50 miler - Summum Bonum

I looked at Todd laying on the trail, and looked down the trail at the oncoming boys and the thought of the boys watching Todd die made me cringe a bit.
Todd was laying on his side facing away from me. I walked around the other side, nudged Todd and asked him if he was dead. With a groan he said:"No, but pretty close."
I told Todd that I was going to leave him with the boys and run out to get help.
As the boys caught up, I could see that Hayden was fighting off tears seeing his dad on the ground.
I started unpacking Todd's gear from my bag and told the boys that I was running out for help and that they need to take care of Todd.
I handed Alex, Todd's map and had him open it.
I showed the boys where I estimated that we were at and told the young men where I was going, and I showed the boys which direction to hike if they were able to move Todd any further.
With more seriousness than I would liked to have had with the boys I told them that for no reason do they leave the trail. If they were confused at where to go that they just stop and stay on the trail.
I made them go over the plans to make sure that they knew what I wanted. Alex was on top of everything.
I looked the young men in the eyes and asked if they would be able to do it. they all looked back at me an nodded.
Alex looked at me and said:"Dave, we left our purses at home."
The young men all nodded and smiled.
I looked down at Todd and asked if he wanted me to get his cousin with four wheelers or full blown paramedics. Todd looked up and said weakly:" You better get paramedics.
I nodded, gave a few more directions to the young men, snugged up my backpack, and with a couple of skips and a hop, was off on a run to get help.
We had a day and a half left on our trip so I knew that I would have to make good time.
It was late afternoon and being deep into the wilderness, I wondered what type of wildlife I would run into. With the fast pace and me being alone, I hoped that I wouldn't surprise any bears or moose. I thought about making some noise as I ran but just didn't feel like singing or talking. I just felt like Forrest Gump and felt like running. I prayed for a strength and stamina, and felt it. My 45 lb pack didn't feel heavy and my legs felt strong. My lungs felt good and I even felt that If I came across a bear or a moose, that they would have their hands full if they blocked my path. I knew that the Lord loved those boys and he loved Todd, and that he was with us.
I didn't worry about the boys. The look in their eyes gave me confidence and they had proven themselves in they few days before.
I had come the the realization that if the Lord was giving an old fat man like me the strength that I was feeling at the time, that the young men would have three times the advantage that I had.
About a half mile into my run, I came to a large creek crossing. The trail was confusing and took off in about 3 different directions. I pulled out my map and decided on a path that seemed right. It also looked less traveled. I hoped the boys wouldn't get lost from it.
Later, I found out that they got confused there and didn't go any further after that point.
As I continued my great escape from the wilderness, I was still amazed at the beauty of the woods. There was no one there. It was raw and untouched. Even the trail hardly showed any signs of being traveled on.
I started to enjoy the run only to be imposed upon my thoughts of my buddy dieing in front of the young men.
About mid-way out I came across a cow moose. I told the moose to get out of the way and she did.
While running, I payed attention to the trail making sure that an ATV could make it out. I moved a couple of trees that had fallen in the trail so the ATV's could make it up in.
As I exited the wilderness area, I had run out of water, so I stopped at the creek and pumped some more water. I still had a few miles to the trail head, and didn't know if I would have anyone at the trail head or if I would have to run to the main road.
During the last stretch, I heard elk squealing and wanted to stop and look but didn't. I also saw a nice buck.
It was starting to get dark so continued on to the trail head.
As I arrived I noticed two forest service vehicles. Both were locked and thought I might break into them to use their radios, but decided against it as I looked across the valley and saw a parked truck in the distance.
When I got to the truck, there was a group of people camping, I rehearsed what had happened and they showed me where they were getting cell service. They were drunk and I could tell that I had confused them more than they wanted to be.
A gentleman and his teenage son walked me to the spot where they were getting cell service.
I called 911, talked for a minute and lost them. When I called back, they actually dispatched me to a deputy from Buffalo which happened to be Todd's nephew.
After I got off the phone, I realised that I was a little out of it from the run. One gentleman from the camp invited me to sit down with them and have some water. He told his kid to take my pack and carry it for me. His kid threw it on his shoulders only to fall down from the weight. I kind of laughed when his dad grabbed it and grunted "holy shit", under his breath.
I sat with the group of people for about five minutes and decided that I was kind of bored telling stories and listening to drunk logic, so I grabbed my pack and headed over to where I was to meet the paramedics.
While I was waiting it was getting cold so I threw some pants on. I walked around a bit and found another place that could get cell reception.
I called Todd's wife, which wasn't that fun, and I called the Bishop to come out and pick us up. The Bishop, who knows Todd and I well, said:"Dave, I know you and Todd are just up on a hillside laughing and giving me a hard time." I said:"Bishop, a few things I won't joke about, that's cancer, heart attacks, and death." He could tell the seriousness in my voice, got directions to our location and headed up.
About 30 minutes after I had talked to 911, Todd's deputy nephew arrived at the trail head. He was followed shortly by an ambulance and search and rescue.
I waited at the trail head as they went in, and luckily a guy from the forest service was there and he really knew the trail.
I stayed at the trail head with the ambulance driver. He was a nice kid of 20 and we talked about school and life. I broke open some of my food, and I think he ate more than I did the whole trip.
Around 11:00Pm my Bishop showed up. He had been in such a hurry that he had lost his camper shell from his truck. He got out of the truck and realised it.
He was visibly shaken. I updated him on what was going on, and we decided to go and find his topper. We drove down the road about 3 miles and found it. We moved it out of the road and headed back to the ambulance.
By the time we got back, the ambulance driver said that search and rescue had reached Todd and he wasn't dead yet. We were pretty happy.
The ambulance driver asked me for some more trail mix. I was happy to get it.
The Bishop and I climbed into his Dodge Cummins pickup, talked for a minute, I closed my eyes for a second and fell asleep.
After a few minutes I woke to the sound of ATVs It was the group with Todd. We got out of the truck, and watched them pull in. I was surprised that Todd was able to ride on back of the ATV, and it was apparent that Todd had thrown up on the ATV numerous times.
His son Hayden was on the back of another ATV. He jumped off and had a relieved look on his face. He came over and gave me a big hug said a few things gave me a hug again and watched the paramedics go to work on his dad. I talked briefly to Todd and he told me that he still was thinking that he was having a heart attack. They loaded him up and let Hayden ride with him and took off down the rough road to the hospital.
In the mean time, I talked with the search and rescue and they said the other boys would be walking out that night.
I talked the search and rescue guys into going back into the wilderness to get the boys on thier ATV's and they did.
By the time we loaded everyone up it was around 3:30AM.
I had already called Todd's wife and she was waiting for him at the hospital.
The ride home with the boys that night was fun. The boys were all in high spirits and after they had all settled down, the first thing they told the bishop was how they had taken whizzes at 11000 ft.
What a Journey.
The next morning I talked with Todd's wife. There was no heart attack, It was Todd's diabetes, he had gone into a ketoacidosis attack and didn't know it. She said that the doctors told her that if we hadn't gotten him out that night he would have been dead by morning.
Later that day Todd and I talked and he told me how the boys took care of him after I left. He said Jamin and Alex took charge, trekking through the woods dodging wild animals to try and find a high point to get cell service while Hayden and Corbin swatted mosquito's and kept him awake. (Which by the way if he had fallen asleep would have slipped into a coma.) The young men prayed for strength and help and became a team with the single purpose of saving the life of their friend and that indeed is what they did.

Todd was in ICU for three days and was released without any permanent damage.

We went fishing three days after he was released. He said he was feeling about 85%

We fished until 2:30 in the morning. By the time we were done he was back down to 50%.

He has since made a full recovery.

Summum Bonum is a Latin Phrase meaning: Highest or supreme good in which all moral values are included or from which they are derived.

I titled this post Summum Bonum because this little 50 mile journey gave me a chance to see every one of the young men forget themselves and dig deep into the summum bonum of their souls to save the life of someone else. It impressed me more than I can describe.

If that isn't a good high adventure, I guess I don't know what is.

50 miler - Almost the end but not quite.

Morning came at around 6:30 AM for me. I woke up to find a real heavy dew had covered the area that we had camped in. There was no rain but there was enough dew to seem like it.
I got up and everyone was still asleep.
Some of the boys wanted me to wake them up to go fishing before we took off on our days journey. After a few nudges I realised that I was on my own and that I'd be fishing on my own.
I grabbed my rod and hiked down to a pool in the creek below the campsite. I made a few casts a got a couple of good hits, only to loose my good lure from a snag.
I decided to walk back to camp.
By that time Todd and his son Hayden were awake and wanted to walk 150 yards to Misty Moon Lake.
Hayden and I walked over, we argued about who was the better fisherman between the the two of us most of the way.
Hayden and I really like to give each other a hard time. I think at one point and time the argument went from fishing skills to 4'6" Hayden was giving me a hard time about my short legs. We got to the lake and I stood about a foot away from Hayden, waiting for him to cast only to cast over the top of his line.
I caught two fish casting over him and he didn't catch any.
On a side note: Hayden reminds me of a young Dave Riddle, Obsessed with hunting and fishing, Gives everyone a hard time, obsessed with knives, Cigarette lighters demand his complete attention, and he loves wrestling. I've told Todd many times that he must have bought Hayden at the same store that my parents bought me.
In the midst of a line tangle Todd showed up and we decided to go to a different spot to fish, we walked over and fished for a while. After a half hour we decided that we should wake the other young men up and get on the trail.
Back in camp we started getting the troops up, wake up was a little slow followed by a few questions about the days journey while eating breakfast.
The ranger showed up and fortunately we hadn't built a fire. We talked for a while and told him that we would be hiking a high pass. He warned us of a possible thunderstorm and suggested that we make the 11000 ft+ pass as soon as possible.
The ranger also talked about having to bury some other campers poop. Todd told the ranger that I had a poop tube (a pvc pipe that you store all of your poop in to pack it out) The green peace ranger looked at me and smile and proudly said "That is awesome that you are that considerate." He then proceeded to tell us of his method of packing out his poop.
After his story, I felt a little guilty (and a little queasy) and told him that I really didn't use a poop tube.
The ranger lost his glow in his eyes, looked down, wished us luck and left.
Even though Todd and I were laughing we felt a little bad so we told the boys that if they took a dump near camp to go throw a rock on it. The boys groaned a little and hid their poop.
After we packed up we filtered some water and headed out.
We had a pretty good climb to make that day and I was glad that we started early.
About a mile into the hike we passed a shallow creek with fish trying to climb higher. I pointed them out to the boys and immediately packs came off and they were trying to catch the fish with their hands.
Hayden caught a small golden trout.

and Alex caught a pretty good golden as well

After messing around with the shallow-water fish we continued the hike. The trail was steep and the boys were getting worked a bit. Alex kept up with me so I pushed a little harder at a quicker pace to see if we could reach his limit.

As we neared 11000 ft. I could feel the elevation and my breathing had stepped up a notch. I felt good and Alex was able to match my pace. Every now and then I would hear Hayden a couple of hundred yards back yell to wait up so Alex and I would stop and let the rest of the guys catch up. Everyone seemed to be doing well. No blisters and pretty good morale.
Todd carried up the rear and seemed to be feeling pretty good. Every few hours I would ask him how his blood sugar was and he seemed to be doing great.
As we climbed higher it was quite a bit cooler, and we found ourselves crossing a few deep snow drifts.

Finally after a few hours of hiking we reached Florence pass. The high point of the trail.

We all stopped and took off our packs for a little break. We were near Florence lake and there was still quite a bit of ice on the lake.

I pulled out my GPS to check the elevation and we were about 40 ft shy of 11000 ft.
Todd suggested that we leave our packs and climb up a saddle to reach the 11,000 ft. Plus, we figured that we might get cell service, to let the boys call home to tell everyone they were all right.
We climbed to the top of the saddle and exceeded 11000 ft by a couple of hundred feet. The view was awesome. We messed around and took some pictures. We had 3 bars on our phones but still couldn't get any calls out or in.

After messing around we hiked back down to our packs.
A couple of boys slid off around some boulders to go to the bathroom, after their return, I asked how it felt to take a whizz at 11000 ft. They laughed,and not to be out done, the rest of the boys decided that they wanted to take a whizz at 11000 ft.
Boys will be boys. I think Todd and I decided to take a whizz while we were there.
While packing up, our favorite Ranger showed up out of nowhere, and we talked for a minute and continued on.
The rest of the trip would be down hill.
After passing Florence lake we stopped and filter some more water. Near the creek was a monument set for A US Bomber that had crashed in 1946. There are still parts scattered across the mountain, hence the name "Bomber Mountain" was born.
After the fill up, we hit the trail again. After a few hundred yards I realised that I didn't get a picture of the monument so I told Todd to lead and I would hike back up to get the picture and catch up.

After I took a few photos I began working my way back down the trail. The group was ahead of me quite a bit so I picked up the pace.
I caught up to the group while they were passing a large snow drift. We took a few pictures and continued down Florence canyon. About 100 yards and the groups stopped. Everyone was feeling fine, and I looked at Todd. He was laying back a bit and looked a little out of breath. I asked him how he was doing, and he told me that he had gotten a little queasy.
I asked him how his blood sugar was, and he said he thought it was pretty good.
We sat there for a minute and then continued on down the canyon.
After getting through the rough part of the canyon, Todd pulled me aside and said that he wasn't feeling good at all, and that he couldn't get his heart rate to fall.
He also informed me of a pain that he was feeling in heart.
We decided to stop and take a break. I told Todd to find a nice spot in the shade and lay down for a minute.
We didn't say anything to the boys about the problem, we thought it would be better to not get them worried.
I had the boys cook a delicious dinner of Top Ramen.
While my water was heating, I walked over to Todd to check his condition, and he said that the pain in his chest was getting worse and his arms were hurting. He sounded worried in his voice and I could see it in his eyes.
I started to get a little worried, because on top of his diabetes, I knew that he had high blood pressure, I knew that his family had a history of heart problems, and I knew that Todd's dad died of a second heart attack at 51.
It didn't help when Todd said: "Dave, I think I might be having a heart attack."
I was a little worried and asked Todd if he needed a blessing. Todd thought that would be a good idea. So I gave Todd a blessing. I won't go into details of my thoughts and feelings during the blessing, this is the world wide web, and I don't know that it's appropriate to get that deep in this kind of situation.
But to say the least, I did have a calm assurance that things would be alright.
After the blessing Todd got up and he walked out into the sun, he said it was a little cold and layed down again.
The boys were beginning to catch on that all was not well in Wyoming.
A couple of boys asked me if Todd was alright I told them that Todd was a little sick, and we just didn't know.
Hayden and Jamin walked over to Todd to talk to him and check him out. While they were talking to him, Todd began to vomit pretty fiercely.
That had me a little worried, because I knew how important it was for Todd to hold down food with his diabetes.
I walked over after Todd was done buying a Buick, and he was looking pretty crappy. I asked him what he wanted to do. He thought we should try to keep going, at least to somewhere that we could get someone to get him out. I walked over and started unloading his backpack and loading his stuff into mine.
We discussed the possibility of his condition being due to elevation sickness. I really wanted to believe that was it even though in the back of my mind I knew that we had just spent the last 4 days above 10000 feet. Perhaps the big climb may have given it too him, or perhaps not.
It was easier to tell the boys that he may have elevation sickness. Especially his son.
I could Hayden was getting a little more concerned as his dad got sicker.
As we continued on Todd was visibly struggling and we were doing a good job not to worry the young men. All but Hayden.
Todd thanked me for carrying his stuff and asked me if it was too much, I joked and told him that he probably wouldn't get it back and not to worry, that I was pretty damn tough.
We tried to lighten things a little by Joking, Todd told Hayden that if he died, to not worry about packing him out in one piece but to quarter him up like an Elk just like he had taught him. That brought a nervous laugh and he decided to keep the joke between he and I.
While we were walking I told Todd to remember that if he killed over it was going to be me that would have to give him mouth to mouth and that I might even use a little tongue out of spite for killing over on the 50 miler. We laughed a little and he said he would do his best not to die.
A serious moment came when we were away from the young men and he got quiet and said, "Dave, I don't know if you can see the fear in my eyes, but this really might be it for me."
Trying to keep it positive, I said: "Well, bro. I don't think its a heart attack because I've never heard of anyone blowing chunks after a heart attack."
Todd, raining on my parade said:"Actually when my dad died of a heart attack, my mom said that he stood up, held his chest, threw up and died."
"Your not making me feel any better." I said.
"If it helps, I'm not feeling any better either." Todd groaned.
We hiked to a river crossing and the boys were out of water so we decided to stop and pump some more water. While we were doing that, Todd began puking again, but a little more violently.
Haden, came up to me fighting away tears and said :"Brother Riddle, if you want to finish the hike with these guys, I'll get my dad out of here."
I told Haden:"Buddy, that's pretty tough of you, but we are in this together, and we will all get your dad out of here."
While pumping water, Todd decided to walk ahead due to his slow pace with Hayden while we pumped water.
While we were pumping the water, I decided to let the other young men know what was going on.
I think that they had noticed that I had gotten into serious Dave mode.
While we were pumping I said:"Young men, I'm sorry to get serious on you but I'm going to need all of you to get serious with me for a second. As you know, Todd is sick. What you don't know is we think he may be having a heart attack. I'm going to need you guys to forget yourselves a little, forget about any little aches and pains or hard hills, and man up. Jamin, I'll need you to follow the rear, and I will need all of you to keep a maximum of 20' spacing at my pace until we catch up to Todd and Hayden. Are you guys good?"
They all looked me in the eyes and said yes. I knew they were up for the challenge.
We finished the the water and continued on.
I kicked in a pretty fast pace, and the boys never let their spacing be more than 20 ft. There was no whining and they really kept a positive attitude.
Shortly after, we caught up to Todd and Hayden. Hayden fell back with the other boys and I carried water for Todd, and we talked a little more.
After about a mile we came to another creek crossing, Todd and I crossed, and continued ahead of the boys while they were putting their dry boots on.
Todd's condition was getting progressively worse and I was a little glad that the boys were behind us.
After a minute, Todd sat down and threw up again. I was getting a little worried about the vomiting, because he wasn't keeping any water down at all.
Todd and I talked about a few options. I told Todd that I could run out and get help pretty fast. We both agree that was our best option.
Todd then layed down on his side. For a second he went still and I wondered if he was dead.

To be continued.