I have always loved hiking since before I was a young teenager in the Scouts. My desire and passion for going hiking, back packing and camping has stayed with me well into my adult years.

It has stayed with me from my early teenage years through high school, college and beyond into my adult working life. I have continued that even after I graduated from college, received my degree and went to work.

Living in one of the intermountain states there is no lack of opportunity to go hiking, back packing and camping. There are national parks and designated wilderness areas all over the intermountain west that are available to outdoorsmen to use and enjoy.

There is a huge national park and wilderness area within a short drive of my home. I like to visit it frequently for picnicking, hiking, back packing and camping. However, most of the use I have gotten out of the national park has been for back packing and camping.

My name is David and I am 26 years old. I have graduated from college and have a full time job as a production manager with a local manufacturing company. I live in a small home not far from the location of the manufacturing facilities of the company that I work for. It is not a very great distance away from my home to my company’s work facilities and it is a very convenient location to live and work in.

I love the mountain environment along with the change of seasons. The change of seasons provides for all kinds of sports and recreation to anybody that wants to avail themselves of it. Anyone who wants to can take advantage of and become involved in any of those activities whatever they choose. It’s just a great place to live and work.

Misty, my former girlfriend, who used to live with me in my home was not all that far from where she worked, either. However, she decided that she wanted to do other things and she decided to move out and live solely on her own terms elsewhere.

Needless to say I was very much disappointed when she decided to split the sheet. But, I told her that I would never stand in her way to do as she chose. We were not married and she was free to come and go and to do whatever she chose to do and to do what she thought was best for her.

When she left my home there were no ill feelings between us as it was an amicable separation. I loved her but, I wasn’t sure that she really loved me. When we first started going together and she lived with me, she used to go hiking and back packing with me mostly on day trips.

She even went on a few overnight camp outs, too. However, I think part of it may have been that she had grown tired of going hiking and camping so she decided to split. Her dissatisfaction with our life style hit me after she split but, she had never complained about it. How the hell was I to know especially since she never said a word to me that she wasn’t happy with our life style?

I still see Misty around town from time to time and we are always friendly and talk with each other. We visit briefly inquiring about how each of us is doing. It appears that she has found a new boyfriend and she has moved in with him.

I have never met him but, I wished them both well. It occurred to me they may have decided to get married and they were ready to start their own family before very long. I sure didn’t want to interfere with her life and her new boyfriend. It really wouldn’t do either one of us any good for me to interfere with them and what they were doing.

After Misty and I split, I still spent a lot of time going hiking and camping in the huge national park and wilderness area not far from my home mostly by myself. Occasionally I would meet someone on the trail that wanted to hike or back pack with me just for company for the day.

I always liked having a companion hiking or back packing with me. On many weekends and on some of my vacations I’d pack up my 4WD camper and drive up to the visitor’s area of the national park.

There I could park and leave my camper. I could leave it with relative assurance and comfort that it will not be subject to theft or to vandalism. That was true even if I chose to leave it for the day or even overnight on a weekend.

It was safe even if I chose to camp out for one or two nights or occasionally even longer especially on a holiday weekend. I could expect it to still be there relatively undamaged when I returned from my mountain back packing trips.

One weekend sometime back I drove up to the park, hoisted my back pack up onto my shoulders and set out upslope. I left my camper in the parking lot of the visitor’s center and started out on my back packing trip. I was carrying enough food and gear that I could stay out for one or even two nights if I chose to do so.

My back pack carried my small tent, my bedroll, my cooking gear, food and some extra warm clothes. It also carried my camp ax and the first aid kit I always made sure I had in my back pack.

I always try to be prepared for an adverse situation if one should arise. Of course, I always have my semiautomatic 12 gauge with slugs in the magazine with me. I estimated that all of my gear weighed well over 100 pounds or even more. And I also had my small digital camera that I always have with me to take pictures of anything that I happen to find interesting.

I especially look to take pictures of deer and other similar wildlife if I get the opportunity to do so. I even get a picture of a gopher snake now and again. I just really don’t want to run into a grizzly if I can help it.

Running into a grizzly is bad news at best. As the old time mountain men used to say, “They are unpleasantly abundant.” That’s the reason for carrying my 12 gauge with me when I go into the wilderness. My 12 gauge with slugs has a lot of stopping power.

But, like most back packers, I have the little bear alert bell attached to my back pack so that I don’t surprise a grizzly. The use of my 12 gauge is pretty much a last ditch measure. Many people say that even though you shoot the bear it will still have enough life in it to kill you anyway. I really don’t know about that. I always just give a grizzly a wide berth if I see them. Better safe than sorry. Why tempt fate and get mauled at best or killed at worst by a grizzly.

I started out on my trip about an hour after sunup. The air was pretty cool and I was wearing just my light wind breaker along with my mountain hiking boots, jeans, a tee shirt, a long sleeve shirt and my broad brimmed hat. I was pretty comfortable during my hiking trip and I hiked for a couple of hours.

I generally start out my hike and walk for a couple of hours. I estimate that I may have walked a distance of 7 to 9 miles depending on the slope and the amount of brush I have to wade through. Of course, the slope condition of the trail is a factor in that, too.

Then I generally stop and rest for a half hour and eat a couple of energy bars and drink water or an energy drink or sometimes coffee from my thermos. Following that, I hike for another couple of hours before I stop to make lunch. If it’s only going to be a day trip I’ll continue on after lunch by another trail back toward the visitor center.

This particular day I had hiked for two hours, rested in a small clearing and then resumed my hike. About an hour after that, I began to see something totally unusual laying beside the trail up ahead of me.

I thought whatever it was it really should not be there. It was about 200 yards up the trail and it was difficult for me to make out what it was from where I first saw it. As I got closer it began to look like a person laying beside the trail.

When I got to within about 50 yards, I kind of quickened my pace. Once I got to within a few yards of it I could make out that it was a person laying motionless beside the trail. The person had their head laying on the cold bare ground. I said to myself, ‘Holy shit, I sure hope that this person is Ok’. Laying on the cold ground at any time in these mountains is never a good idea no matter what the reason. That’s the best way I know of to wake up dead.

When I got up close to the person I slipped my back pack off of my shoulders and sat it on the ground just a couple of feet away. I got closer to the person and found that it was a young woman maybe in her early to mid 20’s and she looked to be a very pretty young girl. I figured that she was pretty close to being my age.

Even after I got close to her she still laid motionless. I was concerned that she may have even been dead. However, when I put my hand down to feel of her face she was very cold but, she was not dead cold and stiff.

Her face and lips appeared to be somewhat blue from the cold air and ground. I could feel that she had a weak carotid pulse beside her throat and her breathing was very shallow.

I thought that she may have been hypothermic, maybe even in shock and probably dehydrated, too. She had mud on the side of her face and some mud matted in her long, pretty blond hair from laying on the cold, very damp ground for who knows how long.

I immediately realized that I had to do something to help her or she was certainly going to die of exposure. I had to do something quickly to begin to help her conserve her own remaining body heat and get her warmed up somehow if I could.

It had been spitting a little bit of light rain on me for the last couple of hours of my hike before I found her. And I was glad that I’d had my hat and my water resistant wind breaker on.

Because of the light rain her clothes were damp, as well, which didn’t help her any with the conservation of her body heat. Although her clothes were damp they certainly were not saturated, just damp.

It had been sunny earlier that morning but not long after I started out, the skies became over cast and the light rain started falling along with a slow drop in the temperature. Of course, the temperature in the higher altitudes is generally lower than it is in the lower elevations anyway and it gets even colder at night, as well.

I figured that a cold front was moving in and it was likely going to get even colder with more nasty weather to come later in the day or maybe even tonight. I was really hoping that the heavier rain would hold off until much later.

The girl was dressed in a pair of mountain hiking boots, tight, designer, form fitting jeans and a thin cotton long sleeve shirt. She had no jacket and no hat, not very good attire for these conditions. That certainly wasn’t very good apparel to be wearing on a mountain trail with these conditions.

I went to my back pack and pulled out my heavy, lined, hooded jacket, which was way too big for her. But, I didn’t have any choice. I put my hooded jacket on her anyway.

I got the girl into a sitting position, braced her back against my thigh as I knelt with one knee on the ground. I put my heavy jacket on her, zipped it up and pulled the hood up over her head. I had hopes of getting her warm or at least conserving what little body heat she still had remaining.

Also, I knew that I needed to get her off of the cold ground to help her conserve her own body heat. I could see that there was a small clearing just a few yards up the trail with plenty of pine needles laying on the ground and some large rocks and a large rock face that kind of formed a little bit of a wind break.

I knew that the rock face would make a good heat reflector and a good fire stop for a camp fire if I had to lay and light a camp fire to help warm her.

Picking her up I carried her with her head laying on my chest up to the small clearing up ahead. Then I laid her on a small mound of pine needles temporarily until I could make it larger for her. I estimated that she probably weighed 110 to 120 pounds not much more than my back pack.

She was relatively small compared to my 6 Ft.-1 in. 220 pound frame. But, an unconscious and limp person is not easy to carry and keep their head and neck properly supported as another person carries them cradled in their arms.

Then I began to scrape up a large pile of pine needles, large enough to let her rest comfortably on it. Following that, I quickly walked back to my back pack and got out my tent. As I got my small tent spread out I laid it on top of the piled up pine needles since they were damp and my tent was dry. I knew it should help limit her body heat loss to the pine needles and to the ground below her.

The girl still had not stirred or made any kind of sound during all the time I was tending to her. I went back and got my back pack and brought it up to the clearing where the girl was still laying motionless facing the rock face. I checked her pulse and her breathing again but, it was still about the same as when I first found her.

Her face, hands and wrists were still cold and felt so to my hands. I knew that I needed to get her warmer so I went over to the rock face cleared it of all of the pine needles to lay and start a small camp fire in hopes of getting her warmed up at least some.

In order to start a safe camp fire I cleared that area of all of the pine needles. Then I made a small circle of small rocks at the base of the rock face to make a sort of fire pit and to make sure that the fire did not spread out of that pit area.

I sure as hell didn’t want the pine needles to catch fire and start a wild fire which would damn sure kill the both of us. I gathered some fallen wood and laid a small camp fire and lit it.

When the fire was burning well enough I got my bedroll from my back pack and held it up close to the fire to warm it and then placed it over her to help get more warmth into her body. I continued to warm her with my bedroll by repeatedly warming it in front of the camp fire. And that technique seemed to be helping to warm her up some.

After about an hour of doing that, her temperature seemed to be warming up somewhat. Her face and lips began to turn a little less blue and she turned a little more pinkish. I was really hoping that she would get warm enough to regain consciousness.

Then I began to think, ‘What am I going to do if I can’t get her warmed up and conscious before night fall especially if it starts raining harder. I could lift and carry my 100 pound back pack strapped to my shoulders. But, I didn’t think that I could carry a 120 pound unconscious woman nearly 10 miles or more downslope to the visitor’s center cradled in my arms.

It’s one thing to carry a 100 pound back pack strapped to my shoulders but, it is a hell of a lot different thing to carry an unconscious person very far let alone ten miles back to the visitor’s center.

And there is no way in hell that she would survive if I tried to carry her draped over my shoulders. I had to think of something else to get help for her and for me, too. And I damn sure was not going to abandon her here to certainly let her die.

I had just about exhausted everything I knew to do to help her. I later learned that I could have put something warm on her tummy and on her back to help warm her core temperature. That is if I’d had something that I could use to warm her without burning her or hurting her. I guess I could have warmed a flat rock by the fire and used that to warm her but, I didn’t know that at the time.

However, I sure as hell did not want to harm her in any way trying to help her. That is the worst thing that I could have done for her. I thought that is what the medical people always say, “First, do no harm”? And I sure as hell was not going to do anything that I thought could harm her.

After having lit the camp fire I remembered that campers were only allowed to start camp fires except in the designated areas. So I hoped that the forest rangers would see the smoke from my camp fire and they would soon come to investigate the source of the smoke.

To aid in that effort, I built up the fire and put some damp pine needles on the fire to make more smoke and a different color smoke as I continued to stay close to her and keep a close watch over the girl.

It occurred to me that she may have been injured so I began to check her arms, her feet, her lower legs and her ankles to see if she was alright. I thought that she could have sprained an ankle and that was why she may have been laying on the ground. I checked her left leg and ankle and it appeared to be alright.

When I took her right ankle into my hands and began to check it she made the first sound that I’d heard from her. She made a low light groan of pain. I reasoned that she may have had a sprained ankle and that was a strong indication of why she was laying on the ground.

Then I thought that if I could get her to some level of consciousness I could make some tea for her from the supplies that I had in my back pack. I decided to make some tea for her if she did eventually regain consciousness.

I figured it would help raise her body temperature up to more normal levels and help treat her dehydration, as well. While keeping a close eye on her I got my supplies out of my back pack and began to brew some tea for her and some for me, too.

After I made the tea I warmed my hands by the camp fire and gently touched her face and her neck to help warm her. But, she never got to the point where I thought that she could safely drink the tea without strangling. I continued to stay close with her and warm her hands and forearms with my hands and watch over her.

It was beginning to get late in the afternoon and I had begun to wonder what I was going to do when night fell. I kept the camp fire going and then about two hours before sundown I heard what sounded like hoof beats coming up the trail toward me. It turned out to be two forest rangers on horseback.

At first, the rangers seemed to be very irritated that I had made a camp fire here and not in the designated area. They stopped, dismounted and asked me, “Sir, don’t you know that you are not allowed to start a camp fire outside of the designated areas?”

I responded and told them, “Yes, sir, I do but, I have come upon this unconscious girl laying by the trail and I needed to get her warmed up if I could. I thought that I had to light the camp fire to get help for her.

It also doubled as a signal that I needed assistance for her. There is no way I would be able to carry her all the way back to the visitor’s center cradled in my arms.”

They immediately said that they understood the situation and they quickly said, “We are going to have to take her back to the visitor’s center to get her some medical attention from the EMS people very quickly for her or at least as soon as possible.”

One of the rangers pulled a hand held two way radio off of his belt and talked to the visitor’s center. He told them they had found the source of the smoke and it was contained. They also had an unconscious young woman that they were going to bring back to the visitor’s center on horseback. They also needed to have an EMS ambulance meet them there within the hour to take charge of her and start her medical treatment.

They told me, they would immediately put her on one of their mounts and take her back to the visitor’s center. The rangers and I lifted her up and put her into the saddle of one of their mounts.

We wrapped my bedroll around her to help keep her as warm as possible during the horseback ride back to the visitor’s center. It sure made me happy to know that she would soon be getting the proper medical treatment she needed to get through this and start her recovery.

Then one of the rangers who seemed to be in charge mounted his horse behind her behind the saddle. He took hold of her to keep her in the saddle as they rode and he started to head back to the visitor’s center with her. He immediately left my makeshift camp site and headed out for the visitor’s center with the girl in the saddle in front of him.

The other ranger helped me police the area dousing the camp fire and scattering the rocks that encircled it and scattered the pine needles as well. Then he asked, “Sir, do you want me to take you back to the visitor’s center on my mount or do you want to continue your hike?”

I told him, “Yes, thank you, sir. It’s too late in the day for me to continue my hike today. I’ll have to continue this trip some other time. And you can call me David.” I retrieved my back pack and we mounted his horse with me behind him in the saddle. We returned to the visitor’s center just after sundown and dark was just beginning to fall.

During the ride back I told him, “I’m really happy that you rangers had come to find both of us before dark and thanks for all of your help.” By the time we got back to the visitor’s center they had called EMS for an ambulance.

The ambulance had already arrived and the EMS people had taken the girl to a local hospital for the medical people to start her recovery treatment. I was certainly glad that the girl had made it back to the visitor’s center before dark and she was on her way to the hospital for her treatment.

When we arrived at the visitor’s center just before dark the rangers told me, “We have to make out a report on what has happened today. We need some information from you about what happened today, sir.” The rangers asked me, “Are you some kind of medical professional or have you had some medical training, David?”

I told them, “No, sir, neither one. I just knew from my own common sense that if I didn’t do something for her she was going to die of exposure. And I damn sure was not going to let her die if there was anything I could do to help keep that from happening. I just like to think that if I was in her situation someone would come along and help me like that.”

They took my name, address and telephone number before I headed back for home. Then they told me, “Mr. Warren we have completed our report and you are free to go. On behalf of that young woman that you have helped, let me thank you, sir.”

“Thank you, sir. You two guys did as much or more than I did or could do to help her.” I said as I started to walk out to my camper, to head for my home.

Before leaving the visitor’s center, I loaded up my camper with my back pack and started on my way back home. By that time it had turned much colder than earlier that day.

I was really glad that I had chosen to come back to the visitor’s center and then go on home. On my way home I thought, ‘Hell, I don’t even know her name or who she is or if I’ll ever see her again. And she was very pretty and very shapely, too.’

Thinking about it, I just hoped to God that she’s going to be Ok and that she’ll survive this terrible ordeal.’ When I got home, I cleaned up my gear and stowed it and I showered.

I fixed myself a late supper and began to resume my normal routine activities at home. Being busy I kind of put what had happened that day in the back of my mind. I got busy with other things around my home that had to be done, as well as being very busy at work the next few weeks after that.

For the next couple of weeks I had been extremely busy at work and had to work a lot of extra hours as well. I really did not have the chance to think much about or reflect on the girl or what had happened with her on that cold mountain trail.

Then one Saturday morning some weeks later I got up and went through my normal routine of showering, shaving, getting dressed and making my breakfast. I normally did my weekend household Susy Homemaker chores after lunch.

Just having sat down with my second cup of coffee to read the morning paper and watch the news on TV, the doorbell rang. I went to the front door and looked out through the side windows. There stood a shapely, well dressed, pretty, young woman with stylishly cut blond hair and she had a shopping bag in her hand.

I thought to myself, ‘I wonder what she is selling? She didn’t look like a bible thumper. They were normally dressed in dark drab clothes and visited in pairs anyway. I didn’t think she was selling Girl Scout cookies but, maybe she was selling magazine subscriptions. ‘

I opened the door and asked, “Hello, what can I do for you, Miss?”

She responded, “Hello, are you David Warren?”

“Yes, I am. How can I help you, Miss?”

She said, “My name is Marcia, Marcia Davis and I wanted to visit with you and thank you.” She could see a questioning look and a look of confusion solidly painted all over my face. I invited her to step inside since it was rather chilly outside. When she got inside she said, “Mr. Warren I wanted to come by here, meet you and thank you for helping me and to return this to you.”

She reached into her shopping bag and pulled out the heavy coat from my back pack. It was the heavy jacket I generally take with me on backpacking trips. I had put it on the girl I had found unconscious out on the mountain trail that day a few weeks ago. Then it all quickly came flooding back to me. “This Marcia Davis has to be the girl that I found and helped out on the trail that day.”

Speaking softly she said, “I just had to find you and thank you, Mr. Warren. I know without a doubt that you saved my life that day that you found me out there on that cold damp mountain trail. And I just had to come by here and tell you how thankful I am to you for what you did for me.

I don’t know how I could ever be able to repay you for what you have done for me Mr. Warren.” I could see a small tear form in the corners of each of her eyes. Then she said, “I have your bedroll out there in my car that I want to return to you, too, before I leave here today.”

“Well, thank you, Miss Davis. I’m really happy to finally get to meet you and to find out that you appear to be well and in apparent good health after your terrible ordeal. I was extremely concerned about you that day and I was going to do everything I could to help you. Although, I don’t think I really did a whole lot. The fact that you seem to have recovered is all the thanks that I really need, Miss Davis.”

“Please call me, Marcia, Mr. Warren.”

“And you can call me, David, Marcia.”

Then she said as she reached into her shopping bag, “I was told that you made a cup of tea for me that day. But, I never regained consciousness to safely drink it without choking and strangling. Thinking that you probably like to drink tea, I brought you this very small token of my appreciation for all that you have done for me, David.” Then she handed me a large package of expensive, imported, flavored tea.

“Thank you, Marcia. You really did not have to do that. And since you brought me the tea let me brew a cup of it for the both of us while we visit a little more. I have a thousand questions I’d really like to ask of you.”

I asked her to come into the kitchen with me and have a seat while I opened the package of tea. Then I began to brew a cup of the tea for each of us. I could see that she had a very slight limp of her right leg as she walked which would have given me a clue as to who she was right at the get go.

When we got into the kitchen I asked her, “Please have a seat while the tea brews, Marcia.”

She said, “You have a very lovely house, David. You and your wife have done a very nice job of decorating it.”

“Well, thank you for the compliment, Marcia but, I’m not married and most of the decoration I have done myself with a lot of help from my girlfriend.”

A slight expression of concern spread across her face as she said, “In that case I probably ought to be getting back home. I suspect that your girlfriend really would not like to find me here in your house alone with you.”

“Oh no, no, no. You don’t have to worry about that, Marcia. My girlfriend split sometime back and she has no intentions of coming back here. The last time I saw and talked to her she had moved in with another guy. I think that they were about to get married if they have not gotten married already. I was very sorry to see her leave but there was and still is no animosity between us. I wished her and her new boyfriend well. I hope that they are very happy together.

However, I would like to hear what happened to you after the ranger took you back to the visitor’s center that late afternoon. I have been wondering about that since that evening. I knew that I didn’t even know your name or where you lived and I thought that I might not ever see you again or find out how well you recovered.”

Marcia’s Recount Of That Day

Marcia began to tell me, “Well, David, the first thing I remember was that I woke up in a local hospital in the middle of the night with an IV in my arm. There were all kinds of wires attached to me with little beepers going beep, beep, beep all night. I was being well attended to and looked after by the nurses and the medical staff.

When I woke up the nurse immediately came into the room and she talked to me. She told me that I was Ok. Then she told me that I was recovering very well and she wanted me to rest, relax and regain my strength. The doctor would be in to see me in the morning. She also told me they were very happy that I had finally awakened. I think that she put something in my IV because I went right back to sleep until morning.