But it didn’t matter how overwhelmed she was or how she felt. She had no choice. Bart was in trouble and she was his only hope.
The last conversation with Silas related to communications. What if she needed to stay with Bart for a longer period, say more than a week? It was not going to be acceptable for the Summer’s End team to sit around for two or three weeks wondering if she was okay. And Molly might not be in a position to leave Bart. Finally, worst case scenario, she might need to order an emergency airlift. Silas pulled out a small leather collar with a message packet and fastened it around Shadow’s neck.
“I’ve had this for years. It belonged to Skunker. Remember Skunker?”
“Of course.” Skunker was Silas’ long time black lab who mysteriously disappeared one day most likely to coyotes or wolves.
“If you’re going to have to stay more than five days, you need to send Shadow and Bear down here with a message. If it’s a twenty hour trip for you with a mule, it’s a five hour trip for those two dogs, and Bear knows the way. You’re going to write a message, put it in Shadow’s collar, and send both dogs to me. They should go together. Bear knows the way. One alone might get attacked, but not the two of them together.”
“Okay, well, we better do a practice run on this,” Molly said. “Can you get me a piece of paper?”
Silas went into his office and returned with a piece of paper.
Molly knelt down with Bear and Shadow and pointed to Silas. “This is Silas. This is Silas. This is Silas.” Both dogs barked their understanding. Shadow knew who Silas was.
“Okay, Silas, go sit in your office.”
Molly walked Bear and Shadow out beyond the corral, knelt down, and held the paper in front of Shadow’s nose. “Shadow, take this paper to Silas.” Shadow immediately barked her understanding. Molly folded the paper and inserted it into the collar.
“Okay, Shadow, take the paper to Silas.”
Shadow and Bear immediately took off for Silas’ Office, Molly following. She watched as both dogs trotted in and sat down in front of him. Silas gave them each a treat, opened the collar, took the paper out, wrote on it, and held it in front of Shadow’s nose, gesturing for Molly to go hide someplace.
She waited behind the corral until both dogs trotted up with a message from Silas.
Evelyn, Betsy, Silas, and Becky walked Molly and her team to the trailhead that led into the Pasayten Wilderness. It was 10:20. They’d prepared and packed in three hours. There were hugs all around, but no words.
Molly was emotional, heart pounding, stomach a mess, and her throat and mouth dry. Every emotion she had was wildly running through her body. Unable to say anything, she turned and led Buddy up the trail, Bear setting an aggressive pace, Shadow at his side.
Molly had no idea where she was going or how long it would take her to get there. Her instinct was to walk through the night, but that wouldn’t work with the mule. Buddy would need rest, food, and water. So she assumed the team would be sleeping at least one night. She wished now she’d asked Bart more about where he lived, but she hadn’t. She’d always assumed it was at least two days but not more than three. But she didn’t know that. In fact, she had no idea.
The team established a good pace between three and four miles an hour. If they walked for ten hours, with breaks, they could cover thirty miles. That would be a very aggressive day, but that was Molly’s goal. There were mile markers on the main trail that helped her track progress. She was working from the mostdetailed map of the Pasayten that included coordinates in case she needed to call for an airlift.
One advantage of the mule was that Molly did not have to carry a backpack. That allowed her to maintain a faster pace and conserve resources. Buddy was strong, one of Silas’ best, and he kept pace with ease. He was used to horse expeditions into the back country. She wanted to make sure to keep him fed and hydrated. She didn’t need mule trouble.
Molly couldn’t stop thinking about the range of possibilities discussed with Silas. Something had happened to Bart. Something so serious that Bear had made a decision to come for help. That necessarily meant he was incapacitated in some way. She knew that could include the possibility that he was no longer living. She shuddered at that scenario but chose not to dwell on it. She had no control over that. No sense in wasting that emotional energy.
The basic scenarios her team had tried to prepare her for were what you’d expect living off the grid in the wild: an animal attack, most likely bear, cougar, or wolves; a bad fall off a cliff or precipice with serious injuries; a tree felling accident pinning him under a log; a fire leaving him burned and incapacitated; the full range of medical emergencies including appendicitis, stroke, heart attack, aneurism, flu, or pneumonia; an infection that could neutralize movement or limbs; a simple fall hitting his head on a rock or the corner of the stove, causing blood clots or trauma. Was he diabetic? Analeptic? Epileptic?
How long had he been incapacitated? It helped that Silas had speculated that Bear could probably make the trip in five or six hours. Maybe the event just happened last night and Bear hadrun out overnight. If Molly pressed forward, she could be there in twenty-four to forty-eight hours. It caused her to quicken her pace. She didn’t want to stop for the night, but she knew she’d have too.
She forced her team to rest every three hours for energy treats and fresh water.
The team had been walking an aggressive pace for ten hours on the main trail, but night was falling when Bear unexpectedly steered them down a narrow animal trail. They’d just passed mile marker thirty three. Molly was pleased with the day’s progress. She doubted that Bart walked over thirty miles in a day, but she didn’t know. She trusted Bear to know where he was going.
After about a hundred yards, Bear stopped at a natural campground by a stream, sitting down to bark. It looked like a place where Bart might spend the night. Her team was tired, and night was falling. She needed to get the load off Buddy and let him rest for at least eight hours. She unloaded him, laid out a generous bucket of food and water, tied him to a tree near wild grass, and put out bowls for Bear and Shadow.
She pulled out a container of mac and cheese that Evelyn had packed. Good, old fashioned carbohydrates. Too tired to heat it up, she ate it cold. She pitched a tiny one person tent, unrolled a sleeping bag, and climbed inside. She was asleep in minutes, her German Shepherds on guard for the night.
She awoke to the same sound as the morning before, Bear and Shadow barking. She peeked out her tent. All was okay. They were just telling her it was time to hit the trail.
She lit a portable stove to make a pot of coffee. After packing her sleeping bag and tent, she refilled the water containers from the creek. She ate a large bowl of cold oatmeal, drank a cup of strong coffee, fed and packed Buddy, got a bowl of meal for the dogs, and followed Bear back to the main trail where they resumed their pace at 7:00.
It was cool, crisp, and clear. Molly loved being in the mountains in the fall. It was a treat not to be carrying a backpack. Walking felt good. It was beautiful and quiet. She understood how Bart liked being up here. She just wished the circumstances were different.
Most on her mind now was how long this journey was going to be and what she would find when she got there. Would they arrive at Dark Hollow today or would they have another night on the trail? They were still on the main trail over thirty miles into the Pasayten. She knew at some point Bear would be veering off. She had no idea when that would happen or how long the diversion would be. She just knew that Bart said Dark Hollow was near no trails, and there was no possibility of being discovered by wilderness hikers.
They walked the main trail for five hours on the second day before Bear stopped and started barking.
