Many years ago, before my brothers or I were alive, my dad and his hunting friends used to do some absolutely crazy things. They did everything from hosting the Winter Olympics of Woodhull to attempting to shoot a deer in rough water off of a moving boat. This time, however, was 100% because my dad got really, really unlucky. When we were kids, Dad used to tell us this story to emphasize the importance of knowing the woods and of having a backup for your backup orienteering device (compass).

Once upon a time, Dad was hunting on the other shore of the lake down in the Wolf Lake End. He hadn't seen anything all day and it was approaching time to head back to camp. He got his bearing from his compass and decided to start trucking out. Where he was located was due West of the lake, and where he needed to go. He found East and started moving. He walked and walked, expecting to see the lake soon, but he didn't. He kept going and eventually came upon a beaver pond. He put his gun over his head and trudged through the pond. (Looking back, he said that was not the smartest thing to do). He walked and walked and eventually started hearing the sounds of a road. At this point, he pretty much knew he screwed up, so he moseyed out to the road and tried to flag someone down.

He got a ride from another hunter who took him to his camp, fed him dinner, and then drove him up to the gate to the dirt road. At the gate, Dad was handed off to the man who lived in the Gatehouse, who drove him down to the landing. At the landing, Dad fired off a few shots to try to get the other guys attention at camp. The lake is such that sound travels very strangely around it, and the guys in camp thought his shots were coming from the opposite end of the lake, where they had been hunting that day. They took off in a boat and headed down to that end. Dad got in a boat at the landing and rowed across the lake to camp. To his surprise, it was empty and one boat was gone. Fortunately, they had another boat, so dad hopped in that boat and took off to look for the crew that was out searching for him.

As he cruised down the lake, he saw that Lee Spinning's camp was also empty. He kept cruising until he saw two boats pulled up on a shoreline. He pulled his boat up next to them, got out, and started walking down the trail he thought they were on. He came up behind them and asked "Who are you guys looking for?" Obviously, they were overjoyed to see him. I'm almost positive their comments were nothing but sweet and endearing.

Turns out, Dad had been around some kind of an iron ore deposit. It threw his compass off and put him in some kind of crazy goose-chase. He ended up about 10 miles to the south, down by White Lake, when the hunter picked him up. Moral of the story? Always have at least two ways of finding your direction. Oh, and never put your compass too close to your zipper.