Being Prepared continued

This story was kind of long so it is a continuation of the last blog, but it gets its own post.

3.)Gas:

This is another one that I am usually very good about, but there was one time recently when a series of events almost ended in me calling for a tow-truck in the middle of the forest. What happened was that I was driving my husband’s car and the gas gauge in it is a little goofy, so the last quarter of the tank goes really fast. I went up to Pine Lake with my friend Sam and we did not think to stop and get gas when we were in Scottville (which has a nice Wesco, by the way, and is usually one of the last towns I see before heading into the Manistee National Forest). We went up US-31 and turned a few times, driving for nearly forty minutes through forest and farm land, seeing no gas stations, and spent the afternoon at Elbow Lake and Pine Lake. Well, the gas gauge went all the way to E and the even lower than that in just a few minutes. We used the GPS to look up a few gas stations and called each of them. Every one within ten miles was closing. See, it was 8:59 PM on a Sunday. Yep. The nearest one that we could find that would be open later was a BP that the GPS had listed on something like 10 ½ Mile Rd, so we decided to make the twelve mile drive or so. Mistake. That gas station does not exist. In fact, the GPS had us go for about twenty-five minutes into the forest and our finish line was in the middle of a two-track with not a gas station in sight! I had to laugh out of frustration, but the worst part was that we had been talking about our own GPSs and how reliable they have been. Yep. Not so much. But the adventure does not end there. We turned around, in the dark, and started back toward Free Soil, knowing that it was our only hope for gas. The gas light came on after a few miles and we had twenty minutes to go, but we had no choice but to keep driving. Finally we were just a few miles outside of Free Soil and we called the gas station to make sure they were open. Nope. The lady said she was just closing. It was 10:59. What kind of luck is this?? We rolled up to the gas station about thirty seconds later and the attendant turned the lights off. I sighed and sat in defeat while Sam went to the window and asked if we could still pump gas really quickly. The lady agreed, we thanked her profusely, and that is why you should have a full tank of gas when you head into the middle of nowhere!

4.) Being Safe

I haven't had any accidents in my hiking, paddling, and camping excursions for many years, but I am prepared for an accident and we try to prevent them. I will admit that we are a little lax about life-jackets sometimes when we are in very still, shallow water, but we always have them handy and wear them on larger lakes, rivers, etc. I have a first aid kit that is always in my gear. We always tell a few people where we are going and keep in touch with them when we can until we head home. Plus, this spring we had a lot of wildfire warnings in Michigan forests because the conditions were hotter than usual, very dry, and windy. Make sure that you follow the park guidelines by putting out your fire completely, using water and stirring it to make sure all of the coals are extinguished.

If you have any other ideas about being prepared, please share!