontoon plane, and it whisked us across the lake until I thought we’d end up in the trees, and then it lifted into the air and breezed off to parts unknown.
I looked down. City gave way to country and country gave way to forest and still we flew. This was great! I wondered if there were moose down there. Was Minnesota moose country? What about grizzlies? I had tried to take a clue from Rusty’s attire to determine where we were going, but he had dressed for the security of the big city airports, so he was just wearing jeans and a casual shirt. As a result, I wore jeans with a t-shirt for comfort and ease of travel. When I saw nothing but trees below I couldn’t help it, I fell into survival mode and dug out my hunting knife and magnesium stick from my suitcase. These two items went with me anytime I ventured out of town, and they had saved my life more than once. I was lucky the plane was small enough that passengers and luggage rode together in the cabin.
“Cassidy, what are you doing?” Rusty asked.
“I can’t help it. I was born a boy scout. ‘Always be prepared.’ That’s a Boy Scout motto isn’t it?”
“You’re not worried are you?”
“No! This is great! I just feel naked without my knife when I’m in the woods.”
“You’re not in the woods.”
“I could be in a few minutes. Where are we going?”
“I don’t remember, but the pilot knows.”
“Do you think the pilot would let me see out the front?”
“Don’t count on it.”
I made my way to the front just to see.
“Hi!” I said brightly, “Can I sit up here for a bit? It’s been a long time since I’ve been up in a small plane.”
He wasn’t so sure he wanted company, but he gave me a nod so I sat quietly.
“Don’t touch anything. You fly much?” he asked.
“Not much, only when I have to. I like flying, it’s just that I’m more of a land lubber. I like to hike, and camp, and see critters, and there aren’t many of them up in the sky. But I do fly occasionally for work.”
“Oh, on business trips?”
“Not exactly. I do search and rescue. Occasionally we have to get a lift out with a missing person. That’s about the only flying I do.”
“Then you’ll like where we’re headed. Loon Lake. Have you ever heard a loon before?”
“No, we don’t have them where I live. Are there loons at the lake?”
“Yeah, go out in the canoe. You’ll see all kinds of animals and birds.”
“How far is it to the lake?”
“It’ll be a few hours to Lower Loon. We’re going to Upper Loon Lake. That’s where the cabins are.”
“Cool! This trip was a total surprise, so I’m fascinated every step of the way.”
I watched out the big windshield of the plane as miles and miles of dense woods slipped by underneath us. Occasionally a bright blue lake appeared in amongst the trees and I wondered what animals could be found down there.
After a while, I thought Rusty must be bored, so I made my way to the back of the plane and sat next to him.
“It’s so cool, you ought to go take a look!”
“Are you having fun yet?”
“Oh yeah! I can’t wait to get there, wherever there is. He said it would be a few hours. I hope we brought a lot of film. I want to take a picture of a moose.”
My enthusiasm was rubbing off on Rusty. His eyes laughed at me, amused. He always silently laughed at me when I got excited about something. I looked like a kid walking into Disneyland for the first time. The woods of Minnesota were like Disneyland to me, new critters and trails and canoe rides and cabins. I pointed from the window.
“Look, there’s a lake down there. I wonder if there’s moose down there. I wonder if there are bears.”
“Just sit down,” he said, “There will be plenty to see once we get there.”
“But, there’s plenty to see right now. How can you just sit there?”
I sat next to him, but pretty soon I was drawn to the windows again. Half a dozen more trips to the window and he was no longer amused by my enthusiasm.
“Cass, you’re going to wear yourself out before we even land.”
“No I won’t, it’s just interesting to me. You can see woods and lakes and rivers and towns. It’s cool!”
I sat down next to Rusty but the woods were calling to me. I started to get up but Rusty held me down.
“Just relax. We’ll be there soon.”
I sat listening to the droning of the plane engines. After a while they grew quieter and quieter. I started dozing off but suddenly my senses were jarred alive. No, it wasn’t my imagination, the engines really were quieter. In fact, I couldn’t hear anything at all from the left engine. I went forward and saw the pilot was furiously trying to maintain control of the plane.
“Go sit down and buckle in!” he yelled.
“Why? What’s going on?” I asked, worried for our safety.
Before he could answer there was a loud pop and the plane lurched. A string of expletives came from the pilot.
“Go!” he yelled.
I went to the back of the plane but I wasn’t buckling in yet. If there was something I could do, I’d do it first. I searched the back of the plane and found four parachutes. I took one to the pilot, and then gave one to Rusty.
“Cassidy are you nuts? What are you doing?”
“Go ask the pilot that!” I said urgently.
He went forward and took a look around, bracing himself as the plane bucked and lurched through the sky. He got the same response I did, an urgent command to buckle up. When Rusty came back he found me strapping on the parachute. It was a little different from the ones I’d used before, but I figured it out. I located the cords. Right hand first, left hand second.
“Cass! Sit down!” Rusty said nervously.
“Put that chute on!” I ordered. I’d never ordered him to do anything before, but my trouble radar was going off like crazy. I knew how to skydive, but I didn’t know how to crash. So the chute was the winner in my mind.
I looked out the window. Fire leapt from the left engine. The plane fell steeply.
“Rusty! Put on the damn parachute! Have you ever jumped before?”
“No!” he called back.
“Do you think you can do it?”
“Only if I have to.”
Curses continued from the cockpit. I went to the pilot.
“Buckle or bail?” I yelled.
He looked at me seriously.
“You know how?”
“I do, my husband has never done it, but I can tell him what to do. Which is the bigger risk?”
“This plane’s going down! I’d like to try for a lake but I don’t think she’s going to make it. I think she’s going to burn up before I get a chance.”
“So, buckle or bail?”
BAM!
“Bail! If you know how, bail!”
“Tell him that!”
“Bail!” The pilot yelled, “Bail out!”
I went back to Rusty and helped him suit up. I adjusted everything so it was snug, but not too tight.
“What’s our altitude?” I yelled.
“Eight thousand!” he yelled back.
“Here,” I said, “count to thirty. Look at the plane, look at the ground, if everything looks clear pull the right cord. If the right cord doesn’t work in ten seconds or so pull the left one. The reserve chute might open automatically but don’t count on it. If it’s going to open automatically it’ll probably wait till you’re at one thousand feet and one thousand feet looks awfully close! Can you do it?” He looked at me, his eyes wide with fear. I wasn’t sure he could. I had to admit, it was a scary thing to do for the first time. “Can you do it if I go first?”
“If you’re jumping, I’m jumping,” he said with determination.
“It’s going to be windy and noisy, just don’t panic! Keep your head. The jerk is rough but tolerable. If your chute is square, you will have pretty good control steering and maneuvering. If it’s round, just ride it down. Are you ready?” I called over the creaking, groaning airplane.
He squared his shoulders, took a deep breath then called back, “Ready!”
I silently prayed he could do it as I jerked the door to the plane open. I braced myself, looked down. That sure didn’t look like eight thousand feet.
“Twenty, count to twenty! And don’t jump feet first. Spread yourself out, face down, so you create more drag.” I yelled hoping he could hear me. I took a deep breath, checked my bindings one more time, then bailed out. Oh man, I hated that feeling. It wasn’t as bad as most people think. It didn’t feel like a drop on a roller coaster. It didn’t even feel like falling. It felt windy, and a little buoyant. I counted to twenty and then looked around. Rusty had jumped so I made sure he was well away from me as I pulled my cord. Nothing happened. I yanked twice more. I waited as my heart rate doubled. Nothing. I tried the left one. I felt some movement, and then the reserve chute slowly peeled out of the pack and wiggled around in the wind. Damn it! I thought, Mr. B. T. Trouble! Give me a break! This is not funny! I pulled at the cords trying to shake out the fabric, but it wasn’t cooperating. The wind was too strong for me to do much. When I changed position the wind whipped me around, so I was tumbling as I fell. In the tumbling I managed to get a hold of the chute. I tried to spread it out, anything to get some wind in it! I frantically pulled at the fabric this way and that, hoping I wasn’t tangling it worse. Any amount of drag at all would be to my advantage, so I pulled and tugged and tumbled through the sky. I’m not good with math but believed I had a little more than five minutes to figure this out.
I was tangled in the cords. My hair was flying in the wind. The fabric flapped around more loosely now. If I could just get everything back in its right place the chute might just catch. I worked my arm and legs loose from their tangle and when there was room to work I felt the cords tighten and the chute catch. One side of it was still stuck together, and I was falling awfully fast, but I had some measure of hope now. If luck was on my side, maybe I could work with the situation and come out of it in one piece.
I looked down. Minnesota is half water and I had lucked out. I was coming in for a very fast landing right into a lake. I felt a stab of fear as I approached the surface, then I hit the water and the cold almost took my breath away. Don’t breathe, Cass, don’t! I held my breath as long as I could, and then held it longer thinking all the time, don’t breathe, don’t breathe. My head stung from the water up my nose. My lungs burned! When my plunge slowed and then stopped, I kicked up towards the surface, frantically swimming toward the air above. When my head broke through and the air hit me again I gasped and coughed. Water was up my nose and in my eyes. I instinctively started treading water and coughing. I batted the parachute away and peeled off the harness. Rusty! Where was Rusty? I looked around and saw his parachute coming down in the woods. I then looked for a third parachute, but didn’t see one. Where was the pilot?
I started swimming for shore, but was too exhausted, so I turned over onto my back to rest while floating. Then I swam a little more towards the area where Rusty had landed. He was going to be frantic by the time I found him. I swam some more. Come on, Cass, you can do it, just keep swimming, just keep on. My arms ached. My legs ached. I couldn’t afford to let them cramp up, but I needed to get out of this cold water. I rested again, just a short rest, then I pressed on. Swim, rest, swim, rest. I was getting nowhere. It was too far, too far, no way could I swim that far. I shouldn’t even be alive, and wondered why I wasn’t some big splat on the ground somewhere. Then a stupid skydiving joke popped into my head, and it shook me out of my hopeless mood. I remembered it from my training in the Marines. The instructor had told it to me to help ease my fear during my first simulated jump.
“What’s the difference between a golfer and a skydiver?” he’d asked.
I’d jumped but he caught up with me later.
“A golfer goes whack, shit. And a skydiver goes shit, whack.”
Well, it wasn’t a joke to me anymore. It was very much real. Now I was dealing with the results of my whack. Swim, Cass, just keep swimming. I swam and swam and finally I heard off in the distance Rusty’s nearly panicked voice calling, “Cassidyyyy!”
I tried waving to show him my location, but I didn’t know if he could see me. I swam faster. I hated doing these things to him. I put myself in swim mode, just like I did hike mode, and kept paddling. Any forward motion was acceptable, just keep paddling. Finally I heard splashing in front of me. Rusty was wading out and he reached out, pulling me up and out of the water. It was freezing!
“R-r-usty, build a fire. Please, build a fire.” I was shivering so badly I couldn’t stop.
I tried to stand but my knees buckled. Rusty helped me shivering and staggering out of the lake and up onto the shore. I collapsed just clear of the water, shivering uncontrollably. “Please,” I said, “build a fire.”
“Cass, oh babe, how did you do it?” he said rubbing my arms and shoulders to help me warm up, “When I saw your parachute not open I almost didn’t pull my cord. It would have been so easy to just not pull it.”
He wrapped me in a fearful hug and I would have hugged him back but I couldn’t. All I could do was shiver.
“P-please Rusty. Just build a fire. I’m freezing and I’m beat. I can’t do it.”
“We don’t have a way to light it, babe. We can’t. Come on, come here.”
“If you can build it we can light it. P-please.” I got up trying to find the energy to gather the pine needles and sticks, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. I sat back down on the beach shivering and dug down into my wet pocket. The dirt clung to my wet clothes and the fabric of my pocket clung to my hand but I finally pulled out the magnesium stick.
“Use this. It’s to start fires. Oh, it’s s-s-o cold!” I unstrapped my hunting knife. Rusty built up a tiny stack of firewood but it wouldn’t last long. “M-more wood,” I shivered. When he had brought a small pile of wood, I shaved some magnesium into the tinder and struck the steel with my knife. I couldn’t get a good solid hit in but Rusty saw what I was trying to do and took it from me. Three or four strikes and a spark hit the magnesium and the tinder caught.
“I always wondered why you carried that thing around.” Rusty said. “It just looks like a hunk of metal.”
“These two things are my survival gear. Where’s your parachute?” I was still shivering but began settling down and started to think in survival mode. We might need that parachute. I didn’t have the strength to drag mine out of the lake but Rusty’s might prove useful.
“It’s in the woods.”
“We need to find it after I dry out. Is it really this cold or am I reacting badly to the fall?”
“You’re lucky to be alive and you’re worried about reacting badly?”
“No, I just need to know if it’s really cold out. I can’t tell if it’s the weather or if it’s just me that is freezing.”
“It’s just you. It’s July in Minnesota. It’s cold in Australia. Maybe you’re working off an adrenaline rush. I know I would be if I were you.”
“Well, my life didn’t flash before my eyes. If it did I wouldn’t have believed it anyway. I doubt anybody would, the c-crazy things that happen to me. Why c-can’t I get warm? I need to shake this. We can’t just sit around here. We need to figure out where we are. We need to find a town or a campground or the cabin. The cabin is north of here. But I don’t know how far. It depends on what lake this is. If this is Lower Loon Lake then Upper Loon Lake isn’t far. That’s where the cabin is. Where’s your parachute?”
“I can find it again. Why are you so set on finding the parachute? You’re not going back up.”
“Just in case you didn’t notice, we are in the woods in Minnesota. We don’t have any food or water and we have a long ways to go. We might as well consider ourselves in survival mode. The parachute has cords and material that might come in handy. I can make a snare out of the cords. We can make a net out of the parachute. It can help us a lot if we can find it. “
“We’ll find it. Just take it easy until you get back to normal.”
“Did the pilot jump? Did you see? I was k-kind of busy.”
“I didn’t see. I was busy too, deciding whether I wanted to pull that cord or not.”
“Rusty, never, ever do that. You can’t. I couldn’t bear it.”
I was still shivering and now my emotions were getting all jumbled up too, to think how close we came, both of us. It was too much. I climbed into his lap and put my arms around him, hunkered down and shivered until I was spent. I sat there limp and worn out until I realized I wasn’t shivering any more. He held me, for his comfort as much as mine until I felt ready to tackle the next step of our adventure.
“Do you have your gun?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Don’t use it to hunt unless we have to. The pilot said there are bears up here. It’ll be better to save it, unless we have a sure shot or we’re desperate. Have you been on a survival trip before?”
“No.”
“Okay, well, what you do is watch for food. Watch for anything that might work to our advantage, any little thing. We’re going to get hungry. You can count on that. But we’ll make it. First step is to find that parachute. Then we need to head north. We were getting close to the lower lake when the plane went down. We should be able to make it to the cabin. To head north we go the direction of the shadows. Have you had an orienteering class?”
“Only what they teach at academy. And that was years ago.”
“We can tell direction by watching which way our shadows point during the day and by watching the North Star at night. I wish we had a way to carry water. That’s going to make things tough.”
“Are you sure you’re up to this? Cassidy…”
“Hey, I’ve done this before. All we can do is our best. It’s going to take patience and determination but I’m pretty sure we can get through this. Now where is that parachute?”
I followed him into the woods and we untangled his parachute from a low bush. I cut off the harness and saved the chute and the cords. As we were pulling the fabric loose I noticed berries on the bushes.
“I think we hit the jackpot,” I said, and began picking berries and dropping them into the parachute. We picked several handfuls.
“What are these?” Rusty asked.
“I’m not sure, but I know the north is famous for berries.”
“What if they are poisonous?”
“If they were poisonous, the animals wouldn’t eat them, and animals have definitely been at them. There are tracks all over here. We need to head north, and we need to watch for a game trail. If we can find one before nightfall I will try to set up a snare to catch a critter. I don’t like to do that but it’s them or us at this point. Now, I know it’s not something you like to do but we need to go back to the lake and drink before we head out. We can’t carry water so we have to drink it when we can.”
We went down to the lake and found the clearest spot we could and then drank our fill.
“If this was California there would be a bottle or a can or something floating on the shore, but I don’t see one here. Don’t they have people in Minnesota?”
We headed north. It was getting late so the shadows were long. I walked ahead of Rusty watching for game trails, footprints, animal tracks, edible plants, anything to make our situation easier. I knew there were animals in these woods. I hadn’t seen one yet but there was evidence everywhere. Tracks, scat. Some of the tracks I was familiar with, others were new to me. I wanted to stop and study them but we didn’t have time for that yet.
We hiked along through sun dappled woods, making pretty good time, under the circumstances. Then I found a nice busy game trail and could tell it was used frequently because the animals had worn a tunnel through the undergrowth. I stopped.
“Okay,” I announced, “we’re camping here for the night.”
“Why here?”
“I’ll show you. Watch how I do this so you will know how to do it. It’s always handy to have a few survival tricks up your sleeve.”
I searched the area for the things we needed to set a snare. First things first. I found a young sapling next to the game trail and took note of it. Then I turned my search away from the game trail and found another young tree, carefully choosing two branches.
“Rusty, can you break off this branch?” I could have done it myself, but I wanted him to participate in this, too. It would make him feel useful and I still ached from the fall. There was a crack and a peeling sound and a few yanks before he got the branch loose. “Now this one.” I instructed. I whittled at the first branch while he wrestled with the second one. I made the first branch into a long stake with a hook on the end. The sturdier branch was the stake and the smaller branch coming off of it was the hook. I took the second stick from Rusty and whittled a smaller hook. This one didn’t need a stake on it, but did need to fit with the first hook.
“What are you doing?” Rusty asked.
“You’ll see.”
We went back to the game trail and located the sapling I’d chosen. I looked at the set up with a critical eye. I found a rock and used it to pound the stake into the ground next to the game trail, hook down. Then I cut a cord from the parachute and tied one end to the sapling.
“Bend this tree down for me. I need to gauge the tension.”
Rusty pulled the young tree down and I found a place along the cord to tie the trip stick. The rest of the cord was too short to make a noose out of so I cut another cord from the parachute. I fashioned a critter size noose and laid it on the trail. Then I tied the noose to the trip stick. It wasn’t the best setup but it was what we had the equipment for. It was better to use just a single cord so the stick couldn’t pull free when the sapling sprung up. I found other little sticks and pushed them into the ground next to the game trail.
“Now watch,” I said. He pulled down the sapling and I carefully hooked the two hooks together. “Stand back and be careful of your eyes,” I instructed. He stood back and I tried to trip the snare. Darn, too tough. I whittled at the trip stick a little and we reset the snare. “Stand back,” I said again. I triggered it again and this time it released easily. We reset the snare and I arranged the noose at critter height. “Think you could make one?” I asked.
“Yeah, how long did it take you to learn how to do it right?”
“The first one took some tweaking. They almost always take some tweaking. But I’m getting better at it. I only use them when I have to now. I don’t like killing critters but they are meat and we will need food. I’d rather save our bullets for defense. If we can snare our food we won’t have to shoot it. Now, we need to camp a little ways from the snare. Sometimes animals avoid the place because it smells like people. Let’s hope these critters don’t know enough about people to be scared.”
We found a place to camp and settled in. No tent, no sleeping bags, no jackets. It was going to be a long, cold night. I stretched the parachute out as flat as possible over our sleeping spot and tied the chords tightly to trees. It would keep the dew off and hopefully there would be enough water on it in the morning for us to drink a few sips.
“I’ll split the berries with you,” I offered.
He looked at the small offering. “You go ahead.”
“Here, I’m not taking more than half. You forget, I’ve done this before. I’m used to this. There were times when a handful of berries was all I had for a whole day. Most times it was a handful of something that tasted a lot worse but it was edible so I ate it. Berries aren’t so bad. Here, try one.”
I popped one in my mouth. Ugh, it was sour! It was as sour as can be, but I chewed and swallowed anyway.
“Wait,” I said, “find a ripe one first. That was awful!”
He laughed at me and started examining his berries. He found a softer one and popped it in his mouth. He made a face.
“Okay, so these berries aren’t the best Minnesota has to offer. We’ll find something better tomorrow. I’m still eating mine. Taste has very little to do with survival. Maybe we’ll have meat for breakfast.”
“How do you take things so matter of factly? Most people would be freaking out just from the jump. I am! But here you are, lost in a place you’ve never been to, no food, no water and you’re snacking on awful berries and hoping for a meal tomorrow. And it all seems normal to you. How do you do it?”
“You forget I’ve parachuted before. And I’ve been on survival trips before. Is there any good reason to freak out?” I asked matter of factly.
“Yes!” he said.
“Give me one good reason to freak out.”
“Well… because it’s… normal. I still feel a little freaked out and my parachute opened!”
“Just in case you didn’t notice I did freak out for a little bit back there. But it’s over and now we need to think about food and water and heading north. So freaking out isn’t part of the plan.”
“Why north?”
“It’s the one direction I know is right. Plus if we can make it to the cabin before our ten days are up we’ll have a place to stay. You do want to finish the trip, don’t you? I still want to try out the canoes. I want to see a moose. They have such funny expressions. I want to hear a loon.” I could feel his smile in the dark.
“We need to sleep. We both need all the energy we can get for tomorrow.”