Stan’s Blog

On OctoberFest weekend on Friday night, Laura had not arrived yet and I went to bed about midnight. The night was chilly and it took a while for me to get warm under the sleeping bag. So I was in a light sleep when I was awakened by a noise way out in the woods that sounded like someone yelling something. I tried to listen but started to fall back asleep when I heard a call that maybe was someone crying for help, but I wasn’t sure. I sat up and listened for a while but did not hear anything else. I laid down and kept listening more attentively. A minute or so later It came again. A childs cry from off in the woods saying “Help me“. This woke me up. I got up and while I was getting dressed he called again “I need Hel-l-l-p-p-p-p“. I got my shoes on and found my good flashlight and started walking down the path in the direction of the call. I figured it would be better to find out what the problem was quickly rather than wake up a bunch of people to go find a kid lost in the woods. I had my Cell phone to call for help if I needed to. As I hiked in the voices direction, he yelled some more “Somebody come help me“, this was in a very anguished voice. I yelled out into the night “Keep calm, I am coming“. I hiked on some more and came upon a tent that was lit up from the inside. I called out “I am here, what is wrong?” The kids voice yelled out “I need help, the zipper is stuck“. I went around to the other side of the tent and sure enough, the doors zipper was caught in the storm flap. I asked the kid, “I guess you need to go to the bathroom?”, “Yessss” said the kid. He was about 12 years old. It took me a while to unstick the zipper and open the tent door. I asked the boy if he had any other problems and he said no. I guess that his father was still hanging out around the camp fire. I hiked back to my tent, got undressed and it took a while to get warmed up in the sleeping bag so I could fall asleep.