The longest walk I ever had was a couple years back when Richard Oney, Leon and I went riding behind Pilcher Mtn. to hunt birds. While we were going the wind was kind of strong but not too bad and I was having fun because that country was new to me and the sun was shining and there were very few clouds in the sky.

We stopped to eat and Richard told us that if we wanted to go by ourselves we could meet him on the other side of the island. Leon and I said O.K. and we took off on different trails. I got stuck on a hill and tried to call Leon back but he never heard me so I had to get out by myself. I was stuck for ten minutes, and I was very hot when I finished. The sound of their snow machines was getting farther and farther away and I followed a trail that led to Leon's trail. I saw him going around a corner and I tried to catch him but it was too lumpy and I had to go slow. I was kind of scared because I thought that I would get lost, but I finally caught up to Leon and asked him if he had seen his dad. He said no, so we continued to search for him. We never found him, though, and we had to backtrack on our snowmachine trail. But we followed the wrong trail. Leon was taking us way back toward Pilot Station. So we turned around and when we were at the goose hunting place we started back toward Takchak Slough again.

It was night by the time we reached Five Day Slough. Leon's machine had run out of gas, so we had only my Dad's machine to drive. But it didn't have enough gas to make it home, so we drove kind of fast so if we ran out of gas we would only have to walk a short distance. When the snow machine finally ran out of gas we had no food and water and had to walk for a day and a half. I was very hungry. We also had no tent to sleep in and no blanket to keep us warm, but we had a fire, and the night made me warm because the stars were out and there was no wind. The next morning when we got up Leon said that he was cold, so we started walking again. When we got tired we rested for a while then started walking again.

We walked all day, and just before nightfall we heard a plane flying our way. Leon and I got very happy because we thought we wouldn't have to walk anymore. It was the State Trooper's plane, and we started flicking our lighters so they could seen us. We thought they were going to pick us up but they never did. They were only locating us for the Marshall Search and Rescue team. About five minutes later we saw snowmachines coming over to us, and when they stopped they gave us food. Boy, were we HUNGRY!!