ON BEING A MISSING PERSON

About the middle of January I had a call from Ruby and Mimi about doing a canoe camping trip to Chico State Park the weekend of February 9, 10 and 11.  We would camp at a new campsite we had discovered on the last trip there. 

The date approached and I was informed that we would be about twelve people on the trip.  Then Ruby got sick and pulled out.  Hans had company coming that weekend and pulled out.  The people from Alabama couldn’t make it.  A few days before the trip Mimi called and said she was sick and couldn’t go and since she and I were the only ones who knew where the new campsite was I would have to lead the others there.

We were to meet at the South Landing at 11:30 AM on Friday the 9^th.  I learned that Mike and Adrian had left a few days early to do some backpacking before the canoe trip.  I called Darryl and got his answer machine.  He never called back.  I heard from Ritchie who said that he and Jace would arrive Saturday morning at 9:30 AM.  I promised to meet him at the landing to lead him to the campsite.

I left Friday morning in time to get there at the appointed time under normal conditions.  I forgot about the road construction between Hammond and Baton Rouge.  Some delay.  I went to 190 after crossing the river to save time since that is the shorter route.  Construction on 190.  More delays.

When I got to the Chico entrance it was noon.  After dealing with a park employee not too familiar with the computer I got to the landing at 12:15.  There was Adrian’s car and trailer, there was Darryl’s van and there was Dave’s truck but no people.

I unloaded and packed the canoe in a light drizzle with the temperature about 80.  After parking my car right alongside Darryl’s van I started paddling in a light rain.  My thoughts were that if no one knew where the new campsite was they must have gone to the old one so that’s where I headed.  Several anhingas rapidly beat their wings against the water in their hurry to take off and get out of my way.

The South wind was to my back making the going easy.  The rain picked up until it was really coming down hard.  After a while I stopped and bailed the three or four inches of water sloshing around in the bottom of the canoe.  The rain had slowed for a while but then it picked up again with a vengeance coming down in torrents.  Before long I had to bail again.  The wind shifted to the North and it began getting cooler by the minute. 

Finally there was the snag that marked my landmark for the campsite.  I turned and headed toward shore.  No one there.  The sky had darkened, the wind had picked up and it was still raining. There was no way that I would go on paddling around the lake looking for the others.

Hurriedly I set up my tent, crawled in, ate a cliff bar and took a nap.  After a while I awoke.  The rain had slacked so I set up my rain fly, pulled out my chair and got comfortable.  This was the first time in a long while that I had camped alone and I enjoyed it.  Rain drops falling on the water between the moss draped cypress trees created a pleasant scene. It was quiet; it was peaceful.  I meditated.

Saturday morning after a hearty breakfast of grillades and grits I set out for South Landing to meet Ritchie and Jace, Ritchie’s six-year-old son.  It was much colder and there was a fierce North wind that I had to paddle directly into.  I wore polartec with a windbreaker and gloves. The wind was so strong that what was usually a 35 or 40-minute paddle took an hour.  Adrian’s car and trailer were gone.  I wondered about that.   Ritchie and Jace arrived at ten o’clock.  Ritchie jumped out of his car and said: “Mimi wants you to call her, here’s my cell phone.”  She told me that Mike and Adrian left early because Adrian’s down sleeping bag got soaking wet while he was sleeping in his Hennesy Hammock during the heavy rain.  Mike called her and told her that I had not arrived at the park. I guess they didn’t see my car.  She called the house and got my answer machine.  Then she drove to the house discovered my car was gone and she then called Betty, my ex wife.  Martha had just got in from Atlanta and she and Betty went to the police station and put in a missing person report on me. She also told me that Dave knew where the new campsite was and the others were there.

The next morning she called the park when it opened and learned that my car was indeed in the parking lot and the police were notified.

So for a short time I was classified as missing.

I told Ritchie about being set up in a campsite separate from the others and that I was not inclined to move. We decided to go by and visit with the others for a while.  Darryl, Nancy, Dave and Lawrence were glad to see us.  Ritchie and Jace decided they wanted to camp with me.  We told them goodbye and paddled to my site.  Ritchie and Jace got their tent and fly set up and then we had lunch.  After that we all took a nap.

The others making a noisy landing awakened us.  They had come over to take a hike on the trail that came into our site.  We all took the hike and towards the end Jace took the lead, learned to find the blaze markings on the trees and led us safely back into camp.  We watched the other group paddle off and then set about preparing our dinner.

Later we gathered a lot of firewood and stayed warm by a good fire swapping stories about camping trips we had been on.

The next morning we didn’t get up until about eight o’clock.  We had breakfast and then leisurely broke camp. We paddled back to South Landing arriving there at 11:30.  All the others were already gone.

Hulin Robert