Story: Lost on Horseshoe Mnt.

Ok. There’s the story about Dad and I on a family deer hunting trip to West Rupert, Vt. That morning we were hunting on a huge horseshoe shaped mountain. Both ends of the horse shoe ended at the road where our car was parked . It was very foggy that morning on the mountain and being about 10 years old I was more than a little concerned about getting lost.

Dad said as long as I kept my left foot downhill I would go right around the horseshoe and wind up at the road again. So up the mountain we went. Halfway up the mountain Dad left me and continued up the mountain with the idea of meeting up with me later at the other end of the horseshoe. After a few hours it got so foggy I couldn’t see ten feet in front of me. After walking blindly all afternoon I knew I should have hit the road long ago and was completely lost. I couldn’t understand why because I had made a point of keeping my left foot downhill.

By now it was dark and I was facing the prospect of spending a cold night on the mountain. After another hour or so I spotted a light through the trees. It was a house and I gratefully knocked on the front door and told the farmer I was lost. He said to come in and warm up. He also mentioned how unusual it was that I was the second lost person to show up lost in the last 15 minutes. Sure enough there in the living room by the fire sat Dad.

Turns out that halfway around the horseshoe there was a saddleback (dip) and because of the fog neither of us saw it and wound up going right around to the back side of the mountain. How we wound up at the same house that night was a huge coincidence.
-Rick Henry-

July 10, 2017 Brian Lee