Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Lost and found (repost)

Most of you have heard at least something about our recent and infamous hiking trip in the white mountains. Here is the story from my point of view. If others post, I'll edit this and link them up top. Edit: Pictures added.

Leah, Abi, Rachel and myself pause for EVER on this bridge. If memory serves me correct, Leah explained to us that she couldn't pass this bridge because of an enchantment.

Our youth group had planned a short hiking trip for Sunday the 23rd, right after church. We were going to climb the trail for Lonesome lake, an easy 2.7 mile hike that lazily twisted and turned around beautiful rivers and waterfalls. The weather couldn't have been more perfect- with Autumn fast approaching, it was the most warm and sunny day you could ask for. Some of our company had even brought gear to go swimming in.


Some of the ample areas where one could go for a swim. Waterfalls abound in this trail; its quite beautiful.

A friend of my sister's and myself had unexpectedly dropped by our church and to our delighted surprise was even able to go hiking with us. But since she had not come prepared for a hike, so she came as she was: A long skirt and sandals. But its not like we were scaling a mountain vertically, or even hiking Lafayette, so she was fine in what she had.

Our group got started up the hill pretty soon after we landed at the parking lot. Shortly after setting out, our group split into smaller groups based on the pace that people wanted to take up the mountain (as usually happens on hike). I decided to stay with my sister and our friend Rachel for the most part, bringing up the rear at a nice leisurely pace. Mrs. L, Nicole and some others went up faster, and my father and LittleMan were somewhere in between. Ethan, Noah and Jay took the riverbed and quickly made good time ahead of us. We thought.

If you've ever hiked around the basin before, you know that the rivers beds running down the mountain are very wide but the rivers themselves generally only take up a narrow strip of it of the rocky bed, so following the river as a trail is very easy thing to do. Its a beautiful walk.


Part of the river bed. The dry big rocks in the picture goes on for quite awhile behind the camera (its where I was standing).


The hike up the mountain was pretty pleasant for me and my group. 2/3rds up we over took Leah, who was resting contemplatively on one of the big rocks in the stream. She joined our group, and informed us that as per parental orders, we were to turn back by 5:00. Apparently this had been announced shortly after everyone got on the trail, but I had missed it (probably because I was off to the side on the rocks myself at that time). So at 5:00, we turned back, making good time down the hill though stopping for some photo opportunities along the way and arrived back at around 6.


Other little groups followed soon after. It wasn't long before we were waiting for the last group to get back: Ethan, Noah and Jay. We were hoping they would show up soon. By 6:30, we were concerned. Fish and game were alerted and my dad and Mr. L. shot back up the trails calling out for them as they looked. They had decided to turn back at 7:00, because of the diminishing daylight and it was a good call- according to my dad, the latter half of his return hike was to dark for him to make out trail markings reliably. We've hiked this trail at least 5 other times, but even he had to walk back slow to make sure he didn't slip or get off course. Both him and Tim L. returned, neither one finding the kids. Night had fully set in by 7:10- it was dark and chilly.

I spent most of this time waiting in the van, being the "responsible adult" with most of the younger kids. Leah, Nicole and Abi were in the van for a little bit, but soon grew too restless and joined Mrs. L. at the base of the trail. I was in the van for an hour or so, with the awkward charge of staying nearby and trying to make sure the kids' imaginations didn't get the best of them and put them into a panic. I've never really done this before... basically it consisted of us either being quiet for awhile or talking about unrelated things and then, someone would start to say how worried they were and what might happen to them out there on the trail. Then I'd try to offer a calming dismissing of the fear, assuring them that all would be fine and that we had experts on the case: It wasn't a big mountain, they couldn't get THAT far, it wasn't THAT cold, etc. I don't know if I was doing it right or not. It was a bit of a difficult job when the only updates that would come to us would essentially be that there was no update, except for that Mrs. L and Leah were occasionally in tears now.

Around 8:40 I heard my dad's voice coming up to the van. I hoped that he was coming to tell me they had been found, but instead he just moved the vehicle down to the part of the parking lot where the ranger and everyone else was. Mounting tension was palpable... a few people in the group were upset at the ranger for sitting in his vehicle seeming to take forever about things, not realizing he was coordinating the effort, not actually executing it. He was in radio contact with the top of the hut and working out stuff on the map.

After pulling the van up to the closer parking lot, my dad gave me some money and told me to go get everyone something to eat. Even though most were very hungry and more were badly in need of a bathroom break, no one really wanted to leave the site. I can't blame them. Dad got some directions from a ranger on the nearest place to get a bite to eat. The van was loaded up with silent and somber patronage. I drove us out.

To get back south towards civilization, you have to head north for 5 minutes or so till you get to exit 34A where you can turn around and go south. I left the site nervous but very purposeful- I have never navigated this area before, and I had a van full of kids who were already distraught... This was my one charge; to get them to a warm place to sit down and get a bite to eat. It wasn't much, but it was important and I did NOT want to fumble it.

I made the 34A turn around fine and rocketed back south. I passed the basin. Pretty soon, I was coming up with exit 34B. The ranger told me that the closest food was on exit 34, and to stay left. I realized that this had to be 34B, because the other one was going the wrong way. I took the exit, and noticed it too split. The sign said services were to the right...but the ranger told me left. I took it slowly, realizing further with each foot I rolled that I was going BACK 93 North. But I couldn't turn around, I was commited now. I was frustrated with myself- now I had to PASS our groups turn off, hit the turn around AGAIN and come back. Meanwhile there were people who were going to explode if they didn't get to the bathroom and grieving siblings in the back. Great. Good call, Zeke.

I sheepishly explained that I had to loop back AGAIN. One person might have acknowledged me but mostly, it was just quiet. When I hit the loop was when most people realized it- "Weren't we JUST here?" "Yes...."

We did get back to 34B and this time I took the right. We got into civilization- but it was mostly closed breakfast shacks, hotels and lodges. We went a bit of a ways before we got into a little towny strip that had two family restaurants open. We had intended to get food at a fast food joint, as people wanted to get back as soon as possible. But after I passed this strip it began to look like we were quick leaving civilization. I decided that we needed to stop at one of those places, at least to use the bathroom.

We all rushed into a little geek family restaurant and I went up to the counter.

"I need to ask something of you that I know is a really big favor, and if you want me to pay for a drink or something, I will. I have a van full of kids here who desperately need to use the bathroom, is it okay if they use yours?" The lady gave me a smile and said "Go ahead." I thanked her and bought a coffee, while trying to get ahold of my dad to ask him where the Macdonalds he knew of was. I couldn't get ahold of him. It wasn't a big surprise though- everyone's phone was blowing up.

Word had apparently spread very fast. Anders tried to get ahold of me (thinking that our whole party had been lost), and Jay's older brother called me as well. Leah's phone was receiving call after call and even more text messages. I think she actually received 5 messages over the course of a few minute long conversation at one point. Abi's was ringing too.

After how nice they were to us, we decided to have a sit down meal at the greek place after all. I tried to lift the mood a bit, pulling out and treasuring a few reluctant smiles from the group. I contemplated a lot of my mixed feelings over that pizza- I wanted to be strong and comforting to the group... logically, it was a very short trail and I was pretty confident they would be found. The only real concern I had was if someone was injured. But I didn't want to sound like I didn't care about it. I didn't want to run off my mouth about how they would be fine. But I felt like some people might be looking to me, so I wanted to keep things calm. I felt like it made me almost distant sometimes... I wanted to comfort the group, especially Leah who was missing a brother up there. But I didn't know how to. I wanted to embrace them, to give them a hug and tell them it would be allright, but I was afraid of appearing like I was making advances. It frustrated me. All I could do was drive them and take care of the food. Thats it; thats basically all I had. It felt inadequate.

After we finnished, we loaded back into the van and took off. Abi's phone had died from receiving one to many calls from concerned people, but Leah's phone still had a good charge. She talked on it off and on. I could feel the fear and concern in every word. It broke my heart and made me wish I could do something more. I think all of us wished there was something we could do... friends and family called in to ask if they wanted a volunteer search team. Jay's whole family was coming down. Everyone on the prayer chain at our church knew about it and so did most of the homeschool co-op.

In the last stretch of highway towards the basin, I overheard Leah next to me saying into the phone the words that I wanted so badly to be true-

"They found them?"

I held my breath for a second, hoping that those in the back might not have heard it just in case it was a false alarm. But of course they had- it was like everyone's ears were straining to hear those words, and a collective sound of exclamations and questions erupted behind me. It was true. Just as Leah was confirming it, we pulled into the place where we had parked and got out. Details remained sketchy- they found them up the trail, .3 miles out, or they found them off the trail, .3 miles out. How did they get lost? Didn't know yet. Were they okay? Yes- as one rescue worker said "They are more scared of their parents right now then anything else."

They would be coming down into the parking lot on the other side, the rescue workers informed us. After waiting for Jay's family to arrive (which didn't take but a few minutes) we all loaded into the van and went to the exit 34 turn around so we could get to the other side. When we arrived, their was a small crowd. Rescue workers, family and other church members- and the boys. They were all there. Everyone jumped out. I grabbed the pizzas I had got from the greek place (we had ordered more to feed them when they got down) and headed over. They were in good spirits, laughing and joking around with us. Apparently they never got the word to turn back at 5. Not that it mattered- none of them had a watch. Or a cell phone.

They had shot up the trail, following the rocky riverbed. The river split a few times though, and eventually they got further and further away from the trails. They didn't turn back till "right before it got dark" which would be just about 7:00. How fast it got dark caught them by surprise. They had attempted to rejoin the trail several times, thinking they had found it only to see it dead end or loose it in the moonlinght. Each time, they'd back track and follow the riverbed down further, slipping a few times and misstepping in the dim light.

I bounced back and forth between the different ex-lost boys getting as much info as I could and carrying around pizza. Delivering the pizza was probably the best part for me, everyone was really happy to have food, and finally it felt like I was doing something to help.

We had to stick around there for a bit, while the rescue workers got the story nine ways to heaven from each of the kids. We left for home around 10:30, thoroughly enjoying the ride back- talking and laughing with everyone over the night's drama.

A lot of things went wrong for this to happen, and everyone involved in authority is still troubleshooting it. It just seems such a stupid thing to happen to us- Everyone on that trip had been hiking before. The youth group had been up part of those trails once before last month, and my family have been up it a lot- I've probably hiked the basin at least 5 times within the last 4 years.

We'll get everything worked out, and we'll all be better for it. Meanwhile, I have to work on some promotional material for our youth group. Nicole and I had discussed possible ways of spinning this whole thing into a new tagline. After brainstorming with my Brandon, I'm thinking of going with the following one:

New Testament Hikers club:
Looking for direction in your life? Join the club!

This fall: LittleMan IS the rock ninja!