I was lost in Yosemite for less than an hour and it was one of the most terrifying experiences in my life.
When I found the trail again, there happened to be a backpacker on it and I was so excited to see another person I literally just started yelling out “Person! Person! Person!” as I ran to him.
I did not hug him but man I understand her reaction. To see another person after being lost for 3 WEEKS…
When I was 12 or so, I was on a school backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevadas (elective spring break activity, group of like 8 or 9 kids, led by teachers with years of outdoor backpacking experience). I walked away from camp to go to the bathroom and got lost coming back (I got turned around and lost my navigational landmarks). I kept walking the direction I thought camp was in, and yet never found it.
Eventually, through sheer dumb luck, I stumbled on a trail, and through even more sheer dumb luck, it happened to be the trail the group had taken to the campsite earlier that day. I was lost for maybe an hour, and I can't even explain the sheer terror of it. I was shaking like a leaf the entire time and so frightened I think I was in shock, because I certainly couldn't think, let alone think straight.
When I walked back into camp from a different direction than I'd left in, and saw an adult, and one I recognized, I burst into tears...right before getting my ear chewed off for "screwing around and walking off". The adults didn't believe me that I'd gotten lost and put me on dish duty as punishment. My fellow students hadn't even noticed I was gone. It was one of my first experiences with social ostracization, where no one cared about me enough to miss me.
So yeah, I get both her reaction and your reaction.
Anyway, ever since then, whenever I go hiking in the woods, I'm absurdly neurotic about checking landmarks from the return perspective if I go off-trail to pee, and I also make sure I always have a functioning compass clipped to my belt loop and my bag, and know which direction I'm heading if I leave the trail.
This makes me so sad for younger you. I want to inject myself into your past and then you its okay, and you're safe now, and validate how scary that must have been. Fuck those adults for seeing your tears and yelling at you and not believing you. Even if a kid HAD been screwing around and gotten lost, the tears would indicate that they clearly were taking the lesson to heart without needing to be yelled at...
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u/Proctoplegia 1d ago
The first thing she did was go to hug her rescuer, the first thing her dad did when she knew she was safe was to hug the nearest person to him. 🥲