Commander’s Corner

It’s hard to believe it’s the end of September with 90 plus degree days, but many of the nights are dipping into the 40s and will soon be cooler. It’s time to make sure we have warmer gear in our packs for possible night searches.

 We’ve had a pretty busy year so far, with 24 missions to date and 32 various training sessions! This does not include the hours 16 of our members put into First Responder training nor the time 3 members invested in Rope Instructor training. The Board has tried to offer something of value to the Squad as well as to the individual members in these training sessions, and that value can only be realized you attend.

 October is the month when we start the process of selecting officers for the next year. In accordance with our By-laws, these are the folks who run our business, making the decisions that determine the direction and the future of the organization, allocating and spending the funds, organizing fundraising, promoting public relations and dealing with personnel. Any active member can be elected to a Board position, however it does require a certain level of commitment in both time and effort. If you are tapped on the shoulder by a member of the nominating committee during October, please be aware that they believe you can perform the tasks of the position. If you are willing to commit to the Squad, please consider allowing your name to be entered on the ballot. This year, the positions of Commander, Secretary and one Board member are open and I believe there is plenty of talent among our membership to fill these jobs two or three times over.

 By selecting qualified and dedicated officers, we can help make this Squad the best it can be. We owe as much to the County and to the people we assist in wilderness.

 See y’all on the trail

 Jim  504

Don’t forget; the meetings this month are Oct 7^th for the
Board and Oct 9^th for the General Meeting.

 Thanks For The Support

 Every time that I have to ask the membership for their help to man a detail, many have made a commitment to help out. The “Phil White/Chapman Shootout” was no exception. Thank you, to all of those that gave up your time to make this a successful operation. You all made my job of organizing the detail easy. The check for the donation was received and has been added to this year’s funds.

I’m happy to be a part of your team. – John Boyles--510

LOST IN THE WOODS….

It was almost 50 years ago, but I still have vivid memories of the time I was lost in the woods.

I was 12 years old and a boy scout on a Camporee with about 5,000 other scouts in a Scout Camp in Long Island, NY.

It was a Friday – Sunday camping trip and of course I was excited.  It was one of the biggest events I had attended with the Scouts and my Troop.

We were cooking lunch and I was asked to gather up some firewood.  I had on scout shorts, hiking boots, short sleeve scout shirt, scout hat, bandanna and of course my trusty old scout knife.  I didn’t carry out any water because I only expected a 15 minute project…..

 I started gathering up some wood, but because it was close to the camp, most of the wood had been collected.  I figured if I went a little deeper into the forest, I could find a lot of wood.

I’m not sure how long I walked, I guess about 10 minutes.  I had wandered unto a game trail and followed it for awhile gathering up some nice pieces of wood for our campfire.  When I had an armful I started to head back in what I thought was the right direction. 

After about 20 minutes, I dropped the wood and nervously looked at the terrain.  It certainly seemed different from where I had set out in the beginning.

I climbed a tree to try and get my bearings but all I saw was a huge forest.  I think that is when I started to panic.   I started running and yelling at the same time.  After about another 10 minutes, I was getting exhausted and hoarse at the same time.

Not having any experience or knowledge about what to do if lost, I stopped and tried to think out my predicament.  I thought, if I attempted to walk in a straight line, eventually I might come to a trail, a stream, or maybe even a road.

Being a fall day and a little overcast with the sun overhead, it was difficult to even walk in a straight line.  I was also off the trail and getting scratched up trying to maintain going in one direction.  I’m certain I was probably walking in circles, but I would gaze at a big tree in the direction I was going.  When I reached the tree, I looked for another big tree and so on, as the afternoon wore away.

It started to rain, but I kept on walking.

As luck would have it, I came to a dirt road.  I followed the road hoping that a car would come along.   After another 20 minutes or so, a car came along and I hitched a ride, explaining my predicament to my “rescuer”.  He promptly took me to a State Police station and I told the Sgt. that I had been lost.

At this point the rain had turned into a real Long Island thunderstorm.  The Sgt. gave me some water and I seem to remember some ice cream!  He called the camp and they called off the search.

Not knowing what had happened I got all the details when I returned.  The Scout leaders had set up a line search and 5,000 scouts were walking shouting my name.  They had kept it up in the rain and when the search was finally called off, everyone returned to camp soaking wet, chilled to the bone with one lasting thought in their minds: 

If this kid, “Ira”, ever returned to the camp…he was going to be killed….

I won’t mention what the explorer scouts did to me when I finally returned to camp, nice and dry….

Being lost isn’t fun….but sometimes being found can turn into a very unpleasant experience!!!

      Respectfully submitted,

       Ira Gibel –532

Member Spotlight

By Dave Pirtle--507

Rick Heffernon, 505

 Rick was born and raised in Illinois about 20 miles west of Chicago. At the end of high school, He was recruited to play football at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. After a year of college football, He had his head banged enough times to figure out that everyone else on the field was much bigger than he was and his future lay somewhere else. He stuck to intramural sports after that.

During his last year in college, he spent a full summer studying in the Soviet Union in a U.S. State Department-sponsored foreign exchange program. His base was Leningrad State University, which they affectionately called LSU—not much of a football program, but they sure played a mean game of chess. His 3 months of experience behind the Iron Curtain was enough to convince him to stay closer to home from then on.  

Before Rick moved to Arizona, he worked as a Chicago cabbie, a New York film industry messenger, a New England camp counselor, Motorola data processor, and a psychiatric aid for some truly sick patients. After getting a masters degree at ASU in the early 1970s, he worked as a photographer, high school teacher, newspaper editor, magazine writer, and curriculum developer. All of this experience somehow led up to his current position as a policy research analyst for the Morrison Institute at Arizona State University. Rick met his wife, Beverly, while they were both involved in Masters programs at ASU.

Rick has enjoyed hiking and backpacking for a long time, so when Rick and Bev got tired of making the messy drive up from Phoenix every weekend, the Payson area seemed like a good place to call home. They moved here in the late 1970s, built their own house in the early 1980s, and by 1988 he discovered he had a little free time so Rick decided to join SAR to see if he could put some of his outdoor skills to use for others. Little did Rick know how much new stuff he would learn. 

Rick’s first two searches ended up with dead subjects—not a great way to start. On the first call out, in the Mazatzals, Rick and another brand new member were, naturally, the last people chosen for an assignment and, naturally, were given the least likely area to search. As it turned out, the two Tonto Rim newbies managed to lead Maricopa’s elite Desert Search Unit a couple of miles down creek to the body of the subject—he had fallen over a pour-off into a cold pool of water. Well, he thought, this SAR business seems pretty easy.

On his second mission, they line-searched for days through snow and agonizingly thick brush, crawling into culverts and under piles of deadfall looking for a lost little boy. It wasn’t until the snow melted that someone found the little boy’s body not a half mile from his grandparents’ cabin. That’s when he realized how miserable a search could be. Thankfully, he had very few of those ever again.

Since the late 1980s Rick has seen our squad grow and grow, both in numbers and professionalism. Every time we have a mission, whether he can be there or not, He is proud to be a member of Tonto Rim Search and Rescue.

Tonto Rim Mapping System Update

The next update to the mapping system will be available sometime during the month of October. I plan to burn the new CDs during the last half of the month and have everything available for squad members at the November general meeting. If you do not have the mapping system on your computer yet, and you want a copy, please notify Les Hulse ( whatever @cybertrails.com ) and request a copy. All members who already have the system will automatically receive a copy of the upgrade.

We have received updated trails information from the Tonto National Forest main office in Phoenix and this information is now being added to the system and the appropriate locator maps are being generated.

The trail names that will appear in the new mapping system are the official ones. Other names for the same trails will still appear in various places, but should be considered obsolete. We will add the obsolete names to our look-up routine and cross-reference to the correct name.

There are seven trails and one trail head on the current Tonto NF map that either have been or will be abandoned. Supposedly, all trail marking signs and references should have been removed by now, but some references may still remain. We have been asked to remove any markers we might find for these trails if we happen to be in the area.

Since trail information is scattered all over the Internet, there is no hope of ever getting rid of all references to obsolete information and references to abandoned trails. One never knows when hikers will stumble on abandoned trail information on the web and decide to follow the (now non-existent) trail. If we have to go out and search for them, it will be worthwhile to have any information about the abandoned trail available. The mapping system will still contain references to the abandoned trails, but it will be marked appropriately.

To aid in this effort, there will be a trails "quick reference" document placed in the SAR truck. It will contain a capsule summary for the trails in Gila County listing trail name, length, elevation changes, termini, degree of difficulty, and appropriate comments. A copy of the trails summary document will be given to our squad librarian (Vynette Sage) for safekeeping. Copies can be made available for any squad member who wants one.

The new mapping system also contains updated information on ranches and other place names. We are still gathering information on locations within the San Carlos and Fort Apache reservations and expect to have this data added sometime next year.

 Websites

Check out our site at www.trsar.org

Thanks to Bill Pitterle for doing this.

LOCAL WEATHER

Courtesy of Bill Pitterle 541

http://wjpitterle.mystarband.net/weather/wx.htm

Training Schedule

29-Oct (Wed)  Man Tracking Field Exercises – time and location TBA (in charge: TBA)

18-Oct(Sat)      Rope Training – time and location TBA (in charge: Terry Murray)

10-12-Oct        Don’t forget SAR City, in Barstow, Ca. You can do late registration there at small additional cost

16-Oct (Thu)    ATV/Trailbike RideTime and place to be determined Staging will be at 0800(John Avery in charge

Planned Training Sessions (after next general meeting)

Planned                        Navigation Training – TBA – (in charge: Jim Olerich)

22-Nov.(Sat)   Man Tracking – Classroom – time TBA – squad building (in charge: Les Hulse)

December *     Man Tracking Field Exercises – time and location TBA (in charge: TBA)

                        Certification testing will be available

Planned *         Radio Communications – time and location TBA (in charge: Bill Daily) 

MUSINGS

            I went for a moonlight stroll the other night with a few of my friends. Now the day did not start out as one that would encourage this kind of activity. It rained hard all day and caused the creeks and drainages to flow in a way they haven’t for a long time. The Arizona clay soil was transformed to a slime that challenges the most agile and brings to their knees those who are anything less than acrobats.

Our pagers went off around 3:00 P.M. announcing the need for searchers on the 198 road for a 70-something gentleman that had been separated from his companions. They were rock hunting in weather that would challenge a duck and we slipped and slid around in our vehicles and on foot for 5 hours in an effort to locate him before a second call came to assist in a search for a 8 year-old autistic child in lower Round Valley.

Now adrenalin is a strange substance and we have all experienced what it can do for you when injected into the bloodstream. Those of us on the trail of the old man were getting pretty tired and our feet were tender, clothes wet and stomachs empty. But when Sgt. Hudgens called us back and informed us of the situation, every one quickly agreed to relocate and do whatever it takes to find the boy. Two were chosen to stay and maintain a presence on the first scene and that proved to be a good choice as one of them was able to locate the old man shortly after daybreak. He was in good condition and better prepared than his companions had realized so that search ended very well.

The rest of us, plus other members that had not been on the first mission, quickly assembled at the new search site and were assigned to our various search areas. Most of us had not eaten since noon and did not take the time to do so between scenes. Who can set down to a meal when we know the subject is out there somewhere cold, wet and hungry, lost and scared in the dark and with his family wringing their hands, worrying over him? Each of us joined this organization for just such an opportunity. One of the greatest joys we can experience in this life is re-uniting a mother with her lost child. To see the pain replaced by pleasure and know that you had an active part in restoring the family makes any sacrifice we may have made all worth while. It is that knowledge that keeps us all coming back and continuing to help even when other responsibilities pull on us.

The boy had been seen by a neighbor around 6:00 PM walking down a creek bed and we started our search from that point. For those who have not been there, it’s hard to understand how difficult it is to find the tracks of a child in a creek bed after a rain. It had stopped raining in this area just before the boy went on his journey so his tracks were not washed out, they just weren’t tracks. The gumbo clay of the area when wet is the best contact glue known to man. When dry it is almost impossible to remove from your clothes and shoes. The problem is that the shoe collects about a half-inch of this gumbo every time it touches the wet ground and you soon feel like you are walking on stilts, very slippery stilts. Trying to separate the subject’s tracks from all the tracks made by family and friends who were out looking for him prior to our involvement requires a super-human effort. It is really quite impossible because no tracks are distinct, all are just spots of mud removed and relocated.

We were finally able to get to the point where untrained searchers had not gone and some of our members were able to find a good imprint of his shoe that verified that he had indeed passed this way. Several of us then proceeded to track him a good distance until finally losing the trail where he apparently left the creek and climbed up onto a rocky plateau that left almost no evidence. A couple tracks were found to establish that he had gone this way but they indicated he was wandering in circles and provided no clue to direction of travel.

At this point it was nearing dawn, the mother, an uncle and a friend had joined us and search dog teams from Maricopa County were in route so we rested and waited for them to arrive so we could show them the location of the last known track. Once they were on the trail, it was daylight and we were no longer needed, as the family members were going to stay with the MCSO unit, so we started to head back to command post across the top of the plateau instead of by the creek bottom we had followed in. It was extremely brushy and tough going but it provided us the opportunity to cover an area not previously searched by anyone. After about ten minutes, we heard a sound similar to a mourning dove and we listened carefully until determining that it was a human voice, not a bird. Following the sound we found the boy sitting on a hillside under some brush, cold, scared but OK. Two of our group wrapped their jackets around him and gained his trust until his mother arrived. She had decided after we left her to follow us out and so she was quick to show up which was best for all involved. She carried him on her back for a short way and then he wanted down and walked the rest of the way. He seemed none the worse for the experience and quite healthy so the family took him straight home and we were able to return to ours.

It is so wonderful when a search turns out this way. Without trained volunteers, the outcome could be so different. There is no way the State system could pay salaries to have people available to do what we do. With 25-30 missions per year and all that we do to prepare for them we accumulate about 7500 hours each year and that would add probably ½ million dollars to the county budget when all costs were counted. Because we donate our time and buy our own personal gear, our net operating cost is around $25,000. And that is just to maintain the group equipment such as our rescue truck, rope gear and buildings plus liability insurance. We can’t possibly count the expenses of all our members and the gear they are willing to buy to make this all happen.

I cannot express how proud I am of each member of TRSAR and your selfless attitude of saving total strangers. Most of the people we help are not even from the local area but they get the same concern and effort as if they were friends and family. Two of our members even made an extra round-trip into that canyon that night in order to escort the dog team to our location. That exemplifies the dedication and willingness of everyone in the Squad and why TRSAR has gained a reputation for being one of the very best units in Arizona.

Thank You for what you do and how well you do it. Keep up the good work.

I look forward to sharing another night with you, in any weather.

Thanks to those who contributed to this issue of the newsletter.

Mike