Survivalist Forum banner

My Survival Story.

3K views 11 replies 8 participants last post by  DPS33 
#1 ·
I wouldn't call it survival but I did get lost in the deep forest with a buddy while elk hunting.

It's Northern New Mexico/Colorado Border Carson National Forest.

Base on a true story that happened to me.

It starts off at 430am it started off like the previous days trying to beat the herds moving at dawn and dusk, it's a brisk -5 degrees, I've got 4 layers and still cold. Not freezing but cold which is good you don't want to be warm. Knife, power bars, rifle, ammo, handgun on hip, extra gas cans, 2 lighters, box of matches, ski mask, and 2 thermal blankets and bag of trail mix, check check and check....okay I'm good to go. I turn to my friend Louie, I ask him, you got everything...yup yup...okay lets roll. We start out in his Dodge 2500 with the ATV in the back and wench in the front ready to pull in our tags. We look all morning, fruitless. Rest in the afternoon at a nice mesa and eat lunch Louie brought sandwich meat, cheese slices and tortillas, some tortilla sandwhiches with a couple of diet cokes. I munch on some trail mix. 3pm, okay lets start moving, we see a Bull Elk, beautiful rack, problem is it's on another mesa about 2000 yards away, and we have cow tags. Looks beautiful in the binos though. Then I see it...fresh tracks right in front of me, about 15 sets. We follow the tracks we know we're close it leads us to the edge of another mesa then I see it about 1,000 yards out the herd....most gorgeous thing you'll ever see. We stop the truck and set out on foot and climb down the mesa. We keep following they stop to eat some grass in a plain on the other side of the valley, we go slowly along the tree line methodically, then Louie says look look right there, I raise the range finder(I got my elk a day earlier). Louie raises his rifle(unbeknownst to me what the caliber of his rifle was at the time.) I range it for him before he asks, 525 yards. He shoots...elk goes down, the bull barks and the herd runs. We walk over, gorgeous cow, medium size, wasn't the biggest one, but a good bag. We gut it, and decide to drive the truck down the mesa into the valley, instead of taking the ATV. It didn't seem to be too steep. We drive the truck down and load the elk. This is when I ask, what caliber was the rifle? A .243 at 525, I would not have believed it had I not been there or had the range finder in my hand. Damn good shot and compensation it was a direct cerebral shot base of the skull at the top of the spine. Anyway, we load the elk and go to drive out of the valley....the truck can't get out...put in 4wd, still won't we go 1st gear 4wd won't do it, we try to get out for 2 hours now. It's 5pm it's starting to get dark and it's starting to snow. Cars get buried out there in 8+ feet of snow for months at a time, this is the start of the snow season, I'm starting to get worried. Next we try the ATV, figure we can ditch the truck and take the ATV, now the ATV won't start...just great. Okay, let's keep trying to get up the mesa, their are no trees on it to tie the wench I trie making stakes into the ground to pull us up...no good. Still nothing seems to be working, snow is getting heavier, finally I say lets give it one last push up the mesa....by the grace of God we made up the mesa, but now another problem.....our tracks we used to guide us in are now gone covered up. We drive around for about 45 more minutes trying to find the tracks...no luck, nothing looks familiar now. Now I'm getting really worried. I ask Louie, you got the gps?....uhhh no, I think it's at camp...ALOT OF GOOD IT DOES THERE!!!..I asked you if you had everything you said yes!(note to self ask specifically if they have it.) The End Part 2 comes later.
 
See less See more
#10 ·
Part 2....So it's getting darker, and colder. The dead ATV, driving around looking for our tracks, no gps forgotton by my dear friend. So now I'm thinking, okay if we can't find our way back, we're going to have to stay here and take stock of what we have.

#1 Shelter, the truck, Food power bars, trail mix, two cokes, and a dead elk which could last us a while if it didn't get over freezing during the day, otherwise it would go rancid unless we cut thin strips and hanged them and made some jerkey. Now I feel strained and tired already, I go to grab water...ugh, we're out.

I have 2 lighters and a box of matches for fire/warmth/signals and melting snow, which I scoop up a bunch of snow and put in a cooler(it's the only container I had) to melt snow. Large knife, 2 thermal blankets and a .40 caliber sidearm with 1 extra mag 24 rounds total. 1, 7mm mag with 20rnds. 1, .243 with 10 rounds.

I do the international 3 shots hoping someone would hear. Nothing.

We decide to keep driving around in the middle of nowhere trying to retrace our steps. Then I see it a large wall of clouds descending upon us. It's a giant storm. I'm hoping we get out soon.

Then it dawns on me....My friend whose with me is a severe diabetic. I turn to him(he's driving) I ask him how he feels, he tells me his sugar is low, I tell him to eat my trail mix. He says he wants to hold off on that till it gets bad. He tells me he has one shot on him which may last through the night if he's lucky, then he'll eat the trail mix hoping he doesn't give himself too much sugar in the AM.

We drive to higher ground. Stop to drink water from the cooler and I have a smoke. I get out to get the lay of the land. The sun is starting to set. I raise my fist below the sun, ugh it's just below my middle knuckle we have less than 30 minutes left of light. Then I see it, Antonito Hill, I know on the otherside of that hill is the Highway 285N. I think it's easily a hour drive through the country to it, however, there are several mesas, and gorges between us and the hill, and everywhere else for that matter.

I scan the landscape before it gets any darker. To the north and northeast and northwest is the rockies, don't want to go that way. to the east is plains land and Antonito Hill, going west would put us where we came from and back in that valley...no thanks, we barely got out of that place. East is where we need to go, on foot, would be a 3 day hike and Louie would probably be dead from his diabetes before then. I don't want to leave the truck though, it's warmth and shelter, we have 15 gallons of gas in cans, the non running ATV is full of gas, and we have half a tank of gas in the truck now. I talk to Louie, he says he want to keep driving and he's going to keep driving till the truck is stuck or we run out of fuel.

I start to think about my family, I'm supposed to be home in two days, we're going to be out here longer than that. My wife doesn't know where we are. Camps at the lake, she knew that, our hunting passes were for unit 52, so that would give any searchers a vague area of where we could be, but cmon this is the base of the rockies no one would ever find us.

SHUT UP! Screw this noise, I'm getting home.

It starts to dump snow. The storm is starting to hit, I hear my friend, whose still driving start to pray. This really really scares me he is not a religious man by any means, I've known him for years and he refuses to talk about G-d or religion. Now he's praying, we're in deep sh*t.

Then I tell him, hey, it's kinda funny, when people need G-d's help they pray to him, and when they don't they don't think of him. He laughs and says true. His laughter brings a lightness to my heart. I tell him if I gotta carry him out I will and we'll walk to Antonito Hill. He laughs again and says good luck with that, just leave me out here if I'm that far gone. I'd rather be coyote food than be buried in a fricken box. Makes sense I suppose.

I start to pray in my head and drink some more water. Then out of nowhere bear jumps out in front of the truck and Louie slams on the breaks, the bear does a summersault it was actually really funny looking and he sends snow flying up into the air and just looks at us all ****ed off...lol.

Louie starts to go again, then I see it! STOP STOP STOP!

Tire tracks barely visible, we hand't been through here before. I go the left of the tracks about 10 feet sure enough covered elk tracks with droppings nearby the tracks we had followed in. The sun is now down but if I stick my head out the windshield with high beams on I can still see the barely visible tracks.

Thirty minutes later following these we find the hunting trail and we both breath a sigh of relief. We make it back to camp, praise the Lord and drink a beer to the bear.

The End.



PS. We get back home, get our elks to the butcher, I go to reiterate this story to the butcher, my friend turns looks at me with a broad smile and says "we weren't lost, I knew where we were at, I was just turned around."
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top