The bus driver announces "We're here! Everyone off." With a startled jump, Jack pulls himself out of his chair, and retrieves his travel bag. As the bus pulls away, he realizes he doesn't have a clue where he is. Jack places his bag on the ground and searches through it for his pack of gum. There was a strange feel to the air. It was early morning now, and Jack remembers he was supposed to arrive by yesterday evening. Without looking up, Jack realized that perhaps he had made a mistake. Because of his typical nature to be positive, Jack smiles with a sense of adventure, “This might prove to be exciting for me! I really needed something adventurous to happen in my life.” The first thing he noticed was that it was cold for Tecate. “Of course,” he thought, “I do like cold Tecate, but not as a California city. I must have missed my stop.” Jack wondered where he might have ended up. Throwing his bag over his shoulder, Jack started walking toward the station. The town he was in, Jack discovered was called Havre, Montana, according to the broken welcome sign. After pulling out his map, Jack realized he was on the wrong side of the United States. “Guess I’m a heavy sleeper,” Jack sighed. After about ten minutes of unproductive staring, Jack decided to mark the route he would take on his map. The cities that he would stop at would be in pretty much a straight line, from Great Falls Montana on to Butte, then after crossing into Idaho Falls he would follow to Twin Falls, and so on.

After gathering the motivation and vision for his newfound quest, Jack set off toward the closest path heading south, stepping over what seemed to be the droppings of a mule deer. He remembers the turds because his grandfather grew up in Rocky Boys Indian Reservation and spent a great deal of time in the wilderness around that area, and loved to talk about it. His grandfather kept notes on everything he saw, including, unfortunately, all the drug problems that took hold of the Natives in the reservation. Besides being a sort of Native American journalist, Jack remembers his grandfather being a very positive man and easy going man, a man that Jack strives to be like and thinks highly of. After recovering from getting lost in his thoughts, Jack becomes aware that he is no longer on the path he had originally started. Checking the compass at the corner of his wristwatch, he nods his head. “Still South” Jacks exclaims. But where? The trip is probably going to take much longer then he had first imagined. He wondered how he could keep getting lost so easily, or whether it would be like this the entire way back. But either way, he believed there was a reason for his predicament, and he would not give up. He could feel it.

The trees around him were frustrating to him. As he tried to continue South, Jack had trouble heading straight in a line as he was used to doing when finding his way in life, as he always had guidance. Not very often has Jack had to navigate his way through a maze of obstacles on his own, his life has been just one straight line, smooth sailing, with a minimal amount of twists and turns. As he continues to walk he starts to see more and more people. “Oh wonderful!” Jack thinks to himself. He had come across the actual reservation his grandfather had grown up in, Rocky Boys Reservation. As Jack started to become aware just how… not wonderful this place was, he thought about his grandfather and remembered what he had said about the people who lived here.

Full of unawaken peoples with no dreams, no reason to live, seemingly lost, the reservation was a sad sight. “This is why my grandfather left this place,” Jack thought, “He felt lost and needed to find himself.” This is the moment that Jack decided to make this journey a symbolic journey like that his grandfather might have taken. Although his grandfather may not have gone in the same direction that Jack currently must go, he believes this journey has the same purpose for Jack. The journey has the same beginning: a lost fellow in Rocky Boys, knowing of the need to leave but not knowing how to get there. And it will have the same ending as well; a man who has found himself where he needs to be, both metaphorically and well, physically. Jack did not want to be lost forever.

Jack took off south again, this time with lighter feet and not only the sense of adventure, but of hope as well. Jack walked with a feeling of confidence, and though he was not sure what might lie ahead,

he was prepared for it. As he walked he started feeling hungry of course, so he started to remove his hunter’s knife thinking of where he might try to acquire food of some kind. As he ran his fingers along the knife’s edge, he remembered the idea that this journey has a purpose. In Jack’s heightened feelings of pride, he decided not to hunt during his journey, and he would simply gather berries. Jack thought, “I need to have good karma and respect the nature around me on this journey.”

As he continued south, Jack became aware of how hungry he was, having not eaten for at least a full day now. He hadn’t eaten anything since first getting on the bus last night and it was now at least mid-day. Not being used to hunger, he spotted red berries on a bush and ate them, immediately. “These aren’t too sour, so they should be edible.” Jack felt that eating those berries was careless, and he could have consulted the notebook that his grandfather had spent years writing. His grandfather did, after all, spend a lot of time in this area (it would for sure have information on the vegetation), but this was a destined soul searching journey, and Jack certainly would have good karma by not killing anything in the forest. So, Jack was more than sure he would be fine having eaten those berries. Becoming tired now, Jack decided to make his bed in the wilderness, as his grandfather would have done many times before him. He came around a few trees that were covered in moss. Moss is very soft and tells the direction of the sunrise, Jack was remembering as he read it from his grandfather’s book that he was now looking through. It was difficult for Jack to read in the dark, but did not know much about creating shelter, it was never a necessity for him to have to create his own. He decided to look for what his grandfather might have written about the berries that grow around this area. Because couldn’t hardly see, he decided he would be fine, though his stomach did feel somewhat upset, “I should be fine” Jack told himself.

Jack found himself at a beautiful body of water, and knew that he was destined to travel along it somehow. This area is called Idaho falls, as Jack read on a welcome sign along the river’s path. There was even an abandoned kayak about half of a mile from where Jack was standing. He knew this was where he needed to go. He made his way over to the kayak and, smiling, he came to the kayak and put his hands around it. “This is the vehicle* of my journey!” Tossing his small bag behind the seat, he pulled the kayak into the water, he hopped into its bow*. Jack felt a sense of wonder as he paddled away from the wonderful array of trees. He thought about how beautiful the world was. He started to become more aware of his surroundings as he travelled further and further, and this was because he started to truly appreciate every aspect of the nature around him.

Jack continued to paddle through the clear river water, looking in to it at the weeds that curtained the dirt floor. As he was deep in thought, jack contemplated on how he must have gotten in his situation. He tried to imagine why someone would not have woken him. The fact that he was where he is must have a reason, a purpose. Jack believed he had not awakened his soul yet either. This journey has more in depth meaning, he thought, then he had realized. Jack was reflecting deeply, but he lost concentration because he started to feel ill. “I must still be hungry,” Jack thought. Jack reached into his bag and pulled out the berries he had saved. “I didn’t have too much of problem with these earlier, I should still be fine.” He continued to paddle on, when eventually he became sick from the berries. Maybe I should check the notebook after all. these berries might actually not be good for me.” He found his grandfather’s notes and skimmed through the pages. He found something his grandfather wrote that said, “The only food to eat in the Montana is the animals. None of the plant life here is edible.” Jack stared, irritated at himself for trusting his own judgement for something he knew nothing about. Although he had to accept his it, Jack was upset that he made such a mistake without using the information he had available to him.

Jack felt a terrible feeling in his stomach at this point, he got sick from the berries and didn’t pay attention to how far he was leaning, and tipped the kayak upside down. As Jack struggled to get his head out of the way of the kayak and find his head above water, he cried out. He was malnourished and sick,

and was unable to gather the strength to upright the kayak and started to drown. A man who has been looking for his kayak for about an hour now spotted Jack swimming, or struggling to, near the man’s kayak. Jack noticed the man and thought to himself, “This is certainly a part of my soul-searching adventure, my kindness to the forest will be returned with kindness from this man.” Jack felt overwhelmed still, as the ill feeling in his stomach was becoming stronger with each helpless stroke, and Jack had no idea how to swim. Running now, the man dove into the water and raced his way to the kayak, which he righted and climbed inside. With a sour look on his face, the man somewhat glanced at Jack to see what he was doing as he finally retrieved his kayak, and paddled on ahead without looking back.

Jack flurried confused, “This man was supposed to help me” Jack desperately assumed. He had no time to think about why the man might not have decided to help him. He was still drowning, and the pain in his stomach was starting to spread to his muscles as he was thrashing frantically at this point. As he felt his head begin to swirl, he started noticing that the colors around him were greying, and his consciousness was fading. Jack was overwhelmed with frustration and confusion and after a moment, he sunk under. When his feet touched the weeds, and sank further into the rocks that lay below, he started pushing with all his strength toward the left side of the river where he was closest to. Holding his breath but desperate for air, Jack climbed across the rocks through the water. He came upon a large boulder and with extreme panic he clambered up to its top where he could stand and finally get a breath. Panting heavily and his neck stretched upward, Jack could feel his heart beat racing, and didn’t care about how icy cold the water was.

His mind still racing, Jack could not grasp the fact that the man had ignored him. He exclaimed, “I could have died!” Almost to the point of being calm, Jack remembered his bag. Craning his neck to look around, for fear of slipping off the rock prevented him from turning, he saw his bag in the water. It was floating gracefully along, but the contents inside made the drifting seem to Jack like there was a rushing rapid was hasting the bag away. Frozen in fear and chilled to his bones, the only thing Jack could do was watch.

The medication in his bag for his schizophrenia was drifting slowly away from him, and along with it his feeling of security. Most importantly to Jack though, was the notebook from his grandfather. Jack took time, which was all he had at this point, to realize where he was and what his situation meant. “So, I am stuck in the middle of a freezing river, and my belongings are now the river’s,” Jack reflected. He wondered what this meant for his soul-searching journey. This could be a symbolic moment for him, something the world was trying to tell him. He decided, as he wiggled his toes over the smooth rock, that he had become too dependent on material things. He had become dependent on the world and everyone around him he came to realize as well. Jack is tied to his medication, and his grandfather’s notebook, which without them both he would be lost and unable to survive. He had assumed that the kayak was meant for him though it clearly belonged to someone. Jack said to himself, “That wasn’t meant for me… I should have continued walking.” This journey was intended for him to become self-aware and self-reliant, he thought. He made the decision, standing on the teeth of death, that from this day he would no longer live according to others’ rules, and that he would acquire his own wisdom. Jack came to realize that he could have never truly be like his grandfather without making a soul-searching journey as he did over the last week. His grandfather was as observant as he was not because he was always like that, but because he learned to be that way after realizing how beautiful the world was when human sin and expectations and bindings are removed. “You will not know how to live and appreciate this earth until you have experienced it at its rawest natural state” Jack believed.