This is the area we were lost in. We started in Heber and were lost around Tabiona (about 15-20 miles out from parking lot).
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We got ready in the morning (Saturday) and left to Spencer's house around 9:30 a.m. We had to stop to pick up David's snowboard clothes at Cicely's Mom's house. We made it to Spencer's and took our sweet time. We were watching some snowmobiling video's while we waited for Scott to come and meet us. (I think Scott took a long time because he had told his wife that he didn't really feel like going.) Anyways Scott finally arrived and Spencer gave us a quick lesson on how to use his beacons. It was quite funny actually. Spencer hid a beacon in another room then we tried to find it. Not the greatest practice, but it was a crash course.
We loaded up our snowboard stuff into Spencer's truck, and we were off. We decided to go up to Heber. Spencer said it was fun and he had been there with his friend Jerry. We arrived in Heber and stopped at a gas station to gas up the snowmobiles and truck, and buy some snack food. If anyone knows me I can't go longer than an hour without chips, or candy. (This would be on my mind later in the night). Scott and I both bought some beef jerkey because it sounded pretty good at the moment, and he bought some cracker jacks! Being a girl I thought I would possibly need to use the potty while deep in the woods so I bought some wet wipes too. David and Spencer bought some gatorade and I grabbed a bottle of water.
Once we were back in the truck the boys decided that they were really hungry so we stopped at Taco Time. I remember laughing about this because the guys were joking about the dumb commercial for Taco Time where the mom burns dinner and tells the kids it's taco time! Anyways, we ate enough to fill our tummy's and we were ready to go.
We drove up the little road that heads past Heber and made it to the parking lot where we unloaded the snowmobiles. It was about 1:00 P.M. We only took three of them because one wasn't working well or something. I shared one with David, which I'm glad about because I had never been really. Scott was on his own and so was Spencer. We strapped our snowboards to the snowmobiles and we were off. Just as we took off on the trail, Spencer and Scott were in front, David and I noticed that Scott's snowboard was just hanging by a thread. It was kind of funny because it was dragging and bouncing around and Scott didn't notice. We caught up to him and rigged up the boards again.
We rode along this trail for quite some time until we came to an open area. We could see some pretty rad hills to snowboard down so we headed towards them. We found one that looked fun so I strapped in and took off down the hill. The snow was pretty crusty but still better than being at a resort. I had fun! The boys followed me down on their sleds and picked me up at the bottom. I told them it wasn't that great so we headed to the next set of slopes that looked good to us. We kept going to further spots because once we would get to the one we saw before and up close, it did not look that great.
I think at this time Scott had hit his first tree:) It was actually lodged between a tree and a stump. It was a little hilarious actually.
We dug him out and were ready to get going again. Finally we got to a good hill and David took a run down! I got to drive alone, it was fun! David took a sort of tree run, and so as we were going through the trees and following him I went into a little ravine and my snowmobile got stuck. Spencer and the other boys dug me out this time. We got it unstuck and continued in the direction we were heading before. We didn't get too far when Scott had mentioned he didn't have a good feeling and thought we should head back. He said this at about 3:30 P.M. The rest of us weren't ready to go back yet, but we decided we would at least turn around and go back in that direction. We had to head back up the tree trail that we had just gone down and it was pretty technical. As we were going through the trees I think this is about the time that Scott hit his second tree?? (Scott you will have to remind me) Anyways we dug him out from this one and kept going. I hopped on Spencer's snowmobile to go through the tree trail that was pretty steep. As we were heading up we almost got to the top and Spencer told me to hurry and jump off! I did. He thought I was going to hit a tree. I didn't, but we did get stuck again. We dug out our sled and got it turned around. Spencer went back down the trail while I just hiked up. I was freezing, ready to go home, and sick of getting stuck. Spencer ran his snowmobile up the hill and parked it up at the top. He had David's sled and was driving it up the trail because he was the most experienced. As he started up the hill, Scott thought he was suppose to follow him. Spencer didn't know he was following so Spencer stopped at the top of the hill. Scott turned so he wouldn't hit Spencer and hit, yes, another tree! (Scott you have to admit it was pretty hilarious after the fact). I just remember Spencer yelling something, and the rest of us shrugging. The boys dug out the sled and were finally able to get it unstuck. Spencer was able to drive it up the trail and we were all parked at the top now. It was about 5:00 P.M. now.
By this time we were all ready to go home. It was going to start getting dark and we were all cold and tired. We started heading back and I think this was about the time that we took a wrong turn or trail and didn't recognize where we were. We realized that we had gone pretty far! We kept going in the direction that we thought we had come in, but it slowly stopped looking familiar. It was really starting to get dark, and we were so ready to leave. We just figured that eventually we would be able to find some trail that looked familiar. As it got darker and darker everything looked less and less familiar. We went down hills we thought we had gone up and back up hills we thought we had gone down. It just seemed like a never ending maze. It was about 7:00 P.M. now and we were getting cold. I remember looking over at David and we both had a look on our face that said, "crap, this sucks!" Anyways we got to a place that we thought for sure looked familiar because it was a big hill that Spencer had tried to climb but didn't quite make it to the top. We stopped to get our footing and try to figure out the direction we should be going. Scott had stopped on a bit of a slanted hill and couldn't get his sled going in the right direction. David went over and tried to drive his sled over for him and it ended up rolling over and got stuck upside down. Now we were all annoyed and the guys had to dig out the sled again. It was so dark now, and our dim sled headlights weren't doing a great job.
We decided that we would try all of the directions we hadn't been in yet. Scott had a compass on his I-phone, but we didnt'know the direction we had come from. We knew what direction Heber was in relation to Salt Lake, but that didn't help us. We decided to traverse across this big hill so we wouldn't have to go all the way around. Once we got throught the traverse it led us to a big group of trees. We didn't know where to go at this point. We started in a central place that had a lot of tracks from other snowmobiles. We went South, and came to a deadend, or treetrail. We didn't want to go into the trees because we didn't want to run out of gas where we would be hidden. So we tried a different way and a different way and a different way. It was exhausting. We were all frustrated and cold and just wanted to go home. By this time it was 9 P.M.
We went up this tree trail finally thought we were going in the right direction. It didn't head anywhere familiar and we couldn't see a thing. We could barely see the trees in front of us at this point. We stopped on a slope that was a little open with trees on each side of us. Spencer said that we needed to accept the idea that we were going to be out here for the night. I just about freaked out and told him that I wasn't going to stay the night. He said we probably didn't have a choice.
Scott was really optimistic and kept saying that we needed to keep a look out for a helicopter because they would be looking for us! I thought the complete opposite. At this time David and I both talked about how we hadn't told anyone where we were and that this is how people die. I was so cold that I finally agreed that it would be a good idea to stop and at least start a fire. We found a really good spot right by the trail and part way into the trees. There was a stump that was poking out of the snow
and we thought it would be a good spot to build a fire. The stump would be a good shield from the wind. We started to dig a little pit for the fire to go in then we gathered some kindling. Oh I forgot to mention that as we were looking for a spot for our fire Scott's snowmobile died and wouldn't start. We looked at that as a sign that we needed to stop.
As the boys started to build the fire I started to dig the snowcave. Spencer had a lighter that didn't work, and luckily I had brought a lighter that worked pretty good. We gathered little sticks and Spencer had some flint that was really old. The flint didn't help really and Scott kept calling it lint. It made me laugh. Anyways we needed some paper of some kind to get the flame going. The only thing we had was David's bandana and a few bandaid wrappers from the first aid kit. We burned the gauze and bandaids and alcohol wipes because none of us were hurt and we wanted a fire. We finally got a little flame going. The boy scouts pulled through and got the fire to really burn. As two of us manned the fire, the other guys, Dave and Scott started gathering wood.
They were awesome! They were climbing the trees and breaking off dead branches. We were really lucky because we were surrounded by a ton of dead dried out trees! The guys brought back a ton of branches and we thought we would be set for a while.
Finally we were feeling warm and the fire was really burning brightly and large. It was too large and it was burning faster than we could gather wood for it. We slowly controlled it and were able to get it a bit smaller. At this point we still didn't think, at least I didn't think, that we would be there for the whole night. Once the fire got going we continued to dig out our snowcave, which never really ended up being much of a cave, but it would've worked if we needed it for shelter. Spencer made sure that we put plenty of green fir branches down to make it soft.
As the fire continued to burn we started to get a little hungry. We remembered that we had brought beef jerkey and a few power bars. I was excited that we had those and we also had our drinks. Once we got a little settled in and had a huge stockpile of wood we waited and sat and tried to stay warm. We were so tired. It was about 11:00 P.M. now and I had finally accepted that we were going to stay the night.
It would be impossible to sleep because once you moved even an inch away from the fire it got dealthy cold. It was about 25 degrees and with the wind chill the search and rescue said it made it about -10 degrees. I believe it! As our fire burned our firepit melted further and further down. The firepit started at about 1 foot by 2 feet. It kept expanding and expanding. By morning we were standing inside the fire pit. As we sat by the fire the wood would slowly burn and quickly we would need more wood.
David, Spencer, and Scott were so good to take turns gathering wood. I went maybe twice. I was really sick and my ankle monitor was hurting my ankle to walk. Yes I have an ankle monitor for those of you that don't know. It turns out that my ankle monitor would partly be responsible for locating us later.
Throughout the night we kept hearing engines out in the distance and we thought they were snowmobiles. Then the sound would go away. A few times we thought we heard a plane. I still didn't think people were out looking for us. David and I knew that Cicely had called the cops by now, and was working on something to save us. We were right. As we sat around the fire we tried to think about what our families were probably thinking. David and I felt so bad for our mom because we knew she was freaking out.
While we sat by the fire and tried to dry out and stay warm (our bums were wet and cold), Cicely had called the police around 8 P.M. She knew we were snowmobiling but didn't know where. David was suppose to call her and let her know where we were going when we knew, but he had forgotten. Cicely drove up to Spencer's house to see if we were there, and at the same time, Anna had the same idea. Anna is Scott's wife. Anna and Cicely were both so worried. Once Cicely called the police they tried to figure out where we were. Scott had told his parents that we were going to Heber. They thought American Fork for some reason though. This is where my ankle monitor came in handy. Aly and my Dad searched through my stuff to find the number for my ankle monitor service and found it. The sherriff was able to call and find out where my last location was. Unfortunately I had left my satelite phone that goes to my ankle monitor in the car. I didn't want to lose or break it. So the police tracked us to the parking lot in Heber.
They also found that Spencer's truck was there, even though he had the wrong license plates on it. They were able to identify it. Search and Rescue set up camp in the parking lot. At midnight they sent out a team to search for us. They didn't realize how far out we had traveled. They traveled and searched around the ridge of the mountains. We were down below the ridge and it WAS snowmobiles that we were hearing.
At 4:00 A.M. Search and Rescue called Cicely and told her that they were calling off the search because there was zero visibility and the conditions were too harsh to keep their team out. Cicely thought we were probably freezing to death. My dad had called my family members and everyone was praying and not getting sleep knowing that we were out there somewhere. And we were!!! All my siblings knew was that Annie and David were missing:(
Here we are!
Frozen.
Meanwhile we were sitting around the fire trying to stay warm and awake. I attempted singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall once, and no one joined in. Oh well I tried. We ate beef jerkey and power bars and said, "this sucks!" about every 10 minutes. I would tell the boys what time it was on the hour every hour. We knew the sun would come up around 7 A.M. and just kept looking forward to then.
The Sun was coming up!
At 7 A.M. the search was called back on! Aly, my Dad, Davey, and Cicely drove up to the parking lot where our car was parked and the search team was camped out at. They waited and waited. The Search and Rescue people told my dad that they should prepare for an outcome that might not be good. If we didn't have a fire it probably woudn't have been good.
Scott was actually able to catch a few min of sleep here and there!
We made it through the night and were so happy to see the sun come up! Our bodies were exhausted from gathering wood, not sleeping, and shivering all night. It was so unpleasant! As the sun came up I wanted to leave. We had about 1/4th of a tank of gas left. Spencer wanted to stick around until about 9 or 10 because our chances of seeing people out and about would be better. I got so upset. I was so sick of being in the cold and I just wanted out of there. Spencer said he wanted to give one good effort in fixing his sled. He said it was worth 9,000 dollars and he wasn't about to leave it. So he started to fix it. He needed to replace the drive belt. David, Scott, and I didn't help. We stood by our quickly shrinking fire to stay warm. Although the sun was up, it was getting colder. There was probably a new foot of snow after the night and the morning was really pretty. We said a prayer before we were about to leave, and the sky cleared up. We knew this was our chance to leave. We started to bug Spencer and tell him we wanted to leave. He was reading the manual to try and fix the sled. We rolled our eyes and climbed back into the fire pit. Just as we got our fire going again, we heard Spencer yelling!!!! We jumped up and hopped out into the open... Lo and behold it was four snow mobilers in red coats! They pulled up to us and asked if there were four of us. We said yes! They asked if we were okay then they told us that we did everything we were suppose to. We apologized for stripping the trees of almost every branch around us. They told us that we did the smart thing. They helped Spencer fix the snowmobile and we were out of there. As we left we headed in the direction that we had not been going in the night before. We were so far off and so far away from where we needed to be going. The search and rescue crew told us that we had a huge fan club waiting for us. They said our families had been worried sick and they told David that he was in big trouble by his wife.
I hopped on the rescue man's sled! The boys each hopped on their sleds and we headed home. We got about half way back to the trail when they stopped by some other search and rescue people to take our picture. I was shivering the whole time so they covered me in clothing and stuffed hot packets down my shirt and down my pants and in my sleeves. They put new gloves on me and a big ski mask. I slowly started to warm up. We raced down the track towards the parking lot.
All I could think about was seeing my family. I was so happy that someone was actually looking for us and found us. We were extremely thankful. The search and rescue guys and gals were awesome and so comforting. They really knew what they were doing. They had these gadgets on their snowmobiles called GPS. Who would have thought????? What a grand idea!!! They took us right out of there and straight to our car and families.
As we pulled up to the parking lot I couldn't see a thing. The ski mask was covering my eyes. I could hear people and my sister Aly crying. I pulled off my hat and saw Aly coming towards me. She hugged me so tight and was crying. I told her it was okay and that we had a fire. She kept crying. It was really touching and made me realize how important my family is to me. I was so happy to see them again.
David pulled in behind me along with Scott and Spencer. Cicely grabbed David and hugged him and Scott's wife ran to him. Spencer had a little bit of frost bite and they rushed him into the ambulance. The rest of us followed so that they could check us out.
We took off all of our wet clothing and they checked out our feet and fingers. The boys feet were looking a little iffy and they told them that they needed to get them checked out. We filled out some forms and then shuffled us into another trailer to be "debriefed." We told them what had happened and why we were where we were. They told us that we were so lucky to be alive. They also said that the terrain we were in was difficult and we shouldn't have been there.
Lessons learned: Always tell people where you will be going no matter what. Carry a lighter no matter where you are going! Don't buy Burton - there pants and boots are cold and they melt! Also tell the ones you love that you love them every single chance you get! Avoid trees when you are snowmobiling. Have faith in your family members. Pray. Don't put the wrong license plates on your car. Buy a GPS.
Again, thanks to the Search and Rescue team, we love you! Thanks family for caring so much about us. Cicely and Anna thanks for your great detective work in figuring out where we were. We are eternally thankful to everyone involved. Spencer, thanks for not giving up and being so nice. Scott, you are an amazing woodsman and you could probably be a professional wood chopper, thanks. David, I don't know what I would have done without you. I'm so glad that you are my brother. I love you! You are my best friend and you always will be.
Love Annie
We loaded up our snowboard stuff into Spencer's truck, and we were off. We decided to go up to Heber. Spencer said it was fun and he had been there with his friend Jerry. We arrived in Heber and stopped at a gas station to gas up the snowmobiles and truck, and buy some snack food. If anyone knows me I can't go longer than an hour without chips, or candy. (This would be on my mind later in the night). Scott and I both bought some beef jerkey because it sounded pretty good at the moment, and he bought some cracker jacks! Being a girl I thought I would possibly need to use the potty while deep in the woods so I bought some wet wipes too. David and Spencer bought some gatorade and I grabbed a bottle of water.
Once we were back in the truck the boys decided that they were really hungry so we stopped at Taco Time. I remember laughing about this because the guys were joking about the dumb commercial for Taco Time where the mom burns dinner and tells the kids it's taco time! Anyways, we ate enough to fill our tummy's and we were ready to go.
We drove up the little road that heads past Heber and made it to the parking lot where we unloaded the snowmobiles. It was about 1:00 P.M. We only took three of them because one wasn't working well or something. I shared one with David, which I'm glad about because I had never been really. Scott was on his own and so was Spencer. We strapped our snowboards to the snowmobiles and we were off. Just as we took off on the trail, Spencer and Scott were in front, David and I noticed that Scott's snowboard was just hanging by a thread. It was kind of funny because it was dragging and bouncing around and Scott didn't notice. We caught up to him and rigged up the boards again.
We rode along this trail for quite some time until we came to an open area. We could see some pretty rad hills to snowboard down so we headed towards them. We found one that looked fun so I strapped in and took off down the hill. The snow was pretty crusty but still better than being at a resort. I had fun! The boys followed me down on their sleds and picked me up at the bottom. I told them it wasn't that great so we headed to the next set of slopes that looked good to us. We kept going to further spots because once we would get to the one we saw before and up close, it did not look that great.
By this time we were all ready to go home. It was going to start getting dark and we were all cold and tired. We started heading back and I think this was about the time that we took a wrong turn or trail and didn't recognize where we were. We realized that we had gone pretty far! We kept going in the direction that we thought we had come in, but it slowly stopped looking familiar. It was really starting to get dark, and we were so ready to leave. We just figured that eventually we would be able to find some trail that looked familiar. As it got darker and darker everything looked less and less familiar. We went down hills we thought we had gone up and back up hills we thought we had gone down. It just seemed like a never ending maze. It was about 7:00 P.M. now and we were getting cold. I remember looking over at David and we both had a look on our face that said, "crap, this sucks!" Anyways we got to a place that we thought for sure looked familiar because it was a big hill that Spencer had tried to climb but didn't quite make it to the top. We stopped to get our footing and try to figure out the direction we should be going. Scott had stopped on a bit of a slanted hill and couldn't get his sled going in the right direction. David went over and tried to drive his sled over for him and it ended up rolling over and got stuck upside down. Now we were all annoyed and the guys had to dig out the sled again. It was so dark now, and our dim sled headlights weren't doing a great job.
We decided that we would try all of the directions we hadn't been in yet. Scott had a compass on his I-phone, but we didnt'know the direction we had come from. We knew what direction Heber was in relation to Salt Lake, but that didn't help us. We decided to traverse across this big hill so we wouldn't have to go all the way around. Once we got throught the traverse it led us to a big group of trees. We didn't know where to go at this point. We started in a central place that had a lot of tracks from other snowmobiles. We went South, and came to a deadend, or treetrail. We didn't want to go into the trees because we didn't want to run out of gas where we would be hidden. So we tried a different way and a different way and a different way. It was exhausting. We were all frustrated and cold and just wanted to go home. By this time it was 9 P.M.
We went up this tree trail finally thought we were going in the right direction. It didn't head anywhere familiar and we couldn't see a thing. We could barely see the trees in front of us at this point. We stopped on a slope that was a little open with trees on each side of us. Spencer said that we needed to accept the idea that we were going to be out here for the night. I just about freaked out and told him that I wasn't going to stay the night. He said we probably didn't have a choice.
Scott was really optimistic and kept saying that we needed to keep a look out for a helicopter because they would be looking for us! I thought the complete opposite. At this time David and I both talked about how we hadn't told anyone where we were and that this is how people die. I was so cold that I finally agreed that it would be a good idea to stop and at least start a fire. We found a really good spot right by the trail and part way into the trees. There was a stump that was poking out of the snow
and we thought it would be a good spot to build a fire. The stump would be a good shield from the wind. We started to dig a little pit for the fire to go in then we gathered some kindling. Oh I forgot to mention that as we were looking for a spot for our fire Scott's snowmobile died and wouldn't start. We looked at that as a sign that we needed to stop.
As the boys started to build the fire I started to dig the snowcave. Spencer had a lighter that didn't work, and luckily I had brought a lighter that worked pretty good. We gathered little sticks and Spencer had some flint that was really old. The flint didn't help really and Scott kept calling it lint. It made me laugh. Anyways we needed some paper of some kind to get the flame going. The only thing we had was David's bandana and a few bandaid wrappers from the first aid kit. We burned the gauze and bandaids and alcohol wipes because none of us were hurt and we wanted a fire. We finally got a little flame going. The boy scouts pulled through and got the fire to really burn. As two of us manned the fire, the other guys, Dave and Scott started gathering wood.
Finally we were feeling warm and the fire was really burning brightly and large. It was too large and it was burning faster than we could gather wood for it. We slowly controlled it and were able to get it a bit smaller. At this point we still didn't think, at least I didn't think, that we would be there for the whole night. Once the fire got going we continued to dig out our snowcave, which never really ended up being much of a cave, but it would've worked if we needed it for shelter. Spencer made sure that we put plenty of green fir branches down to make it soft.
As the fire continued to burn we started to get a little hungry. We remembered that we had brought beef jerkey and a few power bars. I was excited that we had those and we also had our drinks. Once we got a little settled in and had a huge stockpile of wood we waited and sat and tried to stay warm. We were so tired. It was about 11:00 P.M. now and I had finally accepted that we were going to stay the night.
It would be impossible to sleep because once you moved even an inch away from the fire it got dealthy cold. It was about 25 degrees and with the wind chill the search and rescue said it made it about -10 degrees. I believe it! As our fire burned our firepit melted further and further down. The firepit started at about 1 foot by 2 feet. It kept expanding and expanding. By morning we were standing inside the fire pit. As we sat by the fire the wood would slowly burn and quickly we would need more wood.
David, Spencer, and Scott were so good to take turns gathering wood. I went maybe twice. I was really sick and my ankle monitor was hurting my ankle to walk. Yes I have an ankle monitor for those of you that don't know. It turns out that my ankle monitor would partly be responsible for locating us later.
Throughout the night we kept hearing engines out in the distance and we thought they were snowmobiles. Then the sound would go away. A few times we thought we heard a plane. I still didn't think people were out looking for us. David and I knew that Cicely had called the cops by now, and was working on something to save us. We were right. As we sat around the fire we tried to think about what our families were probably thinking. David and I felt so bad for our mom because we knew she was freaking out.
While we sat by the fire and tried to dry out and stay warm (our bums were wet and cold), Cicely had called the police around 8 P.M. She knew we were snowmobiling but didn't know where. David was suppose to call her and let her know where we were going when we knew, but he had forgotten. Cicely drove up to Spencer's house to see if we were there, and at the same time, Anna had the same idea. Anna is Scott's wife. Anna and Cicely were both so worried. Once Cicely called the police they tried to figure out where we were. Scott had told his parents that we were going to Heber. They thought American Fork for some reason though. This is where my ankle monitor came in handy. Aly and my Dad searched through my stuff to find the number for my ankle monitor service and found it. The sherriff was able to call and find out where my last location was. Unfortunately I had left my satelite phone that goes to my ankle monitor in the car. I didn't want to lose or break it. So the police tracked us to the parking lot in Heber.
They also found that Spencer's truck was there, even though he had the wrong license plates on it. They were able to identify it. Search and Rescue set up camp in the parking lot. At midnight they sent out a team to search for us. They didn't realize how far out we had traveled. They traveled and searched around the ridge of the mountains. We were down below the ridge and it WAS snowmobiles that we were hearing.
At 4:00 A.M. Search and Rescue called Cicely and told her that they were calling off the search because there was zero visibility and the conditions were too harsh to keep their team out. Cicely thought we were probably freezing to death. My dad had called my family members and everyone was praying and not getting sleep knowing that we were out there somewhere. And we were!!! All my siblings knew was that Annie and David were missing:(
Meanwhile we were sitting around the fire trying to stay warm and awake. I attempted singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall once, and no one joined in. Oh well I tried. We ate beef jerkey and power bars and said, "this sucks!" about every 10 minutes. I would tell the boys what time it was on the hour every hour. We knew the sun would come up around 7 A.M. and just kept looking forward to then.
So tired and out of it.
At 7 A.M. the search was called back on! Aly, my Dad, Davey, and Cicely drove up to the parking lot where our car was parked and the search team was camped out at. They waited and waited. The Search and Rescue people told my dad that they should prepare for an outcome that might not be good. If we didn't have a fire it probably woudn't have been good.
We made it through the night and were so happy to see the sun come up! Our bodies were exhausted from gathering wood, not sleeping, and shivering all night. It was so unpleasant! As the sun came up I wanted to leave. We had about 1/4th of a tank of gas left. Spencer wanted to stick around until about 9 or 10 because our chances of seeing people out and about would be better. I got so upset. I was so sick of being in the cold and I just wanted out of there. Spencer said he wanted to give one good effort in fixing his sled. He said it was worth 9,000 dollars and he wasn't about to leave it. So he started to fix it. He needed to replace the drive belt. David, Scott, and I didn't help. We stood by our quickly shrinking fire to stay warm. Although the sun was up, it was getting colder. There was probably a new foot of snow after the night and the morning was really pretty. We said a prayer before we were about to leave, and the sky cleared up. We knew this was our chance to leave. We started to bug Spencer and tell him we wanted to leave. He was reading the manual to try and fix the sled. We rolled our eyes and climbed back into the fire pit. Just as we got our fire going again, we heard Spencer yelling!!!! We jumped up and hopped out into the open... Lo and behold it was four snow mobilers in red coats! They pulled up to us and asked if there were four of us. We said yes! They asked if we were okay then they told us that we did everything we were suppose to. We apologized for stripping the trees of almost every branch around us. They told us that we did the smart thing. They helped Spencer fix the snowmobile and we were out of there. As we left we headed in the direction that we had not been going in the night before. We were so far off and so far away from where we needed to be going. The search and rescue crew told us that we had a huge fan club waiting for us. They said our families had been worried sick and they told David that he was in big trouble by his wife.
I hopped on the rescue man's sled! The boys each hopped on their sleds and we headed home. We got about half way back to the trail when they stopped by some other search and rescue people to take our picture. I was shivering the whole time so they covered me in clothing and stuffed hot packets down my shirt and down my pants and in my sleeves. They put new gloves on me and a big ski mask. I slowly started to warm up. We raced down the track towards the parking lot.
All I could think about was seeing my family. I was so happy that someone was actually looking for us and found us. We were extremely thankful. The search and rescue guys and gals were awesome and so comforting. They really knew what they were doing. They had these gadgets on their snowmobiles called GPS. Who would have thought????? What a grand idea!!! They took us right out of there and straight to our car and families.
As we pulled up to the parking lot I couldn't see a thing. The ski mask was covering my eyes. I could hear people and my sister Aly crying. I pulled off my hat and saw Aly coming towards me. She hugged me so tight and was crying. I told her it was okay and that we had a fire. She kept crying. It was really touching and made me realize how important my family is to me. I was so happy to see them again.
David pulled in behind me along with Scott and Spencer. Cicely grabbed David and hugged him and Scott's wife ran to him. Spencer had a little bit of frost bite and they rushed him into the ambulance. The rest of us followed so that they could check us out.
We took off all of our wet clothing and they checked out our feet and fingers. The boys feet were looking a little iffy and they told them that they needed to get them checked out. We filled out some forms and then shuffled us into another trailer to be "debriefed." We told them what had happened and why we were where we were. They told us that we were so lucky to be alive. They also said that the terrain we were in was difficult and we shouldn't have been there.
Lessons learned: Always tell people where you will be going no matter what. Carry a lighter no matter where you are going! Don't buy Burton - there pants and boots are cold and they melt! Also tell the ones you love that you love them every single chance you get! Avoid trees when you are snowmobiling. Have faith in your family members. Pray. Don't put the wrong license plates on your car. Buy a GPS.
Again, thanks to the Search and Rescue team, we love you! Thanks family for caring so much about us. Cicely and Anna thanks for your great detective work in figuring out where we were. We are eternally thankful to everyone involved. Spencer, thanks for not giving up and being so nice. Scott, you are an amazing woodsman and you could probably be a professional wood chopper, thanks. David, I don't know what I would have done without you. I'm so glad that you are my brother. I love you! You are my best friend and you always will be.
