Matthew and I decided to do our typical camping trip for
Memorial Day Weekend… since 410 wasn’t open in time we headed over I-90 to
Little Naches. The weather on the other side of the mountain was supposed to be
better and our friends decided they were still going so it ended up being the
perfect weekend.
The drive over was beautiful as usual… Matthew and I headed over
early to reserve our spot. He stopped
along the way so I could take pictures.
I love how considerate he is in knowing how much I enjoy my
pictures. We were glad we left when we
did since it was a lot busier than normal.
I think everyone being “off work”, and all the paid camping sites being
closed made it so the free ones were filling up quickly. Thankfully, our spot was open, even though
there were a TON of people already in the area… had we waited until the next
day there is no way we would have found a spot… at least not a good one.
For most of the weekend, I was the only female adult, so I spent
a lot of time just relaxing, reading, and enjoying the campfire. I did visit with the guys and the kids (and
teenagers) throughout the weekend but it was not having some alone time to just
enjoy the beauty of God’s creation.
The weekend was pretty uneventful until the last day. Two things happened on the last day that will
probably be in the “Little Naches” camping stories for years to come. First, Noah
and Tyler came back from one of her rides and mentioned that they found a guy
lost in the woods. They were going to
get the truck and go back and help him.
He was an older gentleman who was picking mushrooms and didn’t know how
to get back to the main road. Since Noah’s
Mom happened to be there for the day, she was a bit worried about him giving a
stranger a ride, so Matthew went with them.
They were able to find the guy and drive him back to his vehicle… about
11 miles away from where he was… there is NO way he would have ever made it
back… nor would he have survived the night in the woods. Needless to say, his wife was not too happy
with him when he returned but at the same time was very grateful to see him
alive.
Having spent so much time in the woods, we never would have expected
that our group would get “lost” in the woods… but that night it happened. Matthew and I went to bed early (11pm) and
were awoken to one of the bikes starting near our trailer at 1:30 am. We found out that the group had decided to
takes is normal walk to the meadow after we went to bed… but the trail was
covered in water so after enjoying the meadow they ended up getting lost in the
woods… the only thing that kept them heading in the “right” direction was the
fire that Aiden kept going since he didn’t go with them. He almost went to bed but decided to stay up a
little longer thankfully… Unfortunately, on the way back one of the guys slipped
off a log, broke his foot and fell into the river… they were able to keep him
from floating down river, but he was in the water for about an hour. By the time we woke up they had already sent
a couple of the girls to call 911 for help and were bringing blankets and coats
back to keep him warm. His leg was
splinted, and they had a fire going to keep him warm. Matthew wanted to go help at the scene, but
it was a 30-minute walk through the woods to get to him, so we opted to stay at
the fire and visit with the youth while we waited for the rescue crew. The first rescue vehicles arrived around 2:00
am followed by a police officer. A
couple of the girls escorted them back to the scene. Unfortunately for our neighbor (campers) the
police lights were flashing right into their tent, so they were not very happy
about the disturbance… I am sure they were even more upset as the night progressed…
we ended up with a dozen rescue vehicles.
They even started up the chainsaw right by their tent before taking it
back to the woods to cut down trees. It
was an insane night with 12-15 people there to rescue him. It took them until 4:30 in the morning before
they were finally able to pull him out of the woods. Thankfully, everything turned out ok in the
end. His son had gone to bed before the
rescue crew showed up, so he didn’t have to see it all. Needless so say it took awhile before I was
able to fall back asleep for a couple hours and then pack up and head
home. God was definitely with that group
in the woods… keeping them safe just like he was with the old man they had
rescued earlier that day!
No comments:
Post a Comment