LARRY RUMSBY: ‘Taking a walk in the wilderness without telling anyone where you are going is an even worse idea’

COINCIDENCE OR DIVINE INTERVENTION?

The following is a first hand experience.  I finished a job in East Sooke early one afternoon and was heading home, it was a beautiful day, and as I came up to the Anderson Cove parking lot of the East Sooke Park I decided to take a walk.

Now, we all know taking a walk in the wilderness alone is not exactly a good  plan.  Taking a walk in the wilderness without telling anyone where you are going is an even worse idea.

Nevertheless, here I am, I have hiked over the mountain and down to the water’s edge, done some suntanning, had a rest and have retraced my steps back up over the mountain.

So far all has gone well, there is just the final downhill leg to the parking lot and I will be back on the road home.  

Not to be.  A knee quite unexpectedly goes out of commission, I can walk forward okay but I have to turn around and walk backward on the downgrades, like climbing down a ladder, and from here it is down almost all the way.  Needless to say, progress is slow and it begins to look as though I may be caught by darkness.

As I stumble along I become aware of the sound of an engine and it is getting closer, which is puzzling as I am far from the highway.  But suddenly, there is an old road and a 4 x 4 loaded with trail workers coming toward me.  Thirty seconds later I would have missed them.

So, the opening question stands.  I can’t answer for you, it’s your call.

Larry Rumsby, Sooke

 

[CCC Reprint: Sooke News Mirror: www.sookenewsmirror.com, page 9, June 3, 2009] 

[CCC BLOG Editor's note: Larry Rumsby wired Saint Rose of Lima (Santa Rosa de Lima) Church in Sooke, while my late father Peter George Hartnell served as master carpenter on the construction of the old Sooke Roman Catholic Church on the Sooke Reserve land.]