Couple rescued after being stranded in desert for days

[Halberdier]

Haven't posted here in quite a while. This one hits close to home though. I spent a week at Big Bend Ranch park and know the conditions there well. It takes a very minimal level of awareness to understand that you don't go on a hike there without basic gear. I'm not judging this couple, but if there was anything they could do wrong, they did it.


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57606463.html

(CBS News) When Cathy Frye and her husband Rick McFaralnd arrived at Big Bend Ranch state park last Wednesday, they set out for what was supposed to be an afternoon hike, but by nightfall they were lost and in trouble.

"We discovered that there had been quite a bit of rain and what looked to be flash flooding that had knocked a lot of the trail markers out of the way," said Frye.

Tired and out of water the couple had no choice but to spend the night outside.

The next day they tried, but failed to find their way back. After another night in the elements, hypothermia began to set in.

By day three, Frye told her husband she could barely walk anymore.

"That's, that's when I told him that he needed to go, he needed to leave me," she said.

"I knew one of us has to go, because if we stay there we're gonna die, there was just no way around it," said McFarland." "We said our 'I love you's' to each other and she wanted me to tell the kids to make sure to let them know she tried."

Exhausted, dehydrated and growing delirious, McFarland wandered for hours, passing out several times until he managed to find help.

"The next thing you know there are about a dozen guys there, I didn't know where they came from," he said.

Nearly 40 rescuers were involved in the search and as they looked for any sign of Frye, the 43-year-old was hanging on for life.

"I was pretty incoherent," she said. "I had taken my clothes off. I don't know where they were. I was laying just out in the elements."

It would be two days before crews finally spotted Frye a little more than a mile from where the couple had started out all those days earlier.

Fernando Rincon Jr. of the Texas State Park Police was among the first to reach her

"We stopped and just listened, and we heard a faint 'help' and we looked down and there was Cathy, about 50 yards below us," said Rincon.

"They took their own clothes, they put their socks on me, they put their shirts collectively on me," she said. "It was just a surreal moment"

A helicopter airlifted Frye to the hospital where she's still recovering from the incredible ordeal.

"She's alive and I won't have to be without her and I get to take her home," said McFarland.

McFarland said he used the zoom on his camera to help find his way back. He's a photographer and she's a reporter for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Both are award-winning journalists and have been with the same paper since the 1990's.

 

[Bob W]

Remote desert hiking requires special skills, knowledge, and preparation. And it contains a good dose of inherent risk compared to most other environments, especially this couple's Ozark Mountain home turf. Deserts are tough.

This couple made several common errors: being deficient in navigation, short on water, and hiking above their physical skill level. None of those however, even combined, should have led to a critical situation. Their big mistake was not turning back sooner. Exploring a remote desert is like deep sea diving; you have to take corrective action as soon as problems start. You can't wait it out, you can't swim to the next reef to see if the situation improves, and you can't depend on someone else to bail you out.

Glad it worked out for them. :thumbup:

 

[nezpercelands]

Some people's kids....jeez. I walk a mile to the store for a six pack and I'm better prepared.

 

[Codger_64]

Left out of the story was the fact that they were sent there unprepared by a "helpful" NPS ranger from Big Bend NP.

Frye and her photographer husband, Rick McFarland, had camped at Big Bend National Park, but the federal government shutdown forced them out on Tuesday.

They took a park ranger’s suggestion and headed to the Big Bend Ranch State Park, a 300,000-acre expanse of rugged, remote land along the western border.

 

[jackknife]

Again and again, all these news stories come back to just two things; total lack of common sense, and not even a shoulder bag or day pack with the 10 essentials. Even a tiny button compass would have prevented this. They're in desert featureless terrain. If you take a bring when you start off, then you know how to get back.

If you don't know what direction you're going, how do you know what direction to return to?

 

[Codger_64]

They did have some supplies but lost them during a stop as their brains became foggy. Of note is that he finally found his way out and to help using his cell phone's camera zoom feature to spy his truck in a parking lot off in the distance.

 

[Halberdier]

They did have some supplies but lost them during a stop as their brains became foggy. Of note is that he finally found his way out and to help using his cell phone's camera zoom feature to spy his truck in a parking lot off in the distance.

Yes, but that was only some food. The first three essentials would be shelter-water-fire. A 2 oz thermal blanket, Bic lighter and a tiny bottle of iodine would have changed the outcome completely. Above all though, they lacked a survival mentality. I bet everyone reading this would have found some available natural shelter, a way to make fire (glasses?) and would be digging for water at the base of a cliff. The story did mention recent flooding, so water was there to be had.

All they did was walk around hoping to find help while using up their energy and resources.

 

[Codger_64]

We really don't know what they had in that daypack, do we? And these were adults who had some experience in the outdoors, nore than the average urban dweller. Mistakes were compounded as their condition deteriorated. Finding direction without a compass is elementary for most people who have been away from sidewalks and street signs.

 

[Halberdier]

The park itself is an amazing, rugged place. Very peaceful and remote. Our camping spot was a good 30 minute drive away from anyone else, but you can be as far away as a two hour drive, all by yourself with no way to communicate. The first and last pics are from where we camped.

 

[Halberdier]

We really don't know what they had in that daypack, do we? And these were adults who had some experience in the outdoors, nore than the average urban dweller. Mistakes were compounded as their condition deteriorated. Finding direction without a compass is elementary for most people who have been away from sidewalks and street signs.

From another news story, it was a fanny pack and it had some food in it.

 

[Codger_64]

From another news story, it was a fanny pack and it had some food in it.

And nothing else? We don't know that. The report only mentioned food in it. But most of us know that food is about the least essential item once can have in most survival situations. What else was in the pack? Or pockets? Again, we don't know. We can only assume because some metropolitan reporter wrote that story with what he thought was an importaint detail... food.

 

[phillipsted]

I just shared this with our Scout Troop. As someone who has hiked all over the Big Bend area, I truly hope that Rick and Cathy's story can help educate folks to avoid these pitfalls.

The founder of Boy Scouts, Lord Baden Powell said it best in 1908:

"The Scout Motto is: BE PREPARED which means you are always in a state of readiness in mind and body to do your DUTY.

Be Prepared in Mind by having disciplined yourself to be obedient to every order, and also by having thought out beforehand any accident or situation that might occur, so that you know the right thing to do at the right moment, and are willing to do it.

Be Prepared in Body by making yourself strong and active and able to do the right thing at the right moment, and do it."


TedP

 

[jdk1]

Left out of the story was the fact that they were sent there unprepared by a "helpful" NPS ranger from Big Bend NP.

I haven't read anything other than what is within this thread, but it looks like all the "ranger" (what the public calls anyone doing work anywhere near a park) did was direct them to a park which was open. As BB Ranch is a state park, all guests were likely directed there.

It is easy to die on the SW border. It happens all the time. While you can see for miles in west Texas, everything often looks the same. One wrong step can result in injury or death and the elements are as harsh as you will find. I have emptied a 100 oz. camelback on several occasions in the first half of an average temperature day. As one who spent over a decade in that stuff, I believe that country is not meant to be inhabited. When Phil Sheridan said, “If I owned Texas and Hell, I’d rent out Texas and live in Hell.”, he most assuredly was looking at west Texas If you go there, over prepare. The smart locals don't even drive the highways without carrying extra water and basic supplies in my experience. Take care.

 

[killgar]

Although I am glad that the couple is alright, I have no sympathy for their experience. And here's why-

This wasn't a case of people who went into the wild PREPARED and found themselves in a completely unpredictable situation (like being bitten by a snake, injured by falling rocks, or stepping into a gopher hole and breaking their leg, etc, etc). Instead, what we have here are two ADULTS who CHOSE to enter an unfamiliar environment without the most basic of necessities for that environment. These weren't children who wandered off, they are grown adults. And if they truly are experienced outdoors people, then they are all the more at fault because they should have known better.

And I wouldn't place any blame on the park ranger. Park rangers are not obligated to obtain the background and wilderness survival qualifications of GROWN ADULTS who are looking for a place to take a day hike. Grown adults are responsible for knowing their own level of skill, their own limitations, and preparing themselves properly for their journey.

And if there is any question about whether or not people have the right to judge the couple, I wonder how much the rescue cost the taxpayers? Perhaps those financial resources could have been spent on conserving and maintaining the park, rather than rescuing two adults who should have known better. But like I said, I'm glad they are ok. I guess even stupid people deserve to be rescued.

 

[22-rimfire]

It appears that they made two mistakes; insufficient water and no fire making tools.

Since they weren't planning on visiting there, they probably had little knowledge of the State Park and may not have even had a general trail map of some kind. Althought typically not detailed, they do help to keep you oriented.

 

[Mastalerz]

It's very easy to get turned around out in the wilderness, I mean even a lapse in short turn memory can really screw with you. Combine that with dehydration and you're really going to be confused. A lot of people seem quick to judge these two but by the sounds of the trail markers were blown away, and like I said you're out there and everything looks the same it's real easy to get to lost. I think a bigger problem is you have a lot if people out there that like to go hiking and such but they don't go prepared, very often this isn't is a problem because trails are clearly marked. But you won't catch my on a small hike without some basic essentials, some people might think it's weird i have a bag on my back and knife on my belt but it really does not take much to get turned around, there are too many people counting grams rather than making sure they have some basic supplies. Don't really feel bad for them, glad they are okay, but I think something like this happens a lot easier than most people think and I don't understand why these people don't go more prepared.