Our RON (Remain-Over-Night) is hidden well up the mountain in a draw, deep in the tangled nightmare of a laurel thicket, known to the locals as an “Ivy Hell”. The name speaks for itself.
Andy spotted the potential location as the four of us patrolled slowly following the spur northwest, first in a diamond formation then later, as the trees and vegetation thickened, into a Ranger file formation, down from the ridge line of the mountain behind us.
Andy was walking point and, as the compass man, reading the terrain and keeping us on course. Al, the second man in the patrol, was keeping the pace count. Andy noted, as he frequently looked back, that Al was maintaining a good interval far enough back to be just barely visible to Andy.
Passing the large laurel thicket about 500 meters down in the draw he stopped, turned to Al, and made eye contact with him. Andy slowly raised his support hand to shoulder level, palm open, fingers pointed up, and moved them in a tight circular motion, then pointed to the thicket. Rally point.
