Lost in the Woods

Today, for the first time ever (in Montana), I got lost in the woods. Let me tell you how it happened. Well, I was on an errand delivering a note to a neighbor lady from my friend Mist. I happened to see another neighbor lady "Howie". Howie is a really sweet lady. She happened to be doing something with a garden hose and generator that had to do with the water supply in her home. Since I'm one of the few here with everything that works like it should (to an extent), I am a little ignorant. Anyway, she thought it would be a great day for a hike too.
Excited, I hurriedly delivered the note and rushed back to her home. I felt almost giddy, doing something with another lady. I am friend challenged and I gotta take em where I can get em. Howie dawned her "Yaak Trax" and we headed off down the road. She didn't even make fun of my "mordic" or "nerdic" walking. We decided to cut through the woods to come to a familiar logging road that we both knew of. Since we entered the woods where I don't normally enter, I let her do the leading. I also let her lead because her "Yaak Tracks" fell off a few times and I intercepted them out of the snow for her so she wouldn't leave them behind.
The more we hiked, the surer we were that we had to be getting close. Only the lump on my back (better known as Moonbeam) had some reservations. On we continued. Soon the terrain became more hilly and we found ourselves walking on ridge upon ridge. We abandoned trails we thought lead to the road and tromped through the deep snow in the directions we thought would lead us there. She wanted to go further right while I wanted to follow the ridge. After a couple of hours I began to wonder if we should confess that we might be lost.
At one time I even thought I saw my house, but alas it was one of those mirages. She brought me back to my senses "that's not your house" she said as I looked at a snow bank. For the first couple of hours we remarked how great it was that we were out getting exercise, how beautiful the weather was and how much fun we were having. Then it dawned on us around the same time. We were not going to have an unlimited supply of daylight. Evening was just around the corner and with it would be our light.
We had come too far to turn around and be out before dark. Who knew if we'd even regain our trail with all the crusty animal tracks everywhere. I started to pray and ask for wisdom. Suddenly following Howie around in the woods didn't seem like so much fun. Scenes flashed in my mind of "lost women" going across the emergency radio channels. Literally almost EVERYONE in our valley would know!! People would raz us for years to come!!! Oh the horror of it! And to think I had a baby with me along in my crazy adventure. I could just imagine us huddling there with her in the dark. Then I wondered which direction to run if a wild animal attacked, or if one of us were injured. Oh the horror of it all. Not much longer after I prayed for angels to direct us the right way, Howie found the main road. We came out just a few miles from home. I was quite relieved. We laughed about what might have happened. We could both imagine our husbands giving us a good talking to!
Howie and I agreed to do some Kayaking and Swimming this summer. We will be keeping the details of this hike clouded amongst the neighbors.