Two of the rescuers held me under each shoulder as Tim wrapped a strap around my kneecap. When the three others arrived, they set up a pulley system to yank me out, tying an anchor strap around a boul-der. He had hiked up, and the rest of his crew was an hour behind him. He said that his name was Tim and that Jessika had gotten through to rescuers. That would be the worst way to go.Īn hour later, another light shone across my eyes. But I didn’t want to drown if I fell backwards again. I started to think about what I could do to die faster. At that point, I was soaking wet and knew I wasn't going to make it. I prayed it was a helicopter, but it was the moonlight shining over the canyon walls. It had been about five hours since Jess left,and it was getting dark.Ī few hours later, I saw a light through my jacket. If my entire body ever did fall in, I’d never get out. I quickly planted my stick into the dry ground, stopping my fall. I zipped up my jacket and pulled my head inside.At some point I nodded off to sleep.I don’t know how long I was out, but I woke up with my upper body slip-ping backwards into the quicksand. Thirty minutes after she left, it started to snow heavily. She was scared-she had only ever hiked with me and was wary of hiking alone on a trail the National Park Service calls “very strenuous”. I told Jessika she had to hike back and call for help. We couldn’t call for help because the only cell reception was back at the trailhead, five hours away over rough terrain. “You’re just wasting your energy.” While I was no longer sinking, I wasn’t getting out, either. Jessika started scooping sand with both hands, but it was refilling faster than she could pull it out. I jammed it down the side of my leg and tried to wiggle and pull it out. Jess handed me a long stick we'd picked up earlier in the hike. I freed my left leg but couldn’t budge my right. The muck came all the way up to my right thigh and my left calf. I lunged, grabbed her under the shoulders and pulled her out of the muck. Because the pond looked shallow,we began to wade through, with Jessika leading the way.Ībout five feet from the edge, her front foot sank into the sandy bottom.Then she fell forwards and both legs started to sink. A small pond stood in our way,with the trail continuing on the other side. Soon after, we reached the rust-coloured walls of the Subway Trail. Halfway through our trek, which included climbing over boulders and fording streams, the sunshine gave way to alight snow. We’d travelled from our home in Mesa, Arizona, to hike the 14-km-long Subway Trail, so named because of its stunning tunnel-shaped canyon. It was 16 February 2019, at 8 a.m.when my girlfriend, Jessika McNeill,and I arrived at Utah’s Zion National Park.
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