These Boots Are Made For….Helping Lost Girls

I went hiking. Alone. In the Great Sandhills. Three hours later, I found my truck.

Trying my best not to be lazy, I figured I would take a quick drive and snap a few pictures for the Leader Tourism page. There were kids on the close set of dunes, so I followed the path a bit farther down.

Fresh air, beautiful views, alone in my thoughts and dreams. Good idea, Christine.

Cool paw prints, interesting piles of dung, funky spiky plants to take some macro shots of. This was fun!

I wandered around following the paths and walking around the sand instead of on it. Over used travel quotes such as, ” When you come to a fork in the road, take the road less traveled,” came into my head as I continued to snap pictures.

The sun began to go down and I was a bit chilly, so I headed back. Or maybe it wasn’t back, but I thought it was. I walked, and walked, and climbed….

Those thorny plants became less cool. The paw prints became a bit scary. I was cold.

I started to turn in circles, second guessing where I was. Reaching some high ground, I called my husband and told him I was lost. And now in a field of cows. With calves.

He stressed that I must stay away from the cows and told me he was on his way. I attempted to use my GPS, but really wasn’t sure if I had circled past the parking lot, so I stuck to the strategy of finding high ground. I needed to find those boots!

One herd of cows headed away from me, but then a second started running my way!!!. I was tired, but started jogging a bit towards the nearest set of dunes. Climbing to the highest point, I finally saw the boots. FARRRRRRRRRRR across the horizon! Yay!!

Up and down over hills I went, towards the marker. It would go out of sight and I’d veer off track a bit again, but I made my way there, huffing and puffing. A bird flew out of the grass and made me swear out loud. If you know me, you know why that is funny.

My husband couldn’t believe how long it took me to get to the truck after I called to say I saw the boots. Yup, it was a long trek!

I guess the lessons are: don’t hike alone, have a form of contacting others, take water, take lip chap, …and get regular exercise, so you don’t die when an extra long hike is required!

All in all, it was a fun day. I made it home before the sun completely set and I have a story to tell.