I was about 13 or 14 and was allowed to hunt deer for the first time in my life. My dad had purchased a 30.30 Winchester for my birthday and I was going to use it in real life for the first time.
We had always hunted in California's High Sierra Mountains and we generally went to the same area year after year. My dad would always take me along and I would just hike along with him. This year, my dad was going to hunt with a friend of his named Bucky. He was an Indian and a pretty good tracker. Bucky had an area of the country that he liked to hunt in which was not far from Bishop, CA. This was new territory for me, my dad, and my brother. Anyway, we reached our destination and parked the vehicles. We had to hike about 3 miles up the slope to our campsite. My dad didn't like this idea as he prefered to have his vehicle nearby. Anyway, that evening Bucky suggested that he show me the ropes on how to hunt deer the next morning.
The next morning, we got a very early start. It was still dark. I followed Bucky up the mountain to our destination then we just waited until it got light enough to see. I soon realized that Bucky had a bit of a drinking problem. Here it was early morning and he was taking a shot or two to "warm up." When it got light enough, we started heading towards a wooded area. He told me to go around a stand of trees and to take my time doing it. He said that it would be okay if I made a little noise cause he wanted me to scare a deer his way. He said that if he didn't bag a deer that he would meet me on the other side of the stand of trees. I did as I was told. I got to the other side of the forest and waited. And waited and waited, etc. 1 then 2 hours went by but it seemed like and eternity. It started to get blustery and windy and dark clouds were moving in fast. I started to sort of panic inside. I began to think that maybe he had already tried to meet me and we missed each other. I really had no idea where I was because we had hiked up in the dark. The wind started to howl and I was really concerned. I decided to see if I could figure out how to reach our base camp. I started in the direction I thought it was but I came to a very steep cliff but it looked like there were plenty of foot holds. I decided to risk climbing down this cliff. Bad idea.
As I started making my way down the 30' cliff, the wind caught my back and knocked me off balance. I fell and landed hard. I was knocked out for a time; I broke my left arm pretty badly; the lever of my 30.30 was jambed open and I could not get it unjambed. My dad had always told me that if I got lost that I should fire my weapon in the air as a marker. Anyway, I was in pretty bad shape. When I came to, I realized that it was starting to get dark. The clouds were black and the wind was heavy. I started walking in the direction that I believed the campsite was. I kept yelling for my dad (in between whimpers and the pain in my arm). I was literally in a panic. Finally, I could hear my dad yelling in the distance. He hadn't heard me yet but I heard him. I headed in his direction with renewed hope and I yelled louder. We found each other. We had to break camp, walk three miles down to the vehicle, and drive 60 miles to the town of Bishop where I got my arm set.
It turned out that Bucky had taken a nap. He was very apologetic but my dad never had anything else to do with this "top notch tracker."
I personally learned to be much more aware of my surroundings before I start to hike anywhere. I look for landmarks, the direction the sun moves in the sky, etc., before I hike anywhere. It doesn't hurt to put markers along the trail as long as you remove them on your way back.
