Off the Beaten Path

Susan had been an explorer since she was little. Always being mischievous in her adventures, her mother and father seemed like they were always one step behind in trying to keep up with her. This made her tough and able to survive through things that others would likely succumb to.

One time when she was 5, the family was hiking through the woods on a trail about five miles from their home. The trail was windy and had steep inclines and just as steep declines. Through one of these inclines and declines, Susan left the trail to go look at something she found interesting. Her parents didn’t notice she was gone for 30 minutes as they were traversing the trail. When they finally did notice, they circled back to look for her. After hours of searching, they called the police as it was about to get dark. Susan’s father kept searching while the mother stayed with her brother and sister in the car in case she did come back.

As it approached 10 PM they still hadn’t found her. Susan’s father told the family to go home and get the other two kids in bed as he stayed out with the police and those who had volunteered to search for her. When her mother got home, she heard the shower running. She grabbed a baseball bat from the coach’s bag by the front door and walked towards the bathroom. She quickly opened the door ready to swing at whoever was in there. Quickly she let out a sigh of relief as Susan had made it home before they did. Susan’s mother went to the phone, called the police station, and told them they could call off the search as Susan had made it home. One of the many stories that are told during family reunions. It was not funny at the time, but they could laugh about it now.

Now in her 20’s Susan was the explorer of her childhood years and more. She loved to hike and go to places that few people could get to. There was once a story that told about a special tree that was out in the middle of Yellowstone National Park. It didn’t give an exact location but a general location like an entire county to look in. One could say they didn’t want everyone to bombard this tree and destroy it. But if it was real Susan wanted to find it. Some of the descriptions of the terrain led her to different parts of the forest. It was a quiet quest she was on. She could not let the park rangers know what she was doing. Some of the areas she was going to were off-limits to the public. That did not stop her, however.

Through the hikes in Yellowstone, she witnessed some beautiful things that many people would not believe or even think of imagining, but she still couldn’t find this tree. Did it really exist or was this a piece of fiction written by a prankster? She would keep looking though in hopes of one day finding it. She had already been at Yellowstone for an entire week. She had the cabin she was in for another week so there was no rush to pack up and leave. The hard part was hiding her truck from the rangers so they wouldn’t know where she was hiking at. A couple of times during that first week, she had even stayed out in the woods. Not particularly comforting hearing all the wildlife that was out there.

Susan knew of two other places she was going to look and see if she could find this elusive tree. Did the rangers even know about this tree? Did they know where it was? One of the particular places she decided she was going to look was off a trail that was about fifteen miles from the cabin. She wanted to leave her truck there at the cabin but didn’t know how to get there without getting attention or noticed because she wouldn’t be staying on the trail. The Sky Rim trail was a popular trail but also a very difficult trail that many people turned around on or didn’t go the entire way. An eighteen-mile trail that could test even the most physically fit person. Susan had been saving this one for one of the last trails because of the difficulty of it. There was still one place to go if she didn’t find it here, but she felt like this was the better of the two places.

Her plan was to hike through the woods over to the trail. Her GPS would help her stay on track to the location but she would need a lot more than a GPS and willpower for this trip. She was planning on being in the woods for three to 4 days. She packed up her sleeping bag, a single change of clothes, and wet weather gear in case it rained at all. It wasn’t uncommon for storms to roll through during this time of year. And then she started estimating how much food she would need and water. Water was the hardest part. You can’t carry four days of water otherwise it would be weight prohibitive. Thanks to an invention a couple of years prior, she grabbed several life straws for water she might find along the route and grabbed her water bottle that had a life straw in it. She grabbed eight MRE’s so that she could eat twice a day for four days. If she hadn’t found it on the fourth day, she was coming back to the cabin to prepare her trip to go home.

Just before the sun rose on Monday, she locked up the cabin and started walking towards the Sky Rim Trail. It was a good hike on its own. A fifteen-mile trek through the woods just to stay hidden. It would take her three and a half hours to make that trek and then she wouldn’t be getting on the trail itself but getting almost to it and then get to the inside of the trail. It was one big circle and the inside of that trail was going to be a challenge with steep terrain and a very wooded area in most of the off-trail areas.

As she approached the trail, she looked at her GPS to get a complete bearing of her location and try to plot an area where she could cross without being seen. The trail was busy as this was the key time to be on the trail. It was not near the hottest part of the day and was kind of cool. She watched off the trail as groups would walk by. A break finally happened after about waiting 15 minutes so that she could cross. She spent the time drinking some water she had brought along and eaten a snack she had.

As she crossed the path, it immediately became very thick and very hard to traverse. Susan spent about two hours getting through this thickly wooded area and finally came to a creek that was heading away from the trail. She walked along this creek for some way. It made it easier to traverse the thick forest underbrush. There was a small clearing to the right side, so she decided to jump up there and create a camp for the night. It was already beginning to get dark. She didn’t want to be setting up in complete darkness. After setting up, she grabbed an MRE and having already filled her water bottle up several times did so again. These MRE’s weren’t the best food but they kept you alive.

The next morning, she packed up. Sitting on her backpack she looked at the map and looked at her location on the GPS. She was about three miles from this location that was in between where three creeks ended. This is the main spot she wanted to look at. With these three creeks so close to each other why did they all stop right here? What was this spot hiding? These areas were so rarely traveled that these creeks should have joined together as they flowed. She followed the creek she had been on until there was not a creek anymore. Where was this water going? It just stopped. Susan walked a little further and noticed this wide-open clearing with the greenest grass you have ever seen. And it looked freshly cut. But how? No one would have been able to bring a lawnmower out here. She looked around in the clearing and was just amazed. In the distance, she saw a couple of bison walking around. She wouldn’t be bothering them though. She was looking for this special tree.

She didn’t see anything in this clearing. What a disappointment she surely figured it would be here. She looked at the map and started to walk towards the other creek that was to the north. It was on the north side of the clearing. As she kept walking and then suddenly, she started to see some twinkling. There was a row of trees that were blocking her view to whatever this was. She started walking towards it. Could this be it?

As she grew closer her anticipation grew stronger. She could feel that this was going to be the special tree she had been looking for all this time. As she arrived at the line of trees she could see it. It was so beautiful only a tree like this could be in a dream. She walked right up to it and there it was the most beautiful pear tree she had ever seen. The fruit looked so awesome and never disturbed.

She picked a pear off of the tree and it looked like some fruit out of a sci-fi movie. It was incredible. She was still in shock that she had found exactly what she was looking for. Before taking a bit of this beautiful pear, she grabbed her phone and took a picture of the tree. Then she sat down leaning up against it and took a bite out of that pear. Then another bite, and another. She had been working hard to find this tree. Unbelievable she thought to herself. She decided to just lean back against this beautiful tree and take a nap.

Startled she woke up. Laying there in her bed, it took her a moment to realize she was at home. But how did she get here? She had been out in the woods or so she thought. Then she thought of the tree and pear she had eaten. Was it real? Wait her phone. She grabbed her phone to look at the photos she had taken. But there was no photo of that beautiful pear tree. What happened? And why isn’t the photo on her phone?

Susan pondered and thought about the hard work she had put in to find this tree. Having found it, it was like she was never there but imagined the whole thing. She knew where she was taking her next road trip to. Would it end up the same or would she finally be able to lay eyes on that tree?

**********************************************************************

Thank you for reading my story. I am very appreciative of you for taking the time to come here and read this story. If you have enjoyed this story, please click the like button. If you would like to be notified when I write other stories, please follow me, and always feel free to share this story with others. Tips are always welcome but never expected or required.

You can also follow me on Twitter: @bedtim3stories