Tragedy On The Trail

[fishinwrench]

There are some important missing details here, the reporter/publisher of this story really did a 1/2ass job.....either do the story or don't. The reporting (as it stands) makes no sense. They throw in the details of who he worked for and for how long. And that the rescue party all prayed together....yet leave out things like how far they were found from the cabin, and if an impassable creek was what kept them from getting back. The whole story seems "leading" doesn't it? Something weird going on here. Nobody survived but the dog. Was it really THAT BAD of a storm?

[jdmidwest]

It was a pretty hard thunderstorm with lots of fog rolling in before. Parts ot the area received 6-8 inches of rain overnight resulting in alot of flash flooding. Then the temps dropped from 65 to 35 pretty quick.

Who knows, Dad may have gotten zapped by lightening, hurt himself? They are going to perform an autoposy.

The area around Black is pretty rugged country, but they were on a well marked Ozark Trail that he had been on before according to the news.

[hank franklin]

I had a hard time believing the story at first but it's very likely classic hypothermia. They got soaking wet, cold set in, and they had no way to warm up. No light, no fire, lost in the woods. Early hypothermia makes you confused, erratic. They were physically spent from the day on the trail. With mental capacity dwindling and body temps dropping they got to a point of no way out.

If they had ability to start a fire, if they had one change of clothes, they probably would have survived. It's the combination of wet plus cold (and it doesn't need to be freezing cold) that did them in.

Very sad story. I have kids who have accompanied me floating / hiking during all seasons. The thought of the fun and excitement these kids were having suddenly turning terribly wrong is really heartbreaking. It can happen. Be careful.

For the floater / hiker, the biggest danger is rain. Camps that get flooded overnight on the river. Backpack camps that aren't prepared for huge rain. You always need to consider the worst-case and what you do for escape. I have been out for 3-4 days at a time and the number one thing is staying dry. If not you, then at least your gear.

Heartbreaking.

[moguy1973]

A guy I know that grew up in Black says cell reception is pretty good in that area so that wasn't the problem. My take is he didn't realize his phone wasn't charged as much as he thought and with the cold temps, the battery was drained faster than usual. When he did realize they were in trouble it was dead and couldn't call anyone.

Still though, being an experience hiker that they said he was he should have known what the forecast was for that day and had some sort of emergency kit with them with fire starting materials, etc. But these tragedies are always coulda woulda shoulda in hindsight.

[ColdWaterFshr]

Today's Post Dispatch explains the details well enough. He had a cell phone and a flashlight but the power had died at some point on the cell phone. They missed the turn-off on the trail that led back to the resort. At that point they would've only been 20 minutes back to the resort. They were a mile past this missed turn (where they were found).

As Hank said, there really isn't any mystery to me. This is classic hypothermia. Heavy continuous downpour and sharply dropping temperatures and not being prepared for it . . . thats all it takes, and it doesn't take much time for hypothermia to set in. A small backpack with some ponchos in it might've made all the difference.

Very sad story. Will remind me to always be as prepared as I can be.

[fishinwrench]

This is the first time that I have heard of anyone getting caught in a cold rain and actually freezing to death in this part of the country.

I'd normally consider the possibility of getting caught in conditions like that to be miserably uncomfortable at the worst, but not deadly. I guess you never know.

[ness]

This is the first time that I have heard of anyone getting caught in a cold rain and actually freezing to death in this part of the country.

I'd normally consider the possibility of getting caught in conditions like that to be miserably uncomfortable at the worst, but not deadly. I guess you never know.

Just going from memory -- but I thought the original article said temps in the 20s?

[fishinwrench]

It didn't get below freezing until the middle of the night, did it? They had hours to get "somewhere".

Maybe his "hunker down" tendencies were what did them in. If they had kept moving in any direction I would think they could have found a road, but who knows.

[David Unnerstall]

According to the map in the Post-Dispatch they actually walked further than they would have if they did not miss the trail to the parking lot so they did have the stamina to complete the hike. I imagine with the rain that was occurring it was not possible to see that trail. It also seems if they would have continued on they would have come up on Hwy J. It is just a tragedy.

[Mark]

Article I read said that approximately 2pm, someone passing by offered them a ride and the father refused and said they would be all right. By 2pm, the temp had started to drop. Man, what a sad situation! I agree, nothing related to foul play, just a lot of mistakes made by the father, who was experienced and maybe overconfident in his ability to handle whatever came his way in the outdoors, and his eagerness to show his son's some of his outdoor knowledge. Hard to imagine this happening. It looked like on map that they were also only about a mile or two from a paved road.