faster with age

Left early for the Frank Church River Of No Return Wilderness for a 4 day 50 mile backpack trip. I went with the young mens group in our ward 14 to 18 year old boys. After a 5 1/2 mile drive [of which the last 2 hours was on dirt road], we reached the trail head and  backpacked in 7 miles to a lake where we set up camp. Gorgeous country with every bit of our hiking above 8,000 feet elevation and most around 9,000.

     This morning we took off on a 21 mile round trip hike out to Goat Lake and back. Since we were coming back to the same campsite we only took light packs with supplies for the day. I told everybody to pack a jacket before we left knowing that even though the weather looked nice it could change in a hurry and we would be a long ways from camp. 

     As we got closer to the lake, we wound up in 2 main groups. Some of the boys and leaders were a little slower and didn't know if they could make it all the way to the lake before turning back. One of our leaders had brought along a friend named Ben. He was 26 and just returned 3 months ago from deployment in Afganistan. He runs some and has done some Ragnar Relays.

     As we got closer to the lake he had fallen back from the group a bit. I know he already had some terrible blisters before we had started out that morning. We got to the lake and spent about 2 hours. The last 1 1/4 miles to the lake is a steep decent from 9,400 feet to 8,000 ft. It was daunting to look down at the lake at the end of that already long hike and know you'd have to climb all the way back out of there. So we were not surprised when the slower group nor Ben joined us. We were actually hoping they would turn back early.While we were at the lake we built a fire and cooked lunch along with a 16 inch cutthroat trout I had caught. While we were there a storm moved in and rained and hailed for about 40 minutes.

     When we all got back to camp that evening, We realized Ben wasn't with us. My son and I and 2 other boys had been in the lead coming back and had caught some of the slow group. When we discussed it later Ben had never caught up to them so we realized he must have been clear out by Goat Lake when he was last on the trail. We were all thoroughly exhausted and only had about an hour before dark. All we could do was hope that he came in.

     It got dark and he never made it. Then it started to thunder and lightning. It got colder and started to rain.  I knew he didn't have a jacket because that morning just after I told everyone to bring jackets I overheard him say he wasn't bringing one however there had been 2 guys [a father and son] on horseback that we had seen up on the rim overlooking the lake just after we had gotten down to the lake. They had just looked off the rim for a bit and then left before descending. When we were leaving the lake, my son and another boy who had climbed to the rim first, ran into this pair on horses who had come back down the trail to look for a poncho they had lost. They had seen Ben the first time they had come and he had taken their picture for them. They figure Ben had picked up the poncho since he was the only other person out there. They told my son where we could meet tomorrow to get it back. This information was now much more important than it was earlier when they first talked. If he had a poncho it could mean the difference of life and death. It would be tough to survive the night soaking wet in a short sleeved T-shirt with the temperature dropping below freezing by morning.

     Morning came and it seemed like winter with all of the frozen hail covering the ground. Half of the group had been up by the fire since 2:00 AM after the rain had stopped because there was so much water that it had just flowed right under a lot of the tents and soaked their sleeping bags.

     Me and 3 other leaders took off first thing to go back out and search for him. We left instructions with 2 of the boys to hike out to the trail head if they hadn't heard anything by 10:00. Two of the leaders went all the way to the lake hollering for him all the way. 

the other leader and me went most of the way out but spent time searching below cliffs and possible spots he could have fallen. We returned to camp pretty exhausted by about 4 o'clock having found nothing.

     They were able to contact a ranger already in the back country that had been camped about 5 miles away and had packed up camp and moved to where we were after being called. He had a radio so now we had outside communication. A helicopter came in and searched for a while until it got low on fuel and didn't turn up anything. 

     It was getting late and the 2 boys that had gone to the trail head hadn't  returned. One of the boys and I headed back down the trail to meet them. We weren't sure if they had flashlights . The ranger had held them quite a while in case they had questions so they were making the return trip later than expected. We were surprised to not run into them right away and the farther we got the more worried we became. We couldn't just turn back without finding them and I was afraid we may have to go the full 7 miles to the trail head.

     About halfway [3 1/2 miles in] we passed a fork that they could have taken. I started to notice 2 different shoe prints in the trail that I hadn't seen before the fork. They matched about what I thought the boys were wearing. I went back to the fork and took the other trail for a ways and determined the same tracks had gone that way. I hadn't seen a map and didn't know the trails in the area but there was a sign that said welcome lake the way they had gone, and there was also a fork by our camp that said welcome lake so I knew it was possible to get back that way.

     We hiked back to camp in the dark hoping to find them at camp. We got there and found them at camp in bed. Whew! for a while there I was worried about having 2 boys lost too. Somebody at the trail head had told them about the other route and they had decided to take it for a change of scenery.

     Another 7 mile hike just before bedtime was just what I needed.

     We woke up now for the second morning with ice on the ground and Ben still missing somewhere in the wilderness. Knowing he could be dead or alive and possibly never found in that vast back country. This is the largest block of roadless back country in the lower 48 states.

     Today was the day we were planning to pack out and needed to get boys home. It was hard to not be able to do something but with the search area 10 miles away it was all you could do on foot to just get there and back like we did the day before let alone do much of a search while you were out there.

     We were instructed to wait for a sheriff and some searchers that were coming in on horseback. They asked us some questions then headed in to search. They had no gear to spend the night and at their slow pace I doubted they would even make it all the way in before they would have to turn back. It didn't appear they could do anything we hadn't done yesterday. They told us the best bet was a National Guard helicopter with infrared heat sensing that would be coming in after dark.

     It was very hard to leave without him but we divided up his tent and gear and pack to carry out and left. When we got to the trail head, the member of our group that was his friend decided to stay behind where he could get updates. We piled 14 boys and men into the other 2 vehicles and headed home.

     About 20 minutes before we got home we got a phone call and got the word that a helicopter had spotted him and they thought they could get to him that night. They dropped him some food and supplies. The sheriff said they had no way to get to him on horseback and the helicopter had no place to land. They called in a National Gaurd helicopter that ended up winching him up with a cable.They took him to the hospital in Salmon and checked him out and released him.

     He later said that he had sat out the afternoon rainstorm on Thursday then had started off while the fog was still there. I guess he got disoriented with the fog and lost the trail. He had picked up the poncho lost by the horsemen and he truly believes that it saved his life. He said that it was the most spiritual experience of his life. It is just amazing that the only other people out there that day just happened to loose a poncho and that Ben happens to find it just before he gets lost. With all of the hiking I have done in my life I don't ever remember finding a poncho or raincoat of any kind. That can't just be a coincidence. He was truly being watched over.