The first time I hunted in Alaska, my buddy and I got lost. We had spotted two big bull moose in a shoving match and without really thinking about it,took off after them. We never saw them again, but did manage to get turned around in the trees. We both carried compasses and flashlights, but couldn't make sense of where North read on the compass and where the sun set in the west. We were in the Mulchatna River area, and fairly far north.
After climbing the wrong ridge and going to the wrong lake, we gave up. It was dark out and we didn't have a clue. All our landmarks were gone in the darkness and we didn't know if we'd gone too far right, or too far left. We always carry backpacks with survival gear, so that wasn't a big deal to spend the night. We started a fire and gathered a big pile of wood. We wore hip boots, and if anybody has any experience with them, you know that after a day of hiking, your feet are soaking wet from perspiring. We took off our hip boots and laid out our socks to dry next to the fire.
Sometime early in the morning, my buddy woke up screaming "FIRE!" That got my attention and I woke up in a run going in the oposite direction. Turned out that my socks had cought on fire and were flaming pretty good!!!!
Eddie
