"Hypothermia is a gradual and insidious sort of trauma. It overtakes you literally by degrees as your body temperature falls and your natural responses grow sluggish and disordered." (Bry220). Bill had heard so may stories of the wilderness. Some good, and others bad. Some of the stories made him kind of nervous to go out in the wilderness alone. He knew what to do in case of an emergency, but he just wanted to be safe. But he went out by himself anyway.
Like Michigan, the weather in the White Mountains (where Bill is hiking now), can change drastically in a few hours. Bill and this other guy were walking together and all of a sudden, the wind started to blow, and it started to get very cold. The guy he was hiking with wondered if they should turn back. But Bill persisted and said it was only a good half hour to the end of today. So they went on. The conditions turned hellish. Winds gusting up to 50 mph. Raining, and very cold. Bill was thinking a few times to jump off the side of the ridge they were walking on and say, "see you on the other side old buddy." But he never did that.
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