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.