The Winding Northward Road

by Rambling Writer

Day 26

Success! I made it off the shelf and am on my way again.

It happened while I was trying to knock over some trees to try to bridge the gorge or something. I was bucking some, but they weren’t budging. Then one of them sounded a bit odd. I tapped it, listening closely, and it sounded hollow. If it’s hollow, it should be dead, right? So I started digging around and under it, trying to uproot it.

It took most of the day, but I finally managed to get it down early afternoon. The taproot was the biggest problem, but the tree must’ve been dead for so long that it was relatively thin. So once I had the tree down, I dragged it over to the gorge (yes, alone, I’m stronger than I look). It took a little while, but I soon found a place probably narrow enough for me to maybe bridge the gap.

Then came the hard part: getting the tree over the gorge. Alone. (I’m not THAT much stronger.) I tried to lift it and slowly move it horizontally over the ravine, but I knew before I was a quarter of the way over that that wouldn’t work; the tree would overbalance, fall, and drag me down with it. It didn’t change even when I altered my technique.

The idea that worked came to me in a flash, as I was trying to rest from my most recent attempt. I dug basically a small pit near the edge, jammed one end of the tree in there, and used that as an anchor point to stand it up from the other side. Got it standing up straight after a few tries, then tipped it over to the other side.

Worked like a charm. The tree bridged the gap easily (at least five feet to spare on both sides), and it even hit the other side hard enough to get wedged in and be steady as I crossed it. And it was VERY steady, because I tested it five or six times before setting a hoof on there, just to be positively absolutely surely surely sure that it wouldn’t roll out from under me.

Crossing was a bit tricky, the tree was kinda narrow, but I just kept my eyes on the other side and tried not to think about the roiling waters I could fall in. Slipped slightly once, but nothing too bad. Started walking near the edge of the lower cliff as soon as I was across, and found a gentle-ish slope down quickly. Ran down it, and now I’m on the road again. Thank Celestia.

Still following the stream I was following before. Going to be a bit more careful when climbing down cliffs, but it looks like the land’s leveling out and there aren’t any big ones like that anymore. I can only hope; don’t want to get stuck again just after I got out of that. Still plenty of trees, though. The map I had is useless now, so I don’t know where I’m going.

Did a lot of work today; going to sleep deeply tonight.

Throughout my trials,

I persevere, I prevail.

I will not be b

I will never break.