buddy system

One of the major safety rules of being outdoors is “always have a buddy”. If you’re by yourself and something happens, you can get into a lot of trouble. And you can’t always depend on a cell phone to bail you out.

I have not always had a buddy when I was out doing fieldwork. As a result, I have enough experiences that I can fill an entire week of blogging “times I really wish I had a buddy”.

So, this week is the week of “oh, shit, I’m by myself out here”. Today I nominate this post from last week.

I didn’t go into a lot of detail in the post because, well, I was in the field and it had been a long day. But after I heard shots less than a mile away, I did stop and think, “what am I doing out here?”.

I was actually on a private gravel road (cold comfort, considering that I found shotgun shells on the road), so I moved the truck so that it was right next to me. I figured that I may be mistaken for a deer, but that a nice shiny vehicle wouldn’t be. Right?

Of course, the way to avoid some of this angst would have been to put on a traffic vest or something else bright/very reflective. But I had just recently cleaned out my backpack and chucked the vest. Silly me…why would I need a traffic vest out in the middle of nowhere?...

Incidentally, if you’re walking around the woods in turkey-hunting season, never, never tuck a red bandanna into the pocket of your pants. Especially if you’re wearing jeans and have a dark top. From a hundred yards or so through the brush, you will be a dead ringer for a turkey.