Search and Rescue you might ask?

Let me tell you a story that goes back a few years, way back when my son Tavis was maybe 1 ½ years old and my daughter Danielle had just turned 7 years old. We had been living up in Puyallup, Washington and I had planned a vacation to drive 16 hours one way to get to the South Fork of the Yuba River, just outside of Nevada City, California.

I had been going up to the Yuba to camp there almost every year since I first learned about it, when I was like 17 years old and my sister Lyndi had showed me the place. To me this is what I would call “Eden” like the garden of, in the bible. The river water was clear all the way to the bottom and you could see Rainbow Trout swimming in it. There was a natural Spring where we would get our water from, grapes growing around the little pool where the spring surfaced.

Blackberries were abundant and there was even a very large Fig tree there next to a large pool of water, where the river moved very slowly through the Granite canyons. You could splash water up on the Granite boulders and they would be come as slippery as glass. The river not far from the pool, made a “U” shaped water fall that dropped into a natural Jacuzzi, because a hot spring from below this spot made it’s way up to the surface and there were like five small boulders that you could sit on and be just the right height for your head to be out of the water and surrounded by bubbles.

There was a 50 foot slope that went directly into the top of the water fall and if you splashed water up on it, you could slide down and then go over the waterfalls and end up in the bubbles of the snow melted waters from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, that made up the Yuba River.

There has been no other place I have ever been to that comes even close to what I enjoy there camping. Getting a way from it all for 14 days. It was worth the 16 hour drive to get there.

So loading up all our camping gear, ice chests, an inflatable boat and the kids, we left on what we thought would be a nice vacation. I rolled into Grass Valley late in the afternoon and stopped to get our food supply. Then I drove to the Fire-Ranger Station to get a Fire Permit and let the rangers know about where we planned to camp, even though it was on BLM land, I always did this every time I have went camping there.

By the time we reached the bridge that crossed over the North Fork to park, it was already getting late and I was drained from all the driving and very little sleep. But I knew it would take me 3 trips of hiking everything down to where our campsite would be, almost a ½ mile in.

On my third trip down we met a couple that had just gotten married and they were camped too close to us, so I did something I have never done before. I inflated our 6 man rubber boat and went back and forth across the river to set up our camp smack dab in the sand next to the river. I put up the tent and then made a fire for dinner. My friend Gary Newhall had already been down here at the river camping somewhere nearby and I planned on catching up to him.

He however appeared first and said he knew it was my campsite, even before he got down to where we were, because I was flying a large “British Flag” next to our tent. I told him before we left to look for it and he would find us.

I had put some of the water from the river into the boat and pulled it up near the campfire, so the kids could play in it and then prepared dinner. I had not seen Gary in a couple of years and so it was like old times and lots of catching up to do. We were sitting around the campfire when I decided to walk back down in the sand to the edge of the river. The Sun was slowly setting now and soon it would be entirely dark.

I saw the newlyweds sitting on a rock out in the middle of the river enjoying the Sunset and then I looked out towards the pool of water we knew as “Pan’s Pool” or so the locals call it.

All of a sudden I noticed the river had risen and the water had reached up to my feet. I know now that I must have been really tired at the time, because the first thought that came into my mind was: “the tide was coming in.”

It took a moment to register that we were not at the beach and therefore no tide could be rising, but I had never been at the river before, to see water climbing up so quickly and with no other explanation! I remember yelling to the couple on the rocks that the river was rising! They could not hear me over the water’s roar and just waved back at me. I turned around and ran back to where the kids were and Gary could see the alarm on my face.

I said we need to get to higher ground right this minute or were all going to drown! Gary and my wife started scrambling up the rocks and I grabbed Danielle first and handed her to Gary, then I scooped up Tavis and almost threw him to the safety of Gary’s arms. I then started to throw blankets, sleeping bags and grabbed one back pack and was standing on a rock with the water now up to my feet, with the last thing I saw was the river was now pouring into the opening of my tent! I jumped up and Gary grabbed hold of me and pulled me to safety. Then the Sun finally set and left us in darkness, with only the rushing of the water to be heard.

Gary had the only working flashlight and it was a very small one, so it was still difficult to see our surroundings. He said he had been staying in a cave not far from where we stood and said to follow him.

I cannot remember how we got there, struggling with 2 children and trying to carry what I had salvaged.

But what I do remember that this cave was like spread out on 3 different levels. The main entranced open up into a 10x10 room with a fireplace against one wall and a small spring of water running against another wall. The next level towards the back of the cave had Gary’s tent set up in a space of about 5x7 feet and the third level had and old school bus seat set up a bed, with a smaller cave opening that led back outside on top of the cave, with a blanket covering the hole.

I was near collapse and took the sleeping bags and blankets and made up a bed , so the kids would be comfortable and we all could go to sleep. It is a point in time that is a haze to me, as I cannot really remember doing much else, other than what I have just described to you.

The next morning Gary was up making coffee by the fireplace and I awoke to see that the cave we were in, was not really a cave at all, but several very large Granite boulders made a cave like room inside. There was even one slab just outside the front entrance that Gary had several glass “Mason Jars” making some Sun Tea. The place was perfect in keeping you dry from the rain and actually you a kind of home like feeling.

We hiked back down to where my campsite was, around 200 or so yards away and all I could see was the top of my tent and the flag pole sticking up out of the water. I even took a picture of it. The river has risen some 10 feet high and stretched out over a 100 feet of white rushing water. There was no way to cross back over to the other side and the trail that would lead us back out of the canyon and back up to our car.

The boat, our shoes, towels and who knows what else was washed down river yesterday. At least Gary had some supplies, but not much that a family would need. Tavis was still in diapers and we didn’t even have clothes to keep us warm if the climate change and became colder. We headed back to Gary’s cave and basically had to sit out and talk about our situation.

The next day we once again hiked back down to the same spot and the water had dropped to the point the whole tent was exposed now. I could see two floating rafts we would have used to sleep on inside the open tent door. I had roped off and stake the tent so could, it did not move from it’s spot! Amazing was all I could say.

I climbed down the rocks and saw when the river started raising up it washed sand over most of our can food that was next to a rock wall near our campfire. I was able to gather up the cans and even found other items that had slowly moved up the wall and got stuck in crevasses in the rock face, that I was able to retrieve as well. I even found my axe, some of our cookware, but no plates, spoons or forks.

We took this back to the cave and celebrated that at least we had not lost everything. We made the most from what little we had, as what else could we do? But the reality of if the river did not drop down farther, we could not cross back over the water and certainly not with the children. It would not be safe!

I knew from my experience in the past, that the Rangers would often hike down the trails and maybe if they came along, we could get their attention and get rescued. That was our only hope at the time, as we knew no other way out of the boxed canyon that we could go to get out. The cliffs were too steep to climb and the bramble bush all along the top of the ridge was to dense to try to make it through, to get back to the roadway. I also knew if I could manager to find a way back along this side to the bridge, it would end with a 100 cliff drop back down to the roadway and our car. How could I make it down from there?

There was a tunnel that back in the gold mining days, was blasted out to divert the river flow and we were not far from it. We spent most of our day in the sun, sitting on a rock outcropping just above the tunnel entrance and looked out over the river. Not much else we could do and the kids could play and nap on a blanket we spread out there.

Here is where I have another blur of time passing by, as I do not recall doing much else other than watching the river each day and hoped it would drop down and hiking around our nearby surroundings trying to find a way to get out or go find help.

10 days passed by and we were almost out of everything and looked like either I had to make a way or starve. I told Gary that I would try and climb up the mountainside and try to crawl through the bramble bush to go find help. I asked him to stay and protect the kids.

I took a canteen and decided to hike down to the farthest point I could make near the bend in the river and try to make my way up and out from there. Just as I got to point I needed to reach, I started to hear a radio, like the ones the rangers used. All of a sudden I came face to face with a man wearing a bright orange Search & Rescue tee shirt, with several uniformed rangers following not far behind.

I remember my eyes started to tear up and I ran up and grabbed a hold of the guy and gave him a big hug saying thank you over and over. It took another 5 minutes for the rest of the group to reach me and there were about twelve total in all. A ranger came forward and said we saw your car still parked up by the bridge and they had already searched the other side of the river looking for us.

They asked me how many people in our party there were and I asked them about the couple on the other side that had been camping. What they told me next was hard to take. The couple was swept off the rock they were sitting on and that the man had survived, but his new bride’s body was found closer to the bridge.

I showed them back to where the cave was and learned there was a fire road that came some 5 miles down to almost where the cave was. They fed us and checked the kids out medically to make sure we had no major injuries and then called in some to vehicles to drive down the fire road to transport us to the hospital, that we declined to go.

So we went with them back up to the Ranger Station and someone from the Sheriff’s department showed up and asked us some questions. Then we were told that some visiting Governor from another State had wanted to see the water rushing through a dam he was touring at the time, farther up on the river.

Without any warning whatsoever, he was the one responsible for the death of one person and basically ruining my entire vacation. They drove us back to our car and we went into Grass Valley to the first Mac Donald’s I saw and I went in and ordered us up a hot meal. But we looked and smelled like we had not taken a shower in over a week, which really was the true, but I didn’t care anymore!

I have never forgotten that incident and probably never will in my lifetime. I always wanted to give back or somehow say thanks to the people who rescue us and did not give up on us. Some years later I got the change to give back helping people when I got the chance to work as a volunteer fireman up at Mount Hermon where I worked.

It was later still when I got the chance to be asked if I’d like to do Search & Rescue as a volunteer. It is not like I do it everyday and I do not get paid to do the things I do. But I have found over the years that even when an accident might happen in front of me on the roadway, just being at the beach, a State Park or asked to help find a missing child, I would go out and do it without giving another thought to it.

I do what I do, because in my heart, it is what I like to do.

I’ve been thanked by many people that I have stopped and helped out stranded cars on Highway 17, placed many flares on the roadways for the Highway Patrol and generally just lend a helping hand when ever I can be of assistance to someone. I am not looking for an award, my name in the newspaper or any metal for what I do. I wish to remain in the background. I cannot even remember the names or the faces of my rescuers either.