Crashing Stephanie

6 The Tundra

Diary Day 8: We ate the last of the survival rations tonight. We walked past the last valley today, too, and there was nothing but a tundra in front of us. We are heading directly in the west-southwest direction now. The tundra looks so desolate. It is a little scary thinking we must cross all that to get to those mountains. I've been marking the landmarks along our route. I am not sure there will be any landmarks to note out there.

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At the end of day nine, Steph and Tom huddled around a small fire. Having headed across the tundra, they were in a flat and featureless area with no rocks or terrain to protect them from the strong winds.

Tom had dug a shallow hole for their cooking fire. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to start a fire. With very little wood in the area, a small fire was all they could manage. Both knew this was going to be a cold, miserable night. The good news was it had been two days since they had seen the bear.

Steph was concerned that Tom was not getting any better but relieved to see he was not getting any worse.

Steph, on the other hand, felt she was doing very well. Her feet seemed to have toughened, and her boots had worn in, so she was not getting any blisters. The tape she had put on her feet the first couple of days had fallen off and not been replaced. She was still tired after a day of walking but not nearly as sore as she had been.

She had learned to recognize the plants Tom had been harvesting and had pointed them out when he did not seem to notice them. Sometimes, Tom seemed annoyed with her questions, which Steph attributed to his tiredness. She would tread lightly with her questions when he seemed tired and only ask when he appeared to feel better. Other times, Tom would go out of his way to show Steph how to do things.

Tom had pulled a dozen grubs out of a rotting log. The grubs looked disgusting, and Steph felt queasy when he indicated they would be dinner. That night, Tom showed her how to use a stick to push the grub's innards out and then roast the body over the fire. Tom smiled when he told Steph they tasted like chicken. Steph had enjoyed eating escargot in French restaurants, but these white slugs looked more like giant maggots than those tasty snails.

Steph was too hungry, though, not to eat the grubs and was pleasantly surprised they were not as awful as she had expected. Not to say they were good to eat, but they were edible. Tom laughed when Steph said, "I have no idea how you cook your chicken, Tom, but you need to find a different recipe!"

In addition to the grubs and the plants, Tom and Steph drank the broth left over from boiling the plants. The weak broth did not contain many calories, but the warmth in their stomachs was very welcome on such a cold night.

Diary Day 9: Dinner tonight was, well, disgusting. That's all I have to say. Walking was easier today, but this place is desolate—no wonder no one lives here.

As expected, their snares were empty the following day. Tom had been right to stay close to the valleys. On the tundra, there were few edible plants and even fewer animals to catch in their snares. Steph knew there would be little to eat or protection from the elements until they crossed the tundra.

The only positive thing Steph could think of was they were getting closer to those mountains.

Steph asked Tom if he knew how far they had walked, and Tom indicated that it was probably between 90 to 100 miles. But, since they had not been walking straight towards the mountains, the mountains were only perhaps fifty miles closer. Steph looked at Tom and asked, "Seriously? We've walked 90-plus miles! I can't even imagine walking 90 miles!"

Back in the City, Steph would have balked at walking 100 feet unless she was shopping. Walking more than 90 miles was mind-boggling. Then Steph asked the question she really wanted to know - How much further to those mountains?