Hello Friends!
Steve Stockton here with you...
Hiking can be a wonderful way to spend some time in nature, get some exercise, clear your
mind or even spend time as a family.
Many hikers have an ingrained love of the great outdoors.
However, in this community we should know by now that things are not always what they
seem and mother nature can be such a cruel mistress sometimes, especially if you aren’t
prepared when you roam into her territory.
There are basic precautions you could take to make sure you aren’t ever mentioned in
one of these videos but sometimes things happen all of the sudden or something will take place
that was completely unavoidable and this is where using your senses and keeping calm could
come in handy and save your life.
While the number changes from year to year, it isn’t usually much more or much less
than 2,000 hikers who get lost each and every year in the United States alone.
It’s often thought that one of the best ways to not get lost while hiking is to know
how other hikers got lost to make sure you don’t repeat their mistakes.
According to many sources online, the number one way most hikers get lost is by straying
off of the designated trails.
We must always keep in mind while out in the wilderness, especially when alone, just how
easy it can be to get turned around and confused as to where you are.
There is equipment you could use and things you could always do to ensure you are safe
when out in the woods and as always we implore you to do your own research on these things
so you can stay safe out there and get the best of what Mother Nature has to offer without
inciting her wrath.
Most of the time lost hikers are found, either by Search and Rescue teams or even by finding
their way back to civilization themselves, this would either be by chance and luck or
sheer wit and determination.
As we know all too well too, some people do not come back and some are found deceased,
having fallen victim to the unforgiving landscape they had originally set out to explore and be at peace in.
Today we are going to discuss missing hikers who were found, some lucky and alive and some
tragically deceased but found nonetheless which is more than many can say when speaking
of a loved one who has gone missing in the wilderness.
Christian Farnsworth & Parker Jasmer
Christian Farnsworth and Parker Jasmer are two 19 year olds who, in late December into
early January of 2022, were missing in the snow covered wilderness of Oregon for an entire
week and were found alive and safe.
The pair had gone camping near Swastika Mountain which
is approximately 32 miles east of Eugene.
They left around Christmastime but failed to return as expected on the 29th of December.
The Lane County Sheriff’s Office was contacted about the two missing teens and launched a
ground search on New Years Eve of 2021 when they still hadn’t turned up.
The ground search proved to be very difficult because of heavy snowfall in the area, covering
the mountain roads and making them impossible to traverse.
This led to the Sheriff’s Office calling in the Coast Guard for help and the two young
men were found very quickly after this.
They were quite easy to spot as they had the presence of mind to write “SOS” in the
freshly fallen snow and this easily caught the attention of the rescue teams.
According to Coast Guard officials, neither of the teens needed any type of medical assistance
and miraculously had survived completely unharmed for nearly an entire week in the snow covered,
mountainous wilderness.
Because they didn’t require any hospitalizations or even a visit to the nearest hospital at
all, they were immediately flown to the Lane County Sheriff’s Office in order for their
identities to be confirmed.
During the search for Christian and Parker, the search and rescue teams located another
pair of hikers in distress and were able to get them to safety unharmed as well.
"It's incredible.
The Coast Guard got involved and I heard that's rare but I think they understood how dire
the situation was," said Christian Farnsworth's mother Katrina Crawford.
"I am so grateful to the Coast Guard."
Lt. Maggie Champin, MH-65 aircraft commander for Sector North Bend said of the two teens
and their somewhat miraculous rescue, "These young men did a lot of things right to give
themselves the best chance of being rescued.
By writing 'SOS' in the snow, staying near their vehicle, and staying near logging roads,
we were able to find them relatively quickly.
We recommend hikers carry personal locator beacons while out in the backcountry."
Dorothy “Kae” Turner & Heidi Turner
Dorothy “Kae” Turner and her daughter Heidi were said by family to have been “driving
an unusual route” through Idaho when they left from Pendleton Oregon trying to get to
Utah in late October 2021.
The mother and daughter were reported missing by family members on Wednesday November 3rd
when they hadn’t checked in via cellphone as they had been doing for most of the trip
and were immediately considered missing and endangered.
The police put out a BOLO for the pair and their vehicle, a gold 2015 Chrysler Town & Country
with Oregon license plate 432MDR.
A truck driver reported seeing a vehicle matching the description of Kae and Heidi's at a Little
Stinkers truck stop near Exit 13 on Interstate 84 near Payette on the morning of Friday, November 5th.
At 11:45am that same morning, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department received a call
that a hunter had found a body in the Solitaire Saddle area of the Panhandle National Forest.
Upon further investigation, authorities found a broken down vehicle nearby and inside was Heidi Turner.
It was later confirmed that the body of the deceased was
that of her mother, Dorothy “Kae '' and that she had died from exposure to the elements.
Heidi explained that she and her mother were following an unfamiliar route due to relying
on their GPS and ended up lost in the northern Idaho forest.
Once the car had broken down and they could go no further, Dorothy left to go and try
to find help and insisted Heidi stay behind in the vehicle so she wouldn’t be exposed
to the same elements which ended up taking Dorothy’s life in the end.
Heidi had no idea her mother had passed away while searching for help and was expecting
her to come back at some point.
Jolly Bose
Jolly Bose, a 49 year old woman from Palo Alto, California became separated from her
hiking group near Huntington Lake at a ridge east of White Bark Vista and Dusy Ershim Trail,
in the Sierra National Forest, and was reported as missing by the group on Sunday, October 17th, 2021.
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office deployed 35 searchers, made up of both deputies and
volunteers to help find her in the snow covered mountains, along with a search and rescue
team that was said to have worked “each day around the clock” trying to find her
and bring her back out of the mountains safely.
The sheriff also deployed several different resources to aid in the search such as planes,
drones, helicopters, horses, jeeps and all terrain vehicles.
The agency also received assistance from Yosemite National Park, the California Office of Emergency
Services and the Marin County Sheriff's Office's SAR team.
The search area was more than 10,000 feet in elevation and was covered in snow and ice.
Just about 48 hours later and approximately 4.5 miles away from where she was last seen,
Jolly was found alive and seemingly well.
She was airlifted out of the area early on Tuesday morning, October 19th.
Jolly had braved 5 feet of snow with still more falling and weathered temperatures ranging
from 13-19 degrees fahrenheit during her ordeal.
Despite this however, she was unharmed and needed no medical assistance at all.
John Fiske Burg
John Fiske Burg was staying at the La Quinta hotel in Kanab, Utah with approximately 50
other hikers and was last seen, before being reported as missing, on September 28th, 2021
at around 7:00 in the morning stating he was
thinking about hiking the Canyon Overlook Trail.
He was reported overdue the next day on the 29th by the fellow hikers.
On the afternoon of Friday, October 1st, John was, somewhat miraculously given his location,
able to use his phone to not only call and leave a voicemail for his family but also
to the Washington County 911 dispatch center.
These phone calls played a critical role in saving his life as they were able to provide
the Search and Rescue teams that had been deployed to find him important information
as to his whereabouts.
These calls are said to have provided the insight needed to target specific areas of
Zion National Park where he had gotten lost during his solo hike.
On October 2nd at approximately 3:30pm mountain time, Nellis Air Force located John Fiske
Burg above Lodge Canyon in Zion National Park.
He had suffered minor injuries which were treated on the scene and was later transported
to a nearby hospital for further treatment and evaluation.
He made a full recovery.
The Nellis Air Force Base, The Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Search and Rescue,
drone teams and officer K-9 units were all credited with helping to find John and bringing
him out alive and to safety.
There were many more unnamed staff and volunteers who
also assisted in the search and rescue effort for John Burg.
The National Park Service Investigative Services Branch Tip Line was specifically mentioned
by Park Rangers as being an integral part of the rescue mission as well.
Jerren Fisher
26 year old Jerren Fisher was planning to hike alone from September 8th through September 12th, 2021.
He was planning to camp Enchanted Valley, Marmot Lake Sundown Lake and Camp Pleasant
before taking the Graves Creek Trailhead back to his vehicle for his return trip home.
A family member reported him as missing and the authorities began their search right away.
They quickly found Jerren’s vehicle still parked at the Graves Creek Trailhead and very
quickly started searching for him in that area.
The park Service reported that, “Search and rescue personnel hiked into the wilderness
Thursday afternoon from the Graves Creek Trailhead towards Sundown Lake following Fisher’s
itinerary in reverse as well as from the North Fork Skokomish Trail."
The search efforts were slowed down by inclement weather which was cold and windy with some rain.
A week later on Sunday, September 19th at around 8 pm, Jerren was found by a helicopter
deployed as a part of the initial search and rescue efforts and he had to be hoisted from
a Ravine in the Olympic National Park according to the United States Coast Guard.
He was flown to the Olympic Regional Airport and then taken to a local hospital where,
after surviving a harrowing week in the wilderness, he was reported to be in stable condition.
Clifton “Cliff” Beck
In September of 2021 a 66 year old man named Clifton Beck, known to friends and family
as Cliff, obtained a backcountry permit in order to spend two nights on the Walhalla Plateau.
Cliff left for his trip on a Friday and was therefore expected to exit the backcountry
on Sunday but he never came out.
On Tuesday at around 9pm, Cliff was reported as overdue to
Park officials and his location was given as the Walhalla Plateau on the Canyon’s north rim.
The next day an unsuccessful air search was launched and on Thursday nine ground search
teams and aerial searchers in helicopters were deployed to help look for him.
There was also a fixed wing aircraft in the area of the Plateau.
At around 8 in the morning Friday, 7 days after he had initially set out on his solo
adventure in Grand Canyon National Park, Clifton Beck was found alive and seemingly well, near
Roosevelt Point on the north rim of the Canyon.
He was in stable condition and was transported by EMS to a local hospital where he made a full recovery.
Theresa Beshera-Cox
On Monday October 30th, 2021 Theresa Beshara-Cox was alone and planning to hike the Hawksbill
Crag in the Ozarks National Park in Arizona, United States.
The Hawksbill Crag is also known as Whitaker’s Point and is a popular place for hiking and photography.
It’s located approximately 90 minutes southeast of Fayetteville and is one of the main highlights
of the Ozark National Forest.
Originally from Jasper, Arizona Theresa planned for this trip to only be a day hike so when
she hadn’t returned home that night she was reported as missing.
Crews found her car still at the trailhead on the night of the 30th which led everyone
to believe that Theresa hadn’t made it out of the park and was therefore possibly lost.
She was not prepared to spend any length of time hiking or out in these woods.
After finding nothing that night, search and rescue crews reconvened the next morning and
began their search again.
They searched the entire day.
A command center was set up in the nearby town of Kingston but still there was no luck in locating Theresa.
On Wednesday, after two whole nights had passed and still there was no sign of her, K-9 and
aerial units joined the ground searchers.
Also on Wednesday, sometime in the morning, two utility workers were working on a water
line about a mile away from the trailhead near where Theresa’s
car was still sitting, where she had left it two days earlier.
These two workers suddenly saw a woman walking toward them from out of the woods and they
helped lead her to safety.
It was Theresa Beshara-Cox.
She later explained she had somehow gotten turned around in the fog and rough terrain and lost her way.
Search and Rescue teams reported to the media that Theresa went home that same wednesday
afternoon that she had been found and was “ok” after spending two whole nights out
in the wilderness, alone and completely unprepared.
Well folks, there you have it!
What do you think of these stories of survival?
I look forward to your comments...
but please remember to keep it friendly and respectful.
Until we meet again, take care of yourselves and eachother.
and I will see you all a little further down the trail.
I'm Steve Stockton and I will talk to you next time!