Predator Alley and Nate

 I had to go to town to get propane, wood, and groceries. Nate heard my story of hiking back from town a couple weeks ago and he wanted to do it. As we drove toward town I told him of the mistakes I made. When we got to CliffHanger I showed him on the map the for sure way to get back. Follow the road. Do not drift onto the bicycle trails. They look like they shadow the Jeep trail but there is a 150 foot elevation change even though only a few feet off the bike trail. That doesn't really show up on the you are here red dot map. He says he wants to come back the Hurrah Pass way cutting across from CliffHanger. I say again, stay on the Jeep road and there will be a Jeep turnoff road to the left, follow it until it dead ends, climb up the left side of the stone canyon, follow it into the valley, then to Three Guys on a Roller Coaster, across Predator Point and down to Hurrah. He says "I plotted it out last night." Jax wants to go, he loved that hike, but we have work to do when we get back.

As Jax and I are driving back I call Nate on the walkie and he says things are going fine. Jax and I stop at the Ledges campgrounds and have a Wendy's lunch. Nate calls on the walkie and says he can see the Ledges campgrounds. I say "you should be in a big valley and be able to see the Three Guys on a Rollercoaster rock formation." He says he can't see that. I ask him if he took the stone canyon. He says he hasn't been on a trail for a couple hours. Jax and I head back to the lodge and climb up to Predator Alley above the lodge.

We're finding tracks of raccoon, coyote, fox, and maybe bobcat, was a partial print. Nate calls on the walkie and says he's way behind. He was walking up the Jeep trail but then saw Jax and my prints going off onto the bicycle trail and he followed our footprints for about an hour and then lost them and he's been winging it ever since. He can see Hurrah Pass and he's thinking he'll get there before dark. Jax and I keep exploring Predator Alley.

The Ghost Foxes live just below where we're at. Guests took their dog over there last week after I told them the story and their dog looked up into the Ghost Foxes rocks and barked and barked. They thought they were going to have to shock it when it finally left. Both Jax and the camera see things I don't see over there. Nate calls and says he's crossing the steep ridge toward Hurrah. I tell him when he gets to the end, drop down about ten feet, and then come along the west wall.

Nate calls on the walkie. He's fallen and has hurt his foot badly. It's swelling up. Will I pick him up in the truck on Hurrah. Jax and I scramble down from Predator Alley and head up Hurrah.

I'm talking to him on the walkie, guiding him the last mile or so to Hurrah. He's taken a wrong turn somewhere and has to go down quite a drop off. He throws his pack down and the walkie talkie comes off of it, the back comes off and the battery falls out of sight. I've lost contact with Nate. He's not responding. He's dragging his foot across the tough way to get back. I ask Nate before I headed up if he'd be to Hurrah by dark or should I get some headlamps to look for him. He says he'll be there in time. We're on Hurrah and Nate isn't. Sun and temperature are going down.

Jax and I are going to make one trip out on the old mining road to see if we can find him but we will be back to the truck before dark. We'll wait awhile longer and then go back to the lodge and get equipment to go search. We get out there a ways, see nothing, I'm ready to come back. He's still not responding. Jax won't leave though. He smells, hears, or sees something that I don't. Then I hear it, a slight noise, I know that noise, it's called pain. Jax takes off in the direction of the pain. Nate comes around the corner dragging his foot.