I lost Matthew today. He follows me as we hike, in other words, I set the pace for us. Today he stopped to take a “nature break” and I continued on. I didn’t know he wasn’t behind me because my hearing isn’t so good. This has happened before and previously he would appear in a minute or two. Today I got to a turn-off toward the road walk and waited for 10 minutes and Matthew did not appear. So I walked back south on the trail for 15 minutes (one half mile), calling out and still no Matthew. Hmmm, that’s strange. So I turned around and walked north back to the road walk turn-off. When I almost was there here comes Matthew walking back down south on the trail towards me. I was surprised that somehow he had gotten passed me. Later I found out that he had gone down the wrong trail and had totally gotten turned around such that when he came upon me he thought that he was going north when he was actually going south. As a result we could have totally lost each other. That was a really scary thought since we’re out in the middle of nowhere.

To insure this not happen again Matthew will tell me when he’s dropping back or stopping. I will not continue beyond the next junction or turn-off, and if I walk back on the trail I’ll leave my backpack behind on the trail so he knows I was there.