Rockhounding is always an adventure going out to remote places looking for precious rocks and minerals.  It is usually done in groups for many reasons, but mostly safety.  A group of us went out into the Mojave Desert seeking what we could find.  We parked our vehicles and set out searching.  We all went in different directions.  Now when you’re searching you are just focused on the ground searching.  I kept walking and searching and then suddenly realized I couldn’t see anyone of the group as I had moved far away.  In the desert it is like these small hills that have a crevice between them, very steep.  I figured if I got to the top of the next hill, I could see them.  I didn’t.  Up and down I went searching for my friends.  I didn’t see them.  I was starting to get fearful as I didn’t even know what direction to go.  It was hot and I had little water in my water bottle.  I knew that was serious.  To prevent becoming too freaked out, I thought of focusing my thoughts on the hunt for minerals instead of the fact I couldn’t find my friends and my water was low.  It helped.  I then remembered that I had taken pictures when I first got out of the car.  I had to find the hill near the cars.  It was tough as they were so similar, but I kept on.  I crawled (and I mean crawled up the hills) a few more times before I found the hill in the picture.  I moved in that direction and climbed another hill.  I looked below and there were my friends, who by the way didn’t miss me.  They were eating and looking at their own finds.  I couldn’t believe they were not aware of my jeopardy.  When we had first stopped our vehicles, we realized that our walkie talkies’ batteries were dead and we didn’t have any other.  It was a valuable lesson.  Always make sure you have batteries for your walkie talkie, and your walkie talkie with you when you go out on some adventure.  It could save someone’s life.