Thus a few of you finish packing blankets and bedrolls back onto horses (anyone that hasn't already stated they want to bring a pack animal can still do so) - and all is readied to head into the gnarled marshlands to the west.
You step out at 1000am in the prescribed staggered marching order. The area you enter is still mostly a forest consisting of stunted cedar trees and aspen leafed trees that look a bit unhealthy. As you travel on a mile or so in the ground is quite spongy, gnarled tree roots, pools of dark standing water and thorny brambles make walking in a straight line nigh impossible. You hear the familiar sounds of wildlife but it is mostly the cawing of ravens, and you spy a few chattering dark brown squirrels. Large banana slugs nearly a foot long can be seen with increasing regularity sticking to wet stumps and crossing the ground leaving thier slimy trail.
You stop for a quick lunch around noon and continue on. It is hard to get a vantage in this thick marshy forest. After several more hours of travel in, you find the biting black flys and mosquitos more of a nuisance. A light drizzle begins to fall from the sky adding to your woes.
500pm - your journey is becoming tiresome and you are no longer certain you are traveliing straight west. To the west of your position, perhaps 100 yards/meters through the trees there appears signs of a slight hill and possible clearing.
What are your next actiions?