BOOTPRINTS IN THE MUD
I work at ANASAZI Foundation, a wilderness therapy program for at-risk youth. As part of my work, I make frequent visits to the trail to counsel with the YoungWalkers. On a cloudy, moonless winter night, I was making my way back to a vehicle after a full day of good work out on the trail. We had received a little rain during the day, which explained the thick mist and the muddy clay that clung to my boots. The mist and the mud made me particularly grateful for the light from my headlamp.
I had some trouble finding the path that would lead me where I wanted to go, but I knew that there were others who had likely traveled that path so I continued to survey the soft ground for the prints of their boots. I began to doubt myself and wonder if I should just follow my own tracks back and start over.
Just as I was about to give up I found the evidence I was looking for: boot prints in the mud. There I stopped and built a small rock cairn to help reassure the others that would later be making this same journey.
I started having thoughts that were saying “it’s been kind of a long time; I think we should be there by now” and “the way that tree is growing around that boulder seems kind of familiar” but I elbowed them out of my way. With renewed confidence I lengthened my stride and quickened my pace. My lunch was back at the vehicle and I was getting hungry. I walked on.
Glancing up, I noticed that there were stars beginning to peek through the growing gaps in the clouds, and that there was a little wind that, with a little luck, might clear the mist away. For a brief but blissful moment, I walked along while my senses drank in the sights, sounds and smells of the desert night. I thought to congratulate myself on being such a competent wilderness traveler, but that thought was abruptly annihilated as I glanced down to find that little rock cairn I had built earlier.
I stood there stunned in disbelief.
Three facts stabbed my brain like cactus spines: Fact 1: I had been walking around in circles following my own footprints. Fact 2: I was indeed lost. Fact 3: I was most definitely not as competent as I thought I was in terms of wilderness travel.
I shook my fists at the sky and shouted, “NOOOOO!” just like they do on the movies. (I always wanted to do that) I dramatically collapsed to my knees in the mud and dropped my chin to my chest. Then, in a moment of perfect anti-climax, I heard a friendly, “hee-yoo.” I swiveled around and saw a pair of headlamps about a stone’s throw away happily bobbing through the trees. I was not even close to where I needed to be, but I was guided to safety by one who knew that path.
WALKING IN CIRCLES
I have wondered since that experience about that sensation of walking around in circles. It seems so common and as I shared my story I was hard pressed to find someone without a similar experience to relate. It seems that since the times of our ancient ancestors we have noticed and discussed the phenomenon of feeling as though we must be walking around in circles when we are lost.
In 2009, a group of German scientists decided to test this common belief with empirical data. Subjects were asked to walk in a straight trajectory in various conditions and courses and tracked their path by GPS. Their data showed that “participants repeatedly walked in circles when they could not see the sun. Conversely, when the sun was visible, participants sometimes veered from a straight course but did not walk in circles.” (J. Souman et al)
These findings have been duplicated many times over and even made it onto an episode of the TV show Mythbusters, I am told. Whether our vision is completely eliminated and we are in total darkness or even if it is merely limited to the space immediately around us—as in a white-out blizzard or fog bank or using a flashlight in the dark—our natural tendency is to not only veer off course but to actually double back and start walking in circles. But when subjects can see the sun they do much better; and if they use landmarks they are almost guaranteed a successful walk on a straight path.
At ANASAZI, we talk a lot about the difference between walking backward and walking forward as we make our walking through the wilderness as well as through our lives. It seems to me that this kind of circle walking is perhaps the most dangerous way to walk backward. After all, what could be more insidious than to disguise walking backward as a heroic walking forward? As in my story, we may have a worthy cause, evidence that others have also come this way. We may even have a little of our own light. But without the light of the Sun, (or “the Great Light” as we sometimes say) we are all prone to wander in circles ultimately alone in the darkness.
“We need help from above if we are to make progress in our journeys. So we begin each day’s walk after the great light illuminates the terrain around us. In this we are wise in the walking of our feet.” From THE SEVEN PATHS
I am Fired Earth Eagle
I have spoken.
