Bushwhack eBook Trailer Part One
Bushwhack – the eBook Trailer
Human nature, in its most raw and desperate form, is to survive; at any cost. What we did to ourselves, and to each other, in order to stay alive out in the dark and cold depths of the forest shocked and shamed us to our very cores. The out-of-control events changed us. Forever. For now we know how high the cost of surviving can be, and that we were willing to pay the price; even if it meant someone else did not survive as a consequence.
Three women, six men, and one dog, set out on a good-intentioned, multi-day, off-trail hiking adventure. Laughing, joking, even flirting with each other, it all starts out so well. Until… well, you’ll have to read it to find out.
To experience this book as intended, as a serial story, please read only one chapter per day, if you can resist the temptation.
Originally posted as a serial trip report to an online hiking club’s message board, the tragedy takes place in the raw and untamed wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. It was posted at the rate of a couple of sections per week. As the story unfolded, the readers had the unique opportunity to respond to the ongoing story with comments; their comments also being posted to the online message board, along with the story.
Some readers urged me on. Others demanded that I stop posting the short chapters of the story. Still others pleaded with the message board authorities to shut the story down and delete the entire thread. Some people loved the short, periodically-posted chapters, complete with cliff-hanger endings. Others hated the format and wanted it all at once, when completed in its entirety.
The trip report invoked quite an emotional literary response from many of the readers. The comments posted by the readers of this serial story are entertainment in themselves; they range from pleasant words of encouragement to outright condemnation of the story, and of the storyteller himself. In time, after failing to get satisfaction, the readers turned on each other. Surprisingly, more readers were concerned with the fate of Bully, the dog in the trip report, rather than the human participants.
Bushwhack eBook Trailer Part Two
eBook Trailer – Preview
Posted by gchicalo – August 15, 2007 : 12:50 PM
The events of the summer of 2004 left me badly shaken and emotionally spent. It is only now, three agonizing years later, which I can hope to tell the story. I was cautioned not to write this trip report too soon after surviving the tragedy as time would be needed to gain an accurate perspective on what actually did happen. What did occur during those fateful eight days is still as crystal clear in my mind as if it all happened yesterday. The painful memories still haunt me day and night, with no sign of fading. Perhaps time does not heal all after all.
My sincerest condolences to the friends, family and loved ones of those who did not make it home. This is a story that I believe needs to be told and my apologies to those who do not feel this way. My intent is not to offend, nor do I place blame at anyone’s feet. We were all subjected to strong influences that were not of our control, and we all acted accordingly. Those who were not there have little hope of understanding our actions completely. Those who were there did what they had to do and I will leave it at that.
While participating in the events of this story I learned much about the strengths, weaknesses, and limitations, of both men and women, but at a terrible cost. Much of what I learned surprised and shocked me to the core and still I fail to find reasons for the way people acted (and what they did to each other) on this adventure; myself not excluded. Humans are capable of great good, and of terrible evil, when presented with circumstances that force them to commit deeds like as the ones described in this rendering of past out-of-control events. I suggest to you that we can all learn from the trip report you are about to read for it all started out so normal, so usual, and so very typical. Perhaps these are the reasons that things went so very wrong; we expected nothing out of the ordinary and were completely unprepared when the extraordinary presented itself. I do not mean to cause you unwarranted paranoia, but prepare and proceed with caution whenever you leave the relative safety and comforts of civilization.
For my own legal protection and to shelter the feelings and sensitivities of those who survived this horrible tragedy, as well as the families and loved ones of those who did not, real names will not be disclosed. Also, I will not mention the specific location where this disaster took place in order to further mask the identities of those who where there; I know there are those out there who still wish to hide within their self-perceived shame and guilt. I do not blame them for wanting to remain anonymous as some of the acts committed were not to be proud of. At the risk of being shelved with those authors who write to heal, here is the trip report.