Trails Weary

Chapter 3 "Pursuit of the South"

It had probably been about a month, that slowly pasted since I left Olivia's farm. Nothing eventful had happened, but as before, I was in a constant state of worry. Leaving Olivia was hard on me mentally, but that was the least of my worries. I had to stay focused on keeping safe, and out of sight. My mare and I stayed in the woods, keeping our standard routine of sleeping during the day, and traveling by night. We still wondered aimlessly with no end in sight.

The days were getting shorter, and the nights were getting colder. We were going into winter.

When I left, I headed North, but just long enough to make sure Olivia didn't know where I was going, then I went toward the West South West. I tried to stay south enough to stay where it was possible to survive the winter. I had no idea what state we were in now.... Just roughly what part of the U.S.

As winter approached, I could still hunt for my food, but grass was getting harder and harder to find. Because of that we made an abrupt change in direction - we headed a little more to the South.

The terrain was rough, and my paths were weary. Snow caped mountains stood high in the distance, and sometimes in our path, often so tall, we had to make the long journey around them to keep going South. The size of the mountains lead me to believe we were farther north than we should be...  My biggest fear was snow cover... For two reason... Too hard to find grass for my horse, and the worst one.... Plainly laid tracks... If I was ever to get in a bind, there would be no escape. I could be tracked for months... A terrifying thought...

As the weeks past, staying clear of people was getting harder to do. We came across road ways, and would hear the sound of vehicles very often. If I was ever in a high spot, I would look far and wide, out into the distance to choose our path, and it was seldom I saw lots of buildings, roads, and homes. This frightened me... I couldn't be seen. Luckily the woods were dense, so my chances were slim.

My curiosity was growing about what state we were in. But how could I find out?  "Law signs by roads!"  I whispered. Though somewhat brazen, I decided to stay in the woods near roads, and when there was no one around, read the signs. The woods were quiet, so I was able to hear the sounds of vehicles on the roads from miles away.   Although it took a few days before I heard the first car again, I soon did, and this time headed right for it.     As we approached the first road, there was an occasional car, so we would stay in the thickness of the trees until we heard no vehicles for a long long ways. My first chance to come out of the thicket was now here, so I sped up my horse, and headed right for it. To my despair, there were no signs in sight, so I continued on, to find another place to look.    Soon I had another opportunity, and waited for the right time, and repeated my looking for a sign process. When it was clear, like before, I briskly went toward the road. This time, there was a sign! I quickened my horse with a squeeze of my heels and ran for the other side of the sign - the one that bared writing. When I got around the sign, and saw what it said... I wasn't the least bit excited... I was horrified! The sign read, "Country Road 684 Sheridan, Wyoming."   We were in the upper part of Wyoming... Not only did that mean frozen water and, snow.... It meant a bitter cold winter was on it's way, and we were right in the middle of it... So my guess of it being the beginning of winter was incorrect... It was fall! My heart fluttered, as I thought of the impossible. I had to make it to the South, as fast as physically possible to survive out on our own!  But how could we get further South fast enough??  There was just no way! I practically panicked. Right away I started heading dew South of the North star.

A couple days had past since our change of direction, and pursuit for the South. We slept very little. Now we were traveling by night, and most of the day, desperately trudging to a warmer territory. We kept out pace much higher than usual... Instead of a steady walk, I had my mare briskly walk or do a medium speed trot.  She didn't understand, so I made sure to give her back a rest for parts of the day, and lead her afoot.       We were making pretty good time, but I must say, the towns that often stood in our path plaid a big factor on our pursuit. We couldn't just go through them, so we'd have to go around. This was very time consuming and frustrating, but I kept telling myself it would be a great bigger deal of time to get caught, then it would be to simply go around.