Bushwhacking Tradegy - Trip Report - Part 06

    1. Bushwhacking Tradegy - Trip Report - Part 06   Time 2008-05-29 18:42
  • Next: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZiYa-...The arrival of Bully brought many questions to the ugly surface that required our immediate attention. Questions that there could be no easy answers. I could see that the onset of yet another heated discussion visibly irritated John and, of course, spilled over onto Sally as well. Robert, on the other hand, flopped back down onto the now soggy ground, relieved about the sudden delay. The lack of foresight into the plan for Frank, Bully's owner, came back to haunt us like the arrival of darkness in the valley of death. Now what were we to do? Should we wait for Frank, assuming that he was not far behind Bully would be here soon after finding him somewhere between his departure point and the vehicles? Or did Frank return all the way to the vehicles, failed to find Bully, and then decided to make his way to where we were now? Bully offered no clues or explanation to his whereabouts all this time.Just as John launched into his tirade about the dog, Adam overshadowed him with an impressive display of rage, only to realize that Frank was not there to absorb it. Stopping his spittle mid-stream, this fact seemed to make him even angrier and lashed out at everyone that dared to make eye contact with him, even the soft-spoken Becky. I did not like this and some sort of primal urge threatened to force me to intervene. It boiled down to either waiting for Frank where we were, even though he may or may not be on his way, or continuing on with the riley Bully in tow. The chances of Frank finding us in this dark jungle were almost nil in my opinion. Peter, of course, urged the rest of us to wait for Frank since Frank had the tent to go with his tent poles. After everyone, except Robert, injected their differing opinions into the fray, it became very apparent that waiting for Frank would be folly since we didn't even know if his arrival was imminent or not.During all of this Robert took the timely opportunity to open his pack and pull out some food to replenish his tired and battered body. Looking over his shoulder Jill noticed that Robert was carrying a full 2 litres of camp stove fuel, 3 hard-cover books, and what looked like a litre of milk. Peter, taking the lead from Jill, jumped in and took advantage of Robert's moment of weakness and rooted through his pack further. To the rest of us, or at least me, Peter's actions seemed like a thinly-veiled attempt at gaining Jill's favour by strongly backing her up. This was swept aside, however, by the rage now being directed at poor Robert by both Adam and John as they tag-teamed him and forcefully dumped all of his possessions onto the soggy ground right in front of us all. Robert turned white, then red, and then looked everywhere but at us. Becky intervened just as it looked like blows were about to be rained down upon the haggard-looking Robert. Once again level-headed Becky saved the day and sorted out Robert's stuff, handing some of it out to the rest of us to carry, and shit-canned the rest of it. It was interesting to see who, and who would not, carry a few of Robert's things, even though it would benefit us all by speeding him up. Shouldn't the strong help the week for the good of the team? To Adam, in particular, apparently not. I was starting to develop a deep dislike of Adam, and wasn't that impressed with John either.We reached the edge of the immense boulder field about 2 hours later and the sheer size of it impressed us all as we regrouped before we ventured forth. It loomed ahead of us in the darkness like a medieval castle destroyed in a savage siege; only burnt rubble remaining. The area that the boulder field covered was not the only thing that was immense. The boulders themselves were huge geometric shapes; cubes, spheres, pyramids; all the size of houses and jumbled together in a gigantic horizontal mass that was clearly the only way forward. On one side was a vertical cliff, on the other a chasm that could swallow a small town and not even burp. A couple of leaps later we all realized that Bully could not hope traverse such a vast angular obstacle, nor could be go around. Being a large dog, and not too friendly to boot, carrying him was out of the question. Clearly it came down to one or more of us aborting the bushwhack and returning to the vehicles in utter defeat, or abandoning the dog where he stood. I braced myself for the coming storm.Next: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZiYa-...Part One: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIqB7p...Read Complete Story: http://www.clubtread.com/sforum/topic...
  • Tag: »battered »camp »castle »clue »darkness »death »fuel »haunt »jungle »medieval »primal »speeding »stove »tag »team »tent »ugly »valley
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