It's like following a horse race. Team 1 gives their coordinates to Sergeant D over the radio, and I, listening in, plot those coordinates on my map. Then Team 2 gives their location, then Team 3. Team 2 is in the lead! They're gaining on us! Not that we're moving.
What the heck am I talking about, you ask? Well, I'm sitting near the edge of an alpine meadow, a couple hundred yards above the Kachina Trail. Joe is here, too, reading his thick computer programming textbook. I suggested he bring something to read because I knew we'd be out here a while. We're "lost," you see. Oh, and I have a leg injury, though I'm not really sure which part of which leg is injured. I'll come up with that once we're found.
Sergeant D left an envelope for me at the SAR building yesterday, with "Confidential information for Deb" written on it, sealed with yellow evidence tape. It felt so... official. In the envelope was a copy of the briefing the new unit members and their experienced instructor-members would be given for today's simulated mission. Sergeant D also gave me coordinates for the place where Joe and I should wait ... and wait ... and wait.
The two of us arrived at the trailhead at noon today for our head start and hiked 2.7 miles to this location, following the digital compass on my nine-year-old Magellan GPS. We positioned ourselves a bit farther from the trail than the coordinates indicated, far enough that passers-by wouldn't notice us but close enough that we could keep an eye out for SAR. If they walk by but don't call out or blow a whistle, we're not gonna yell. Heh-heh.
It's a beautiful yet chilly day up here at close to 10,000 feet, and now, at 4:30 p.m., I feel the air getting colder. Joe and I move a bit further into the meadow, to escape the growing shadows creeping our way and soak up what's left of the sunlight.
We're just about midway along the Kachina Trail. One group of searchers started from the western end, where Joe and I parked. Another group began at the Weatherford trailhead on Schultz Pass road, requiring more than a mile of additional hiking to get to the junction at the eastern end of the Kachina Trail. Those two groups are working toward one another, while the third group, who drove in on a Forest Service road, are hiking north, up an old two-track. They should intersect the Kachina Trail not far to the west of our location. It'll be interesting to see (or hear, rather) which way they turn once they get there. And there's now been a fourth team designated, made up of two unit members who parted with one of the original teams and are now heading back to Incident Command because one of them is experiencing some "mountain sickness."
We also know from radio communication that two tracking/trailing search dogs and their handlers are in the field, too. But I guess their noses don't know what—I mean, who—they're sniffing for, because they have no scent article of mine or Joe's. Must be the dogs in training I heard about, belonging to a couple who are new to the unit.
I hear my watch beep: 5:00. And soon I think I hear a distant call. It's faint, but who else besides SAR would be yelling out here? Joe and I listen closely. Yep, that must be them. We let them get closer, until we can clearly hear them calling Joe's name. I give Joe the nod, and he yells back.
And then... silence. A long silence. Joe and I look at each other, puzzled.
We later find out that when Joe called back the first time, the teams, which by then were all within earshot as they closed in on our position and one another at roughly the same time, froze. I could just imagine them all standing there, holding their collective breath, listening as hard as they could. I would have had a giggle-fit watching that.
Joe and I stay mute too. Ha!
Finally, someone breaks the silence and gives another yell. Joe responds, and then—and I'm laughing as I write this—they all start yelling like mad and blowing whistles. Such excitement! Poor Joe, he has to keep calling back and calling back. "Hey!" "Over here!" "Hey!" Meanwhile, I'm just sitting here in the tall grass. I mean, I can't yell, my leg is broken. Yeah, definitely broken. Maybe even a nice icky compound fracture.
Soon, we see search and rescue—two field teams almost at the same time—emerge into the meadow below. They don't spot us right away, though Joe is now standing, waving his arms as he calls back. And now I hear, "There he is! Up there!" And the mass of people and two bounding brown dogs start moving our way. Within about five minutes, I'm being licked and slobbered on (by the dogs, that is), and as the third team catches up and joins the rest, Joe and I are soon surrounded by about 20 people. Gee, such great attention.
They ask me if I'm cold. No, I say. But Al, one of the experienced members along to provide guidance, looks at me sternly and says, "Oh, yes, Yes, you are."
Oh... okay, I'm cold. Very cold. Yes, new members, the subject needs some of your spare clothing. Yeah, that's much better. Am I hungry or thirsty? I look at Al. Nooooo, not hungry or thirsty. I just ate and drank recently, thank you (which is true). And Al tells me I have a fractured right ankle joint. Ouch! A dog just stepped on it. If this were for real, that woulda hurt.
New member Tom, an EMT, uses a SAM splint, bandannas, and two thick sticks to secure my broken ankle. Then I'm plopped into the litter, and Ken gives a demo on patient packaging.
Now, of course, I can't scribble on my notepad, so into past tense I go...
Part of the group heaved me into the air, as others struggled to attach the wheel beneath the litter. After some technical difficulties, we started to roll ... and bounce ... and jolt. It's kinda funny, looking up at all those faces, listening to the jumble of communication amongst people not used to working together and not used to transporting a person in a litter. At the same time, I was rather comfy and could have taken a nap, actually, had I not gotten dumped out, forced to hike on my miraculously healed ankle after everyone had had a turn handling the litter.
By then, the sun had set, and we proceeded single-file to hike out, our headlamps glowing like a moving line of luminaries along the trail. We chatted as we walked, older members and new ones getting to know one another. I heard some SAR stories shared, and everything was hunky-dory... until, boom! Down goes Laura, one of the new recruits. Uh-oh. This time, the ankle injury was real.
Now Tom the EMT wasn't pretending as he evaluated and splinted another ankle. After a very brief, unsuccessful attempt at an assisted walk-out, we got another patient-packaging demonstration. With a about a mile to go to vehicles, we all took turns on the litter, our real patient apologizing along the way. What an unfortunate way to begin a search and rescue career.
At midnight, I finally arrived home, about four hours later than I'd expected.
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In my last entry, I'd mentioned how our pagers hadn't gone off in a while, so I was having a premonition things were about let loose. Well, twice in one day, on that same day, it did. Two injured hikers on two mountain trails. Twice, a bunch of us, including a number of new members who'd just received their pagers, responded to the SAR building, anticipating long litter-carries. Twice the missions were 10-22'd, because Guardian medical personnel ended up going in and getting the victims before we arrived. Well, now the new folks know firsthand what "hurry up and go home" means. It happens.
