Elk Trail to Hickory Creek Trail 911 Search and Rescue
March 16-18, 2007
Who:  Beartooth, GT, Imre, JonW, KevBro, nd, Storymaker, Trailhead

Day 0 – Friday, March 16, 2007

Our planned hike was the Elk Trail just north of the Quehanna Trail.  By Wednesday, March 14 the reporting stations in this area showed no snow pack remaining.  On Thursday morning the forecast was for cold conditions and occasional flurries.  When I came to work Friday there was now a winter storm warning for central Pennsylvania.  The forecast now predicted 12” of snow.  (This forecast proved to be accurate) 

We planned to meet in Clarion at a restaurant for dinner Friday evening.  Friday morning I sent out an email explaining the situation and said that we would decide what to do at the restaurant.  The two choices were to hike the Elk Trail as planned or to divert to hike Hickory Creek.  The forecast for the Hickory Creek area was 3”-6” of snow.

The Elk Forest Ranger Station confirmed that the forecast was for a foot of snow and that it was currently snowing heavily.  Additionally, the forest service roads that we had to drive on were not plowed and that we would experience ‘difficulty’ in gaining access to the trail.

We met as planned and jointly decided that discretion was the better part of valor and to go to the shorter, less elevation change, less snow trail of Hickory Creek.

We drove to the trailhead and camped in the stand of pine trees just off of the Heart’s Content parking area.

Day’s distance: 0.0 miles
Elevation gain: 0000 feet
Elevation loss: 0000 feet
Time on trail:  0.0 hours

Day 1 - Saturday, March 17, 2007

Everyone was up by 7:30 and we got onto the trail by 9:30.  There was about 6 inches of fresh powder snow on the ground.  Unfortunately nd did not have any gaiters.  After 10-15 minutes of hiking both nd and Imre had fallen significantly behind.  I waited for them to catch up.  I asked nd several different ways if he was ok.  He replied that he was fine as his snow pants kept the snow out of his boots.  I informed him that now was the time to stop his hike, not later.  He insisted that he was fine and he wanted to continue.  It turned out that gaiters were never an issue.

I soon caught up with the other five and we continued on our merry way.  The winter scenes were beautiful.  The hiking was easy for the most part.  In some areas there was a few inches of old snow pack left, but otherwise only fresh, light snow; easy to walk through.

KevBro did most of the trail finding and he certainly has a knack for it.  A few times we lost the blazes, but within minutes had them again and we continued on.  Trailhead also lead some of the way.

A number of times when I was leading looking for a blaze, KevBro would say, “There is a blaze.”  “Where?”  “You are looking right at it”  “I may be looking at it but I do not see it.”  Then I would see it.

The woods were beautiful in their fresh, untouched coat of snow.  The pines and hemlocks looked frosted.  After a while we passed three boy scouts on their way out.  We stopped and chatted with them and they were happy to be going home.  We asked them if they had any problems with the blazes and they said no.  We now had tracks to follow and this made things easier.  We just had to occasionally double check that we were still passing blazes. 

We crossed Coon Run for the last time a little after noon.  KevBro, Trailhead, Storymaker, and I decided to have a leisurely lunch while the four others caught up.  Beartooth showed up and shortly after that GT.  They had waited for quite a while several times for Imre and nd but neither had appeared.

After waiting for an hour we were beginning to get chilled and had to get on the move again.  We left for Jacks Run. 

We arrived at Jacks Run and worked our way down the stream debating about potential campsites.  We eventually chose the last area just before going up to the ridge above the west side of the stream.  Several times we went between two sites and finally choose this last one.

We got into camp and had our packs off shortly before 3:00 PM.  Everyone cleared their area of snow and set up their tents.  Then we began our firewood gathering expedition.  We collected and cut quite a pile of wood by 5:30 PM in anticipation of our evening blaze.

Still no Imre or nd.  KevBro and Storymaker volunteered to go back up the trail to see if they could find them.  They retraced the route for over half a mile and blew a whistle trying to locate the two of them.  They came back into camp and reported their lack of success.

We decided that either they had camped at Coon Run (I had shared my previous Hickory Creek experience with them in Clarion) or gone back to the car.  If they camped at Coon Run, we expected them to retrace their steps in the morning.  If they had already retraced there steps, we expected them to camp at the trailhead as we had the previous night.

In any case we could not send folks all the way back to either site safely.

We all cooked our evening meal and had a wonderful fire.  Beartooth brought some mule deer tenderloin which he cooked on the fire in a shish-kabob basket.  He shared this will all.  It was the best game meat that I have ever tasted.  Thanks Beartooth!

We all made an early evening of it and turned in by 10:30 PM, expecting to get about 9 hours of sleep as first light was at 7:30.

Day’s distance: 6.1 miles
Elevation gain: 500 feet
Elevation loss: 1000 feet
Time on trail:  5.0 hours

Day 2 - Sunday, March 18, 2007

I got up at 8:30, a great night’s sleep.  GT reported that it had gotten down to 14 degrees during the night.  Others lounged a little later.  We hit the trail by 10:00 AM. 

The trip back to the trailhead was uneventful.  KevBro lead the way most of the time and once again did a great job.  We speculated about whether nd and Imre would be there when we got there or not.  We fully expected them to be there. 

They were not there.  We kick around a little bit discussing what to do.  We decided that KevBro and I would go back towards Coon Run expecting to meet them along the way.  We went in a little over two miles.  No Imre or nd.  We turned around and returned to the trailhead.  It was a much slower going back.  We reached the parking area a little before 3:00 PM.

We hoped that they would be at the trailhead when we got there.  They were not.  Now what?  Are they injured?  Broken leg?  Just really slow?  A heart attack?  We discussed the most likely scenarios.  Since I was the trip organizer, people were looking to me to make a decision.  Wait for an hour or two?  Call the authorities?  If the authorities, what authorities?

I took a piece of trash and walked over to the pavilion to throw it out to give myself ‘space’ to make this decision.  If I were to call the authorities I will be putting others at risk.  Additionally if Imre and nd came out when the authorities are on their way, I will look the fool.  But if they are injured, I had to give whoever responds as much daylight as possible.

I decided that the balance had to come down on safety of nd and Imre.  I knew that they should be back and that ‘something’ was probably wrong.  I tried three different cell phones, each with a different service.  None of the cell phones worked.  No service.

I copied down the posted forest service number and asked Beartooth (and his 4-wheel drive) to drive Trailhead into Warren to make the call.

I said to try the forest service number first.  I suspected that this number would not be manned.  It wasn’t.   I instructed them to call 911 if the forest service number did not work.  Reluctantly, Trailhead did so at around 3:30.  The folks in Beartooth’s car then called their spouses to inform them we would be late coming home and why.

A little after 4:00 PM vehicles with flashing lights started arriving.  Then Beartooth got back.

They interviewed us about what happened and we gave them a shorter version of what was reported above.  They knew that Imre and nd were on the Hickory Creek Trail, but we had no idea of where on the trail.

Before 5:00 PM two search teams were on their way into the woods.  One going along the north loop and the other on the south loop.  This was incredibly swift response.  I was very pleased.

Between 5:00 and 6:00 KevBro, Storymaker, and I drove into Warren to give our wives a call to let them know what was going on.  We decided not to call nd’s or Imre’s spouses as we had no solid information to give them.

We returned to the trailhead and waited.  And waited.

About 7:30 we heard the great news.  Imre and nd were found!  They were exhausted but fine, but that Imre had diabetes and was out of medicine.  They were camped on the trail about four miles in, inside their sleeping bags, in their tents.

Time begins to blur.

Snowmobiles are brought in – several with toboggans and several without.

They take off into the woods as now the situation is a medical emergency because Imre is a diabetic and without medicine.  They have to saw their way through numerous blow downs.  They continue to work closer.  The effort that the search and rescue teams put in was tremendous.

We had nothing to eat since breakfast and were now getting hungry.  Somewhere near 9:00 Beartooth went back to Warren to pick up some food.  Both nd’s and Imre’s spouses were called to let them know what was going on as best we knew it and that we could not call from the trailhead as there was no cell service.  That we would call again, when we could, with an update.

After eating, I decided that there was no need for Beartooth, Trailhead, and Storymaker to stay.  We moved Imre’s ‘stuff’ to my car and Storymaker moved his equipment to Beartooth’s vehicle.  They left for home.  GT had to wait for nd as he came in nd’s car.

More time passed.

At one time I counted vehicles.  Three ambulances, one fire truck, one rescue vehicle with rescue trailer, three vehicles pulling snowmobile trailers, and many other trucks and SUVs.  There were a total of seventeen road vehicles plus the four snowmobiles and a six-wheeler.  Many others came and went; I have no way of knowing the total number of vehicle involved.

Around midnight we were told that one of the snowmobiles was almost back with one of the hikers and that the LZ had to be cleared.  LZ!?!  Yes, that a Life Flight had been arranged and they had to clear the road to where the helicopter could land.  Wow, now what?  Had Imre gone seriously downhill?  I dug out my down jacket and put my boots and gaiters back on.  KevBro, GT, and I and walked over to where the LZ was being prepared.  As we got out to the road a snowmobile arrived with Imre on the back.  He was taken over to an ambulance and taken inside.  He was checked by the paramedic.  After 15-20 minutes the paramedic came out and told us that Imre was being released.  That he had signed a medical release and was ‘free to go’.

They cancelled the Life Flight that was standing by.  Imre was driven back to the Heart’s Content parking area as we walked back.  He got out and I directed him to my car which I started to keep him warm.

More time passed.

In came a snowmobile pulling a toboggan with Imre’s and nd’s gear with three of the search and rescue team in tow followed shortly with another snowmobile carrying nd.

By now it was 1:00 AM on Monday. 

We waited for the snowmobile towing the last of the search and rescue team to pull in.  We went around thanking everyone profusely.

GT drove nd’s car.  We pulled out for the long drive home at 1:15 AM.  I got home around 5:30 AM on Monday.

Now, what the bleep happened to nd and Imre?

I have pieced together what I think most likely happened.

On Saturday they hiked until 6:45 PM following our trail and had reached Jacks Run where they expected to find us.  We were on Jacks Run but over a half mile downstream.  This time would have put them at Jacks Run after KevBro and Storymaker had gone looking for them.  They set up camp, had dinner and went to bed. 

In the morning they followed the trail again to where it last crosses Jacks Run and heads uphill.  Here they followed our footprints for a little bit, but the blazes are infrequent here and we had to break up to find them.  They stopped following our footprints here.  Imre felt he knew a shortcut and nd wanted to return to follow our footprints.  The further they went off-trail the more committed they became to this ‘shortcut’.

After hours (not sure how long) of stumbling through the woods they came across our tracks again.  Now they asked themselves “Where are we?”  On the north loop?  On the south loop?  They did not know in what direction to turn.  If they turn the wrong way they may have to hike most of the loop again.  They followed the tracks for a little while trying to orient themselves with their map and compass and still were unsure of where they were.

Imre had lost all energy do to his exertion and lack of medication and nd was exhausted.  Instead of going perhaps away from the cars they decided to ‘hug a tree’ and wait for rescue on Monday.  This decision was made about 4:00 PM.  They set up camp and settled in for a long wait.

The search and rescue team found them around 7:30 PM.

Day’s distance: 4.9 miles
Elevation gain: 800 feet
Elevation loss: 300 feet
Time on trail:  2.75 hours

Total Trip:
Distance:  11.0
Elevation gain: 1300 feet
Elevation loss: 1300 feet
Time on trail:  7.75 hours

Lessons learned:

I felt the fool when I learned that Imre is diabetic.  Conditions that may affect hikers should be known by all in the group.  Conditions such as diabetes, severe allergies, epilepsy, etc.  This is not an invasion of privacy; it is for the safety of each individual and the group.

In retrospect, I should have gone back with my full pack after lunch to find nd and Imre.  At the time I thought about it, but decided to go on, that they would catch up at our camp.   If I had gone back, we probably would have camped at Coon Run and retraced our steps on Sunday.  I have lost hours of sleep angsting about what should have been done and what might have been.  On the other side of this coin, I should not have had to go back.  We had been on trail for 3.5 hours, actually hiking for about 2.25 hours.  GT had several times waited for considerable spells back up the trail.  In no case did Imre or nd catch up.

This leads to: Hikers of widely disparate hiking speeds should not participate in the same backpacking trip.  It is not fair to either group.

When individuals I do not personally know post for trips of mine in the future, I will either contact a person that I know that has hiked with them and get their opinion or I will talk with them directly to better understand their hiking style.  (speed, distance, elevation change, experience, temperament, ability, etc.)

I never, ever want to be a part of a 911 call situation like this again.

I hope that this does not embarrass either Imre or nd – it is not intended to.  I have taken the time and effort (and believe me it has been considerable) to document this fiasco as an illustration to others.  Things can go wrong in a heartbeat – even in an area as easy as Hickory Creek.