He Plugged His Ears?

I'm supposed to be at work right now, and I guess that's bothering me a little. I haven't been late or missed a day in the five years I've been at my current job. But this first time, I think it's warranted and that my boss will understand. We've been searching for a lost 15-year-old boy for the last 10 hours, since late last night.

It was so dark with no moonlight at all. When I turned off my headlamp, I couldn't see my hand just inches from my face. As three of us searched, calling for Blaine and blowing our whistles along the Mormon Mountain Trail, I thought about how scared I'd be, even as an adult, being lost out there alone all night long. And it got pretty chilly just before dawn. The boy, we're told, was wearing desert camouflage and carrying no extra clothing.

Blaine came up from Phoenix with his uncle to do some archery deer hunting in the Mormon Lake area. His uncle dropped him off at the gate near the top of Mormon Mountain at 2:00 yesterday afternoon, with an arranged rendezvous time at that same location. But Blaine didn't make it back. At 7:30 p.m., he made a cellphone call to his uncle, saying his GPS had run out of battery and he'd gotten lost. The reception was poor, and the conversation was short.

The uncle told us he'd fired off 30 rounds to try to help the boy navigate to his location. No further cellphone contact was made, and it appears Blaine's phone may have since gone dead — our calls keep going right to voice mail.

Blaine's uncle had a spotlight, which he pointed straight up, hoping to provide a beacon once it got dark. But even if Blaine could and did see the light, he had no light source himself, so navigating this rocky, thickly forested terrain would have been just about impossible. If he did try to move, injury would be a likely scenario, so hopefully the boy stayed put at least until first light.

The deputy in charge of this search in Sergeant D's absence told us Blaine's last cellphone call had bounced off a tower near I-17. That gave us some indication of what side of the mountain Blaine would have been on at the time of that call. So we took that into consideration when coming up with a game plan.

Given that only three of us SAR members were able to respond last night, we had to search on foot as a single team while Blaine's family and the deputy drove the perimeter roads throughout the night.

After we cleared the area along the Mormon Mountain Trail, finding no footprints and not establishing voice contact despite all the noise we made, which seemed to carry far in the stillness, a deputy picked us up and drove us back to the top of the mountain.

So, what now?

We decided that a little rest was in order, and we'd wait until dawn to continue our search. At that time, another call-out would be made to hopefully get some additional help and cover more area. So, Bob, Joe, and I climbed into SAR vehicles, made ourselves as comfortable as possible, and got some spotty shut-eye for about an hour. As soon as we could see without headlamps, we resumed searching.

We've just finished bushwhacking around the mountaintop, shouting down slope and searching for clues. Everyone is getting progressively more worried. Is the boy injured and unresponsive? Could he have crossed over the perimeter road and kept going? If so, he might be pretty far away after walking since 2 p.m. yesterday. Could someone have picked him up along the road?

We're glad that Flagstaff Ranger, the DPS helicopter, has now arrived, flying a grid pattern over the mountain. And we're told six additional SAR members are on their way with Sergeant D, as well as several deputies who'll assist. We've asked them to bring ATVs too. There are many two-tracks in the area that aren't even on the maps.

In the meantime, the three of us who are on our second—or third—wind will drive some other Forest Service roads. We're now heading down the road from the top of the mountain, and we see one of the family's vans coming up. They stop, and we roll down our windows to talk to the uncle, who's gotten out and is walking our way. He still doesn't look particularly alarmed. Like last night, he seems almost nonchalant, confident that his nephew will turn up.

He walks over to our driver's side window.

"We haven't found anything yet," Bob tells the uncle. "But more searchers are on their way."

There's a pause.

"Great," the uncle replies. "Well, actually... we found him."

What? Yay! I'm so relieved.

"Is he okay?" I ask, while Bob fishes for the radio to inform Incident Command.

"Yeah, he's fine."

"Great! Where did you find him? Where was he last night?"

The uncle proceeds to tell us that they found Blaine on this same road, heading down from the top, where he'd seen one of our SAR vehicles but it was unoccupied at the time. So he kept walking toward the place where he and his uncle had camped at the base of the mountain the night before last.

And where was Blaine last night? A little ways off the Mormon Mountain Trail! But... that's where we'd been calling for him.

"Yeah," said the uncle, "he plugged his ears and went to sleep. When he woke up this morning, he heard the siren, but he went back to sleep for a while."

He plugged his ears! Why, that little ... uh, I mean, that brave boy. I'm so glad he's okay.

I check my watch. Well, I can probably be at the office by noon.