Buffalo Poop
One weekend in February of 2000, Tracy and I commenced on what would become an epic trip to the Wichita Mountains. Little did we know, that our "day" trip to the refuge would soon be on the brink of disaster.
During the course of a week at school, you always look forward to the weekend. This is for many reasons, of course, the main one being that there isn't school to be had on most weekends, so therefore you have some time to get out and go do something. I think it was Wednesday and Tracy and I decided that this upcoming weekend we were going to go on Saturday to the Wichita's and go do some climbing just to get out in nature and away from it all. Of course, once I knew climbing was on the agenda within the next week, let alone a few days, I got my gear all together and stuffed in my pack. Saturday morning came and by 9 am we were leaving the University of Oklahoma in Norman and headed out in Tracy's Sundance to the wilderness, which can be found about an hour and a half south east of where we go to school.
On the way down, I had discussed with Tracy the different options we had as to where we wanted to go. We had already been to Mount Scott a few times, and the Narrows once I do believe so I decided that I would show him Elk Slabs and Treasure Cove and the like. We decided that it sounded good, so by 11 o'clock we were out of his car and hiking towards where we intended to climb. However, we had a little trouble finding the stupid place because the map that we had in the guidebook (Oklahoma Climber's Guide...good book btw) didn't really seem apparent at first glance. So we decided just to follow the trail and see where it took us. We passed a few hikers along the way, it was a beautiful day, I remember it being warm enough to have on a t-shirt when out stomping about with a pack on. Eventually though we stumbled upon the backside of Pear and Apple and we figured out where we were. So from there, we continued searching for Treasure Cove which had some quality climbs up there. This of course should have been forshawdowing of what was to later come. However, me being a computer geek, and sitting in front of my computer most the day, I hardly even know what forshadowing is. *grin*
Upon arrival on Treasure Cove, we noticed that in order to get up there, we had to climb over these huge boulders. This was not a problem, as well, it was kinda fun at first, but soon after it became more troublesome trying to move my pack with all the gear in it over these large rocks. At the top, we took a break and had lunch, because by now it was a little past 1 o'clock and we were mighty hungry. We noticed that the weather looked good, and that the scenery almost looked fake in the sun and on the horizon. I guess the bigscreen is getting better at portraying scenery than we had thought. A few guys ran into us up there, they had taken the easier route up...*grrr* but once they got there it was obvious they weren't newbies. They asked us if we were headed to the "house-sized boulders" and if we were going caving. Now you gotta understand, in Oklahoma, we have no caves. So caving to us is sitting under a rock. Haha, well anyhow, these rocks were very good for exploration and had lots of places where you could travel on, over, between and under. We told them that we were headed to go climb and that we might run into them later in the day. Truth be told, we never did run into them again, but heard them a few times from up above. Eventually, Tracy and I arrived at the so called "Chain of Death". Now this chain is a little auspicious when looking at it. It's attached by three bolts. All of which are very crummy and twist EXTREMELY easily in their place. I had the pack on at this point (Tracy and I were alternating who got to look cool hoping over these boulders with the pack on) and well, we harnessed up got out a few slings and went across. It's a ways down, that's for sure. And there isn't anything to hold on to, other than this chain. Which is obvious cause if there were something to hold on to, maybe it wouldn't see so much abuse. But anyhow, we made it across. I would say it was about 50 ft down if you were to slip unroped underneath the appropriately named house-sized boulders.
Soon after, we made it to the wall we were looking for. I think it's called Refuge Rocks wall, I don't have my guidebook with me as I write this so I don't know for sure what it's called. I think the route is called "Home a Lohn" (5.10). Upon reaching the top, we found some bolts that we could top rope into which would make things much easier cause at this point in time, I really didn't have enough pro to lead anything. We clip in and rappel down and get ready to climb. I ask Tracy to do the honors, and he initially discovered that it was a lot sharper rock (meaning it hurt our hands) than the frequently climbed routes of Mount Scott. We switched positions and I began to climb. We had noticed it was super windy up top when clipping in the bolts and rappelling down, however, we didn't know that it was also windy in this cove area as well. I remember getting a lot of crap in my eye. I remembered to chalk up downwind. I found it difficult to find holds along this thing, and in the wind, I kept popping off the rock. And yes, I'm going to blame it on the wind. *smile* So I kind of hopped around on the top rope and climbed up a few routes till eventually I made it up to the chimney. Making it to the chimney I was almost done. However, once I got there I realized that it wasn't just windy out to be windy, it was windy out cause there was a front coming in. And in the flatlands of Oklahoma, if a front comes in, there is nothing to slow it down. So we decided to call it a day. That's right, one climb, one route. And calling it a day. And it only got more pathetic as the day rolled on.
The time was now around 5 pm, cause I remember seeing people walking to their cars in the Sunshine parking lot as we walked over the crest of the "mountain". We decided to hike down the backside because going over the chain of death and down those huge boulders would take a super long time. At this point in the year, the gates at the Wichita Mountains closed at 6 pm. Cause that's about when it gets dark. They are usually pretty good and making the time right around dark. After we got down, Tracy and I joked about the Buffalo's and how much poop they had near the trails. At one point I was following Tracy and he jumped back...I didn't know what it was, but when I looked around him, there were about five buffalo's grazing and kind of in the way of the trail. I had seen some before, during other excursions but nevertheless, they are still a little intimidating, as they should be. We inched our way past them and began to hike faster as fear sat in that Tracy's car would be impounded if it were left there. (we were thinking worst case scenario here) His car was parked in Treasure Cove or Treasure Lake parking lot, I forget which it is called, so we had a ways to go...and that's if we went the right way.
It was now getting dark and we had made it a good ways back, but soon the trail we were following ran out as it went over some rocks. We spotted a trail that looked like the same trail on the other side of the rocks...it continued to head West, when we wanted to go South. This would be what made our night to turn into something we never expected. Soon we found ourselves getting nowhere near anything, and when it gets dark out there in the Wichita's, it get's dark! I busted out my Petzl headlamp that I always carry with me and we used that for guidance and following the trail. However, an hour and a half later, the batteries went dead. Crap.
With the clouds overhead, and the temperature about 50 degrees we were alright for the time being, although we didn't have extra clothes, and we didn't really have any food left. We had about a quart of water, and a few granola bars for munchies. We took a break to access where we were. However, again, on a cloudy night, in the middle of nowhere with no headlight, trying to look at a guidebook was like trying to look through a black void. It became almost useless, and I tried to spot landmarks. Eventually we were so far off course that we didn't know where anything was, and everything that looked like anything, looked like Crab Eyes. (Crab Eyes is a big climb on the west part of the refuge) If this was the case we needed to change directions, so we did. Trekking through branches so thick that you get tangled on and can't get out of, wading over streams, going around trees and other immovable objects was becoming VERY tough sledding and practially useless as we couldn't make ANY time whatsoever. Tracy and I being two very intelligent college students, put our brains together on what to do. We noticed that where we were, there were no buffalo chips laying around. Then we had remembered seeing a lot of them by the trail when we initially came off the mountain. We put two and two together, and realized that if we can find buffalo poop, we can find where the buffalo's walk, and where the buffalo's walk, there must be some sort of a trail, or at least big enough for them to walk on which would be plenty big for us, and there also might be some water, which would help us figure out where we were. Yes folks, we were officially and INTENTIONALLY, looking for buffalo poop.
Ok, in order to save some face here, this plan actually worked pretty good, we were moving faster because we could find our way through the maze of brush a little better than before, and it lead us to a creek. We followed the creek for a while and it lead us to a little mound where I could attempt to use my cell phone. Earlier it had been unable to dial out due to the inclimate weather and not being above the shrubbery. It barely made a connection. I called Ted, who lived in the hall of the dorms, to see what was going on and to tell him that we are OK, and we will be late getting home. Upon having him answer, I can only image what it must have been like on his side of the conversation. With the static and everything in the call, and it almost cutting out, I was basically saying..."Tracy and I are ok...we will be home later....we are safe...don't worry about us." However, in Ted's current state of mind...we had soon found out after him trying to talk to us that he had been doing a little drinking with Ryan...another guy that lived on our hall. And in their state of mind, mixed with the bad reception, our "rescue party" was of no use. We were on our own.
It was nearing 10 pm, and we were getting very tired. The temperature had now dropped to around 40 degrees and with our mild clothing, it felt really cold. So cold, that when we would stop, we would tell ourselves that we had to keep going otherwise we would be really cold. Tracy was really good at telling me to keep going. I just wanted to lay down and sleep, but I know if I did that then I would become a very possible hypothermia victim, with no shelter. We saw a light off in the distance, but there was no way on EARTH we would ever get there, cause it looked a million miles a way. And when it LOOKS far away, it IS even FARTHER away. Again, we put our heads together...this poop idea was good, and as much fun is it yelling, "Poop! There's some over there!" we grew very tired of it, and it was getting us nowhere. The clouds above made it impossible to see anything, however by now, my headlamp had recharged enough to at least turn on. I quickly opened the guidebook to see where we were. We were way off the charts. We didn't know where we were, but everything on the map we couldn't see. However, there was a highway south of the refuge. So, maybe if we just headed south, we would hit the highway. Maybe. My light went out again. Crap.
I found my compass in my pack, luckily I always carry a cheap one of those suckers around, and although it didn't really work too good...it would give us a more indication of where South was than what we thought. It was towards that light we saw. However, when we saw the light we were on a little mound, and when we got back into the thick of the forest, we couldn't see the light...we couldn't see anything. I began to hallucinate. I thought I was elsewhere, it didn't feel like me walking through thorns and twigs...as I got scraped up I didn't feel it anymore...I had put it past me, the coldness was setting in and not being able to see made it even worse as I would hit my head on quite a few things. But we were heading South. And that's all that mattered. We would eventually hit something. And when we finally did...a few hours later...out of water, and out of food, we hit something. It was a motor home looking like house, with a bunch of animals in their fences. We shouted that we were lost and would like some assistance, but nobody stirred from within. We figured nobody just shows up at these houses, so they might be liable to come out with a gun if we knocked on their door. We follwed the dirt road out of their house. We didn't know which way to go...but according to the compass, we knew we wanted to head West, so we took that one. At least there was a light on at this place. After following the road for a bit, we found about a 10 foot high fence at the end of it. We were on gaming land, and no trespassing was allowed. Great...just what we wanted. We scaled the gate, threw the pack over, and continued walking. To our left what we found might of have been the yellow brick road. It was the start of the highway. Yes.
We walked down the highway, and it wasn't too long before we started seeing signs that we were NEARING the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge...which meant that we had walked completely off their land onto who knows what property. But oh well, we were headed in the right direction. Eventually we got to where it was officially the Refuge's land, and we phoned Ted and Ryan again to see what was up. It was past 1 am. Upon making a connection which was hard, we found that they were definitely having much more fun that we were. Ted had almost gotten in a fight with a bunch of black guys which would have been BAD, and they thought the whole situation with me and Tracy was humorous. We hungup.
No cars past us on the highway, and I wouldn't think it's too traveled of a road, however, eventually we saw headlights coming from behind us, and we thought we were saved. As it pulled closer we noticed that it was a police car! Even better! Well, so we thought. As it pulled up to us, we naturally went to the window of the police car. Bad move. The police officer had dogs in the backseat that were barking very loudly, and putting his hand over his gun he told us to get in front of the headlights. Yes sir.
We explained to him our situation. That basically we got lost as hell out there and we were trying to make it back to Tracy's car, which was still hopefully in the parking lot. He told us he had gotten lost up there a few times, but that was all BS, this guy didn't look like he ever went back in there. And besides that, when we walked up close, we noticed he had a pretty young looking girl riding shotgun in a police car. And she wasn't in uniform. It doesn't take an IQ of Einstein to think of what he was up to. He told us that he would go look if the car was still up there, and he used his radio to call us in and report us, and well, he then drove off. He didn't even offer a ride. Tracy and I continued walking. We had been doing it all day, why not continue? About 15 minutes later, he came back saying yes, in fact the Sundance was still in the parking lot, about 4 miles up the road. And then he drove off again. I guess that girl in the car needed to go to the station really urgently...hehe. Yah right.
Eventually Tracy and I made it to his car, where he had old chips in his trunk that were a good month old. No bother they tasted good. We had past a Juvinile place on the way to his car. And I assume the police man might have thought we were escapee's. Oh well, eventually we made it home and through all the bonding experience Tracy and I had we made such observations such as.
1) The clouds above were a good thing, although a clear day would have given some light, they kept the temperature warmer.
2) Following Buffalo Poop might have been the weirdest practical thing we have ever done.
3) Always bring more clothes and food (and batteries) than you might expect...and NEVER forget a compass.
4) Finally, never trust on a police officer to help you.
Well, with this all typed...I am going to post this to my website, haha, hopefully other people will read it and go...boy, these two guys from Oklahoma, sure are idiots. Well, we might be. But we had fun and I can't imagine a life in which you don't get out once in a while in the wilderness and have a little fun. Later.
--Matt
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