.jpg)
by Jake Hway
A missing person report that resulted in the incredible rescue mission on Thursday, June 27 has drawn the tight knit community even closer together.
Friendships have been made. Bonds are growing stronger. Emotions have been all over the place. But, now that hoped-for result has occurred and he is safe and sound… Everyone I’ve talked to is just ecstatic about the outcome.
Richard was in a pretty dire situation before he was spotted from the air on June 27th.
I am only a friend of the family, but I was allowed to witness closely how this very scary situation came to a “tears of joy” kind of result. I want to showcase and give a huge shoutout to the different emergency personnel and agencies that worked hard and with great skill and tact to reach the best possible outcome.
I do not speak on behalf of any agency. I am only speaking from my own perspective and I have Richard’s blessing to tell a few things from his perspective as well.
First of all… Richard does not wish to be interviewed. However, after being invited by his daughter Alice White, and while sitting with him in his hospital room, he told me over and over how grateful he is to all the personnel that were involved in finding, rescuing, and treating him. He wants to express his deep gratitude. He said that every little experience of the rescue was perfect and professional and he was blown away by the amount of love and care he was receiving.
I’ve known Alice for around a decade. We both run sled dogs in the area and it’s a pretty tight knit community of mushers here. I met Richard for the first time three years ago during the Greenwood Fire when we were all helping some other mushers evacuate sled dogs away from the area.
Richard wants this story told, and asked me to tell his story for him. And I have to say that it is an honor that he trusts me to tell it. He said that I probably know the story better than him, because I was involved in the search. I don’t believe I can tell his story better than him, but because he asked me to… I am going to attempt to do this story justice. Sorry for the long lead up, but I had to cover all the bases.
I’ve already told my personal perspective in an earlier story. I was out in the woods searching with law enforcement, so I have first hand knowledge. I am now learning more from Richard and from others, so here is just some of the whole story.
On Wednesday, Richard was hiking on a beautiful trail system called the Secret/ Blackstone Trails as he’s done many times before. Sometimes he hikes with his daughter and sometimes alone. He is very interested in rare flowers, especially orchids, and he is also a birder. He was only planning on being out for a couple hours or so, and he only had the clothing he was wearing, his phone, and binoculars. He was using a bird call app on his phone to listen to and identify the birds he was near. He also had a GPS tracking app on, but he said it wasn’t working properly that day. I asked him if the app left a line of where he had gone, but it did not.
He was looking for an orchid called the Dragons Mouth. It’s most likely to be found in low and thick cedar swamps. He was in the right conditions for it as he ventured off trail to search like he often does, but never did find one. Although he did find another rare one called a Hookers Orchid… Yup, you heard right.
He lost track of the direction he came from and his phone tracker wasn’t working c orrectly. E ventually his phone died because of constantly running the apps earlier in the day.
Richard is a tall and naturally thin guy, and he is 77 years young. He had no food or water as it was supposed to be a short hike. But he was now in very thick woods full of tangled brush and blown down trees and no way know where he was, or which way he was heading. He bushwhacked for hours and eventually made it to the edge of a lake which at first he thought was Secret, Blackstone, or one of the lakes on the trail system. He soon realized it wasn’t the right shape to be one of those lakes.
He was exhausted by this time. He could see people in canoes far across the water, and though he tried, his shouting was not heard. He attempted to walk through the water to reach another shore across the swampy channel so that he could get closer to where those people were at. But he was soon chest deep and knew he couldn’t make it across in his depleted condition.
He desperately needed water. He ended up taking some sips of lake water. And he stayed there along the shore as the day turned to night. As if the bugs aren’t bad enough during the day, the nights are always at least 10 times worse. And he obviously didn’t have a tent, or even a head net. He laid there with his fleece shirt collar tucked under his baseball hat and made the opening around his face as small as possible. Still, plenty of mosquitos were making their way to his face. He spent the whole night swatting bugs. They were sucking blood through some of his clothing and up his pant legs as well. His clothes were still drenched and it was plenty chilly. Not sure what the exact temperature was, but it’s 43F currently as I’m writing this. I’m guessing it was also in the 40s then. He did not sleep.
The next day… Richard was cold, hungry, very dehydrated, suffering a loss of blood from mosquitoes, had next to no energy left, and was still very much lost.
He stayed in that spot because he knew it was his best chance of being seen, and because he had very little fuel left in his tank. He started seeing things that weren’t there. Like, at one point, he opened his eyes and there was a boat on the water in front of him… then it disappeared. He was hallucinating and seeing things in the sky and on the water.
The day turned out to be very nice. The sun was warm and he wasn’t quite as cold anymore. By midafternoon he still had no energy, but he began to hear a plane flying around the area nearby. He crawled his way to the most open spot he could be seen from the air. Still very thick, but it was his only option. The USFS Beaver flew circles behind him scanning the area around the trail system. A couple hours later, the plane was making its last wide pass over the area when they spotted an arm waving out of the brush. Richard was still lying there unable to stand, but they were able to catch a glimpse of his blue shirt.
The plane made a few passes to assess whether or not they should land on the lake and try to make it to him, while also signaling to Richard that they saw him.
They landed on Flash Lake and taxied into his location in the flooded swamp. This would not have been possible without the high water levels we currently have. And thanks to the actual beavers for damming up that extra water even higher.
They were able to navigate their way right to him with great finesse and they got Richard to the plane. He told me he could only crawl at that point, but Shane Järvi and Jeremy Harmon got him aboard.
They taxied their way across the lake and reached the portage on the far side of Flash where Morse/Fall Lake Township Fire and Rescue loaded Richard on a backboard and hauled him up the hill to an ATV with a trailer built to haul a patient. They transported him to the awaiting ambulance where he was given even more TLC.
Richard said that every moment of his rescue was just incredible. From how they finagled the plane between the rocks near the shore of the portage, to being carried up a rocky hill, to bouncing along in the trailer, was all done so comfortably and safe. He has nothing but amazing things to say about everyone involved in his search and rescue. Even about the people he never came in contact with. He knew that it took a huge effort that he is forever grateful for.
Richard feels both embarrassed and humbled that he caused such a huge scene. I’ve known Richard as a gentle and humble person to begin with and he wishes he didn’t have to make everyone go above and beyond to find him. But what he maybe doesn’t quite understand yet is how huge of a positive impact this situation has had on not just everyone involved, but on the entire community.
The spring and summer in the greater Ely area so far have been very rough in terms of the amount of situations that didn’t have the greatest outcomes. The heroes that respond to these emergency calls are doing incredible things on every call. And they are always heroes whether on rescue or recovery missions. But I’m sure morale has been a little low with the several DOA recoveries they have worked through recently.
This was huge win! Richard would most likely have not made it through another night. He had next to nothing left in his tank. Also, the next night turned out to be a wet and stormy night.
The guys on the plane were high fiving eachother when they saw him. Everyone on the ground was cheering and celebrating when we heard on the radio that they spotted him waving at them. There were many tears of joy.
Several agencies were involved including Lake County Sheriff’s Department, St Louis County Sheriff’s Department, Morse Fall Lake Fire Department, US Forest Service, St Louis County Search and Rescue, Ely Ambulance, with other agencies involved in communications and on standby. And probably others I am unaware of. Northern Tier provided dinner. Several friends of the family were there in support, and some searched.
Please support these people and agencies whenever possible. Donate, attend fundraising events, consider joining one of the teams, or best of all… just thank the heroes. I’m sure they will be humble in receiving it because they always are. But it means so much to them and it helps them to do their incredible work. That’s not why they are doing it. They are selfless people that care. But I guarantee you that it helps.
Richard ended up spending three nights in the hospital. He is now home and struggling to sit still and recover as he should because he wants to work on chores.
I know this was a long story, but there are so many more things that could be told. Everyone has their own individual stories and perspectives. But this is where I’m bringing it to a close this time. There may be more things to share in the future. And other people might share things as well.
The photo in the plane is the best way to end this story, so look at it again. It’s a picture of just one of the very happy heroes that helped save the guy sitting next to him, and of the exhausted person that was fighting for his life to survive moments before, but is now in the safe hands of the amazing people that care about others more than themselves.
Thank you to the people that helped contribute to this story.
