I like to camp. We went some last summer and decided we really needed to camp more this year, so this last weekend was the start of our 2005 camping season! We went up Saturday after church, and had a nice evening… and then we went to bed (cue some music that alerts you that something is going to happen).
At midnight, Daniel woke me up. “Do you hear that?” he asked. I was really groggy, but I listened carefully.
“What is that?” I asked, still confused.
“It’s someone screaming. It sounded like she was saying ‘Help me!’”
I wasn’t really awake but that startled me into more alertness. “What are we going to do?”
We talked it over quickly and decided to go have a look. The screaming had stopped but it was coming from the vicinity of the nearby river, so that was not much comfort. We hastily put on our clothes and then went and talked to our nearest neighbors, who were just going to bed. They said they thought they heard some yelling but that it was probably just drunk people partying. We also thought that was a possibility, but we wanted to check anyway, particularly with the possibility that the lady was yelling for help. The neighbors told us they weren’t going to do anything, but if we did and we needed help, to yell so and they would come.
Armed with flashlights, we trooped down the trail that lead to the river and the hot springs. I thought the screams had come from more upriver but the hot springs were where we would most likely find people. After walking for a while, we found our way to the main hot springs (I was glad, because it’s been several years since we’d been there, and navigating in the dark can be a little tricky). There was a group of people there, mostly women, and they were just hanging out and having a good time. We asked them if they’d heard anyone screaming (a strange question!) and they looked slightly confused. They hadn’t.
So we turned around and headed back to camp. Just after leaving the hot springs, we saw a guy heading toward them. “Is there a group of ladies at the hot springs?” he asked. We told him there was, and continued on. I was grumbling about people partying and yelling for the fun of it. About half way back to the camp, I noticed someone behind us also walking toward camp. He was moving faster than us and caught up quickly, so I moved aside and said, “Do you want to go past us?”
He nodded and said, “Yes. I’m in a hurry. I’m looking for someone.”
!
That caught our attention for sure. “Who are you looking for?”
“My wife. I can’t find her.”
“Was that her screaming a little while ago?”
“Yes, I think so, it sounded like her.” We were all walking as he said this, and he was moving pretty quickly, so I just said to Daniel, “Just keep up with him and maybe we can help.”
When we got back to the camp, the guy (I found out later his name was Darren) found another guy named Matt who was part of their group (which also included the ladies at the hot springs). We learned that Darren’s wife had gone to the hot springs with her friends, and took off early by herself. Darren thanked us (I’m not sure what for; walking back with him?) and he and Matt set off toward the river, in a different direction this time. We followed, because we weren’t about to just go to bed, knowing that someone was in trouble. Daniel consulted a couple of guys hanging out outside their RV.
“Did you hear a lady screaming a little while ago?” he asked them.
One of the guys said, “Yeah. But then there was this other lady over there singing. She had an amazing voice. It was weird. There was screaming, and then she was singing. I really liked the singing.”
I was a little incredulous. Remind me never to get drunk, please.
After some explaination, the guys decided to go with us to search for the lady. We caught up with Daren and Matt, and I asked Darren what his wife’s name was. “Michelle,” he told me. The trail split, and Daniel and I headed off toward the river while the other guys went further upstream on high ground. We went to the river’s edge, and then hiked along it towards the hot springs trail, thinking that perhaps she missed a turn in the trail and continued along the river. It seemed unlikely, because some of the area was really covered in brush, and we stopped and prayed there, and then we searched until we reached the hot springs trail, and then we headed back to the campground.
When we got there, Matt and the two RV guys were there. They had turned back, being somewhat impaired and not really up to hiking in the dark. Darren had continued on by himself. About this time, Michelle’s friends got back from the hot springs. They gave us a physical description; Michelle was apparently blonde, shortish, and wearing khaki shorts and a pink shirt. Her friends couldn’t believe that she hadn’t come back, and then there was the “what do we do” question.
What we did was wake up the campground hosts. By that point it had been an hour since Daniel woke me up, so there was good reason to be worried. The hosts radioed the sherriff and some officers were dispatched. Then we waited. I had many good opportunities to observe more reasons why I should avoid ever becoming drunk. Intoxicated people (at least the ones I was dealing with) are not very logical and seem to have a hard time piecing little details into the big picture. Turns out that Daniel, Leanna, Peter and I were the only ones in the searching party that were not above the legal limit.
Daniel took Matt, along with Leanna and Peter, and they drove along the top of the canyon using Daniel’s big spotlight to look down. Since the campground and the river are both near the highway, Daniel wanted to check that Michelle hadn’t made her way to the road only to get missed in our search. I stayed at the campground with one of our FRS radios.
Finally, around 1:30 a.m., someone spotted a couple coming toward us. We all shined our flashlights at them, practically blinding the, I’m sure, while those of us who didn’t know her asked, “Is that Michelle?” I was thinking it probably wasn’t, partially because I didn’t want to hope, and mostly because this girl was not wearing khaki and pink. I think the others were having the same thoughts. But then… “It’s her!” her friends started shouting.
We all herded over to her and I saw why I hadn’t recognized her outfit: she was covered in mud from her feet to her shoulders. She was entirely dressed in brown. With her was her husband, who had found her. Michelle looked pretty bad, aside from the mud; her legs were all scratched and scraped. What worried me more was that she seemed to be in shock. She was only partly coherant, even though she was walking, and I couldn’t get her to tell me if she was hurt or not. She knew she was thirsty, so I sent her friends to get her water. She had fallen and fallen and gotten wet and dirty, and she was in pain but couldn’t articulate it.
Just after she appeared, the sherriff’s officers arrived. Once they found she had been found, they asked if she was hypothermic. We didn’t know, and they said an ambulance would be along shortly. I got in contact with Daniel via the FRS radios, and they came back. Then everything settled down… well, kind of. We went back to our campsite, and the ambulance came, and then left. In the morning we found out from the camp host that Michelle had declined transportation but that Darren took her to the hospital. Since she had been walking but was wet and cold and somewhat incoherant, we’re guessing that she was indeed hypothermic, but since she was found while she was still able to walk, and got treatment, it’s safe to guess that she’s fine now.
Some interesting things I learned from this:
- Most people are lame. We encountered many people who had heard
the screaming, and not one of them did anything about it.
- I owe a lot to my mother. Leanna and I both insisted that we had to do something, and faced with realization #1, I asked Daniel why we think acting is the only thing to do when other people don’t even seem to think of it. He said two words: “Your mom.” Then he pointed out that my mom has always been quick to intervene and help, even when it’s not necessarily a safe thing. Turns out that’s teachable. Thanks, Mom!
- Most people will take action if you approach them individually and ask them personally.
- FRS radios are a really good thing. We should have used them more (for instance, given one to Darren when we split up searching) but even as little as we did use them, they made things easier.
- Getting drunk is stupid and makes you stupider.
- It’s always a good idea to stick with another person.
