The Story of What Happened

****NOTE: This is why I've been so tired and unresponsive lately. I've finally found the energy to write it all out.


We departed the civilized area of the Christian Renewal Center around 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 31. As far as I was concerned, the point of the trip was to show everyone in the hiking group (Tasha, Theresa, Richard, Eli, and Adam) where you can see the hidden waterfall that Bryan found while adventuring a few years ago. All in all, it was only supposed to be an hour and a half hike, round trip.

It was a beautiful day. When we got to the hill where you can see the waterfall, Eli & Adam took the coordinates and put them in the GPS. According to technology, the waterfall was only about 2 miles away. I was a little uneasy about this adventure, seeing as we would be crossing directly through the woods to the other side of the valley. But I saw how excited everyone was and started getting excited myself. After all, if we actually found it, I knew how jealous Bryan would be that he wasn't on the hike. And, the weather was gorgeous and the company was good. So we set out.

The hike down to the valley started on a road. Eli & Adam hadn't really intended to stay on the roads for most of the trip, seeing as we didn't know where most of them ended up and we wanted to get to the waterfall as directly as possible. Richard said we should stick to the roads though, so we did. I do admit that it was a safe plan, though it ended up taking us longer to find the waterfall.

We came to a point where it would have been pointless to continue on roads. So we hiked into the forest and kind of made our own trails. It was very fun and adventurous. We found an area in the woods where there were a bunch of those little hoses you would use in a garden. We came up with all kinds of reasons as to why they might be there. We found out later what they were really for.

We jumped across a stream and up a little hillside. I was in the back. When I caught up to everyone else, Theresa was holding a deer antler. "Ah, did you find some food?" I asked. They laughed. Sadly, the deer wasn't there, just the antler. We decided to keep it with us. Eli strapped it to the back of his backpack. We continued on for a while longer tramping through the woods. Eventually we found another road and started walking up it. Eli checked the coordinates. According to technology, the waterfall was about a mile and a half away. We had been hiking for about an hour. Hmmmm.

It was 4:30 p.m. and the sun was starting to go down. Richard, Tasha, Theresa, and I wanted to get back for dinner. Eli and Adam were still determined to find the waterfall. They had lots of hiking gear & stuff with them, so they really could have spent the night out there if they had to. They had two flashlights. Richard asked for one, in case it got dark before we were all the way back.

Eli gave Theresa the deer antler and we set out. We didn't really know where we were, but knew as long as we took roads to the right we would make it back. So that's what we did, for awhile. The roads kept dead-ending. At one dead-end, Richard thought we might be able to find another road by going through the woods. We started hiking into the woods, but the terrain kept getting rougher and rougher. And it was getting darker. We stopped by a log. Richard went on ahead, saying he was going to see if he could find the road. We waited for him for a few minutes. He didn't come back so we started yelling. We didn't hear anything at first, which was scary. Then finally, we heard him, but it was far away.

Finally, we heard him say he'd found the creek and wanted us to follow it 'cause it would take us back to camp. That would have a been a good idea, if darkness wasn't descending on us minute by minute. We had to convince him that it wasn't a good idea for where we were at, it was already 5:15pm and it would be completely dark soon. We only had one flashlight for 4 people and we didn't know what kind of terrain we'd be heading into. Also, if we ended up having to spend the night out there, it would be much easier for people to find us by a road rather than out in the dense forest. After much disagreement, we finally convinced him it was better to stay on the roads and headed back to the dead-end logging road.

We walked around for awhile longer, trying all the roads we saw that went to the right. After awhile, we realized we weren't going to make it back and decided to go back to a clearing we'd passed earlier. There was a brush pile up there. Richard said he had matches. He'd grabbed them at the last minute before we left. So amazing! They were the kind with the white tips, not the box kind. So we had to find something dry to strike them on. None of the rocks were dry...so eventually we decided to try the end of the deer antler. It worked! We had 20 matches and it took 15 to start the fire, but boy, were we glad when it started! We were praying so so hard that God would help us start the fire and keep it burning. He totally answered our prayers!

We added more and more wood and the fire got bigger and bigger. And warmer. I don't think I've ever been happier to get a fire started than in that moment. We were sooooo cold!

Around the time we got the fire started (7:55pm), we noticed that there was a lot more car activity on the ridge than usual. We kept seeing lights up there every so often. After awhile, we figured that must be where CRC was. And we knew everyone was looking for us. So we prayed that God would send someone, or everyone, this picture of us content and happy by the fire so they wouldn't be so worried. We really were pretty happy out there, once we had fire. We told each other our life stories and we were joking around and stuff. I had my camera, of course, so I was taking pictures and making videos. This is probably the best thing I've ever documented.

I think it was about 9pm or so when we noticed there were a lot more lights on the ridge and a couple cars were descending into the valley. We faintly heard some people yelling. We heard a blow horn and some kind of moose call or something. We yelled back a few times but we weren't sure if they could hear us and we didn't want to make our throats too dry. We only had one bottle of water between all of us.

We started another fire around 10pm, so we could stand between them and keep both sides of our bodies warm. That was Richard's idea. I swear, that man is a survivor genius! Also, we were getting bored and needed something else to do. So we kept walking around, gathering as much wood as we could to feed the fires. It was pretty fun.

Around midnight, I saw a car go right past the road we were on. "OH MY GOSH!!!!!" I exclaimed. I got up on the stump by out fires and started flashing my camera flash. Richard started going down the hill to the road. THEY FOUND US!!!! It was a total miracle!

So yes, Search & Rescue was called, and that's who found us. So, thank you soooo very much, Drakes Crossing Search & Rescue! It took us about 45 minutes to get out of where we were because they made us put the fires out (after all that hard work!) and then it took a bit to find the right road to get back.

Bryan's girlfriend, Megan, and her brother were the first people I saw. I was actually surprised to see them, I hadn't really thought that anyone besides CRC people would be there. I had prayed that they wouldn't call my parents because I didn't want them to worry. I knew I was safe. God was totally watching over us. They did call Bryan though, which was fine. And then he ended up calling Mom & Dad anyway...but now that I've heard what was happening from the side of those who were looking for us, I understand. I guess I would do the same thing if it had been Bryan who was lost.

I'm really glad Megan and her brother were there though, it was just amazing to see everyone come together like that. I feel really incredibly loved. Tim and Julie were also especially grateful to see us back. Everyone was. It was all so overwhelming and amazing.

Thank you so much, to all that were praying for our safety! God totally answered all the prayers!