he was following a path back toward camp hed followed three times already , decided to take a diagonal toward his point , ran into impassable thickets of head high willows and headed back to his original straight line , except that there are no straight lines in the mountains where wild animals wend their way through the overgrowth in patterns that relate to their own seasons , carrying their warmth with them and eating wherever they go , unaware of the needs of men to get back to someplace before dark .