Hexed in the Superstition Mountains

[BOD]

This was sent to me by a friend in Arizona who hikes the Superstition wilderness.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0420hiker0419-ON.html

Makes you think about replacing the Camelbak with a old fashioned canteen.

Happy ending for a cool customer

 

[gregorach]

Yeah, makes you realise just how easily things can go wrong... I know I've found myself in a few situations thinking "one wrong step and I'm stuffed". He did everything right though.

 

[twisted firestarter]

It must take enormous courage to sit it out and wait, even if he had no choice. Interesting that he was armed with the knowledge and skills to help his rescuers, also that he "knew" that he would get out alive. Just goes to show how important a positive attitude is.

 

[Tengu]

Now this is an account of what right to do in an emergency.

(I think I would keep my phone in a waterproof container though)

 

[mrostov]

I think I would keep my phone in a waterproof container though

Yes, that is something I usually try and do. Modern commo technology can come in pretty handy.

The Superstitions are a rough bit of terrain. You get hurt in some of those places, you might as well be on the surface of the moon. Hardly a year goes by when they don't find someone dead in the Arizona outback. The climate in Arizona can be rough.

One interesting story I know of of people underestimating the Arizona climate was from the 1940's involving some German soldiers.

The USA was shipping a lot of it's captured German soldiers to Arizona. Some Weremacht lieutenant at an Arizona POW camp about 40 miles SW of where the lost hiker story took place got hold of a map that showed the Gila River not far away, and the map showed the Gila ('Heela') River going all of the way to Mexico.

So, in a story reminiscent of a WWII Hollywood escape movie, they hoarded supplies and made an inflatable boat out of raincoats.

When they were ready, they escape from the camp and they get to the Gila River and it's dry as a bone. It really only has any water in it in that area during the rare flood. So they figured that they would just walk to where the water started, and then raft on down to Mexico and freedom..

Well, they found these guys a few days later on death's doorstep, desperately in need of a drink of water while on the Gila 'River'..

 

[Tengu]

Presumably the map did not indicate the river was intermittent???

 

[mrostov]

Presumably the map did not indicate the river was intermittent???

Evidently not.

 

[Outdoorsman]

This was sent to me by a friend in Arizona who hikes the Superstition wilderness.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0420hiker0419-ON.html

Makes you think about replacing the Camelbak with a old fashioned canteen.

Happy ending for a cool customer

Maybe he was looking for the lost dutchman's stash of gold?

 

[mrostov]

Maybe he was looking for the lost dutchman's stash of gold?

A lot of people think that the Lost Dutchman strike was rediscovered and is now one of the long established mines in the area. Arizona has a lot of mining, and there is estimated to be 100,000 abandoned mine shafts and mining pits in the state.

The Superstition Mountains are rugged and wild. They are a neat place to hike and they are an easy drive from the metro Phoenix area. They are just on the other side of Mesa and there is a town near the base of the mountains called Apache Junction, which is now being rapidly urbanized into the greater metro area. You can see the mountains from the metro area and they form the north-eastern corner of the valley where the Phoenix-Mesa metropolis is located.

As big as Arizona is (about 500km north to south and about 400km east to west), the vast majority of the population lives in the big central valley where Phoenix is located. The rest of the state is still pretty wild and open. You really don't have to travel far outside of Phoenix to get into some rugged and wild terrain.