It’s been a busy week, and we’ve lost some of our hiking momentum. We also have a lot of preparations to do for our July hike, like buying dehydrated food. We combine our two needs and muster a hike to Wild Oats with empty backpacks, which we fill with bulk bags.
Our minds have also been occupied with a tragic failed helicopter rescue in the same area we hiked through last weekend. It’s a strange, sad story, and the way it was discovered didn’t make much sense during the week. Now the facts are starting to converge, but there are still a lot questions lingering (for us, anyway). Mostly though, we can’t help but vividly envision the scenario in a place we just left.
In less weighty news, our blooming neighborhood agave has sprouted a bit a the top of it’s stalk:
3 responses to “Walk to Wild Oats”
Wow, it just got wilder after the last time I talked to Ann. So sad. And the boyfriend was just out there somewhere? Wild, really wild.
I’ve read a lot of stuff recently about increases in SAR missions all over the country. People hike up to the top of Pikes peak and then are too tired to hike down. Just call 911 on your cell! People wander off the trail without really caring or hike out in bad weather because, well, you can just call for help on your cell! I didn’t know it, but getting a helicopter in and out of these places is so hard and so dangerous.
Oh, here’s the story I heard on the news about the huge increase in medivac helicopter crashes: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100151419
I think the value of self-rescue has been seriously lost in recent years. You don’t see “So I got myself out of there…” on Storm Stories or Larry King or Anderson Cooper. All you see are the dramatic SAR rescues, because they make much better TV. And they make it look so easy.
Ok, end rant. It is freaky. But you two are capable, experienced, and always able to take care of yourselves.
I totally agree – big, expensive, tragedy-prone rescues are the most rewarded by our society, so they are increasing in frequency. I shudder to think of rescue teams competing for media coverage to get funding…
I don’t like to say that we can always take care of ourselves. I very much hope that we don’t ever have to ask for help, but it is nice, I confess, to know there are people out there who get into rescuing others! I hope, though, that if we do have to get help, it can be a little more low-profile….