Incident On the Trail

Dave Paquin and I were prospecting next to the Colorado River some years ago, I had about 25 lbs of samples in a sack slung over my back as we hiked our way back to the riverside camp. While this was comfortable for me, carrying anything heavy in the hands for any distance is painful, it made me top heavy. As we walked along close to the camp in the blow torched like desert, I noticed a small rock near my left foot. I stooped over to pick it up, but found that I was well on the way to a one point landing, my nose, as the 25 lbs shifted forward unexpectedly against my neck as I bent forward. I had to violently thrust myself backward with my legs to stop my forward momentum, which stopped my nose point landing but I was now falling backwards and I landed with a profound loss of dignity on my butt. Dave, of course, was somewhat perplexed and amused at this odd behavior of his prospecting partner. I got back on my feet, put the sack down and pick up my object of interest, a small Jasper pebble, showed Dave, who still had a silly grin on his face, then I tossed the pebble. On we went to camp, the incident on the trail was to be told at my expense at our next miners meeting. By then, the bruise I got from my I-bar jamming into my ribs had disappeared, as usual, I had it slipped into the web belt of my fanny pack when I was prospecting.