I got a text from Justin at 1:25 Friday afternoon. I had just talked to him minutes before about his day and he was seeing how I was feeling because I had been hammered with a cold that morning and almost didn't go to work. Thank goodness for Tylenol...I didn't know that that, along with prayers, was what was going to get me through the next 24 hours.
Justin's text said "Jared is lost up by Spirit Lake, Daggett Trail. My dad and I are heading up there to help look for him." I told Lisa what it said and went outside...not sure what to think or how to react. I came back in and called my mom and knew she would make the phone calls I couldn't make. Shortly after she called me back. My Dad, Derek, Dave, Jared Williams, Craig, Jake, Jake's friend, and Shane were all headed up there and Shane was taking his horses and my mom had put Jared Ropelato's name in the temple. Then Lisa said her family was now going to go camping up there instead of Lake Nebo so they could help look for him. I was amazed and thankful for my family's response...to drop everything at a minutes notice to go help look for Jared.
After work, I went to be with Dawn at her house. Her house was overwhelmingly chaotic and I'm impressed she was able to handle it all. Her phones were crazy - constant phone calls, voice messages and texts and lots of people coming and going. News stations calling and coming and her Facebook page was ridiculous...couldn't even keep up with all of the comments and response about all of this. The KSL 5 reporter told us when Dawn was out of the room that she handles stress really well and I relayed that message to her. Her response was that it was not her...it was the all of the prayers. She could feel them and that was what was getting her through all of this. Just before the reporter from 5 had came, Dawn received a phone call saying Jared had been found. We were all so excited, but after a few minutes, I asked their Stake President, Matt Malone, if he had received a phone call from search and rescue, Boy Scouts, or the Church to confirm this because they said if there was any news, they would contact him immediately, and they hadn't. Shortly after, Dawn received another call saying it wasn't true. Jared was not found. (Later I asked Justin about this because they had heard the same thing while they were up there and didn't find out for another hour and a half that he was actually not found. The only thing he could think of was that there was another hiking group up their and maybe they were talking to each other and said something about finding something and it had been taken wrong). I realized I needed to stay the night with her and my mom was ready and willing to take the kids for me. I ran home, packed their things and took them to my mom's. When I went back, some of her friends told me they were taking Dawn up to Spirit Lake and they were leaving at 2 in the morning and asked if I was coming. Definitely, so I ran back to my house to gather the things I would need for up there and dropped off the carseats to my mom. When I got back to Dawn's more news reporters were there and finally left around 12 - 12:30. I then got ready for bed and showered and Dawn did the same. By then it was just after 1 and we decided to just stay up and talk until it was time to go. We got ready and headed out at 2.
We got up to Spirit Lake at about 5:30 and it was so nice to hold Justin and be there with him. I've never seen him like that and he told me he's never gone through anything so emotional before. It seemed like forever before we could go search. Even though it was light, we couldn't head out yet because the search dogs had to get out there first so all of the people weren't throwing off the scents. Finally at 7 we were able to start searching. I was with Justin, Larry, Braxton, Trichelle, her friends TJ and Amy, and Kevin from our ward and his father-in-law Bill. They give us a square mile to go through and search. After we had gone in about our mile (which seemed a lot further with all of the trees, hills, ponds and marshes. you have to go through or around) the radio went off: "Larry or Justin." "This is Justin." "Justin they found him." It was Ryan Jones' voice (a guy Justin used to work with and his dad is one of the owners at TJ Trailers). We walked maybe 50 feet and we just had to have a confirmation after what happened yesterday. Justin: "Ryan, have you seen him?" Ryan: "He's with your mom" Tears just flooded up and we started to book it out. After going so far, Larry and Braxton ran out while the rest of us hiked out. It was about a half hour after he had been back that me and Justin finally saw him. He was in the back of the truck (command center) and I went in there...I don't think I'll ever forget the hug Jared gave me...so tight and long...Just thinking about that hug brings tears to my eyes. He was completely fine. The only thing I could see was his lips were very chapped and he had gotten a lot of sun, but other than that he looked great. We didn't ask him a lot of questions yet. We just took the moment in of having him back. He still had his fishing pole - at least half of it. He said he lost half of it down a stream. Justin told him now was the time to ask for a new one and anything else he wanted :)
We stayed around for a while talking to people then we headed up the road closer to Spirit Lake (the command center was at Hickerson Park) so Jared could go see the other scouts and the scout leaders. It was about 1:00 when we left and headed home. This is where we got his side of the story.
They were camped up at Daggett Lake and had gone fishing at a stream coming out of Daggett Lake. They were fishing less than 200 yards away from their camp. Jared got tired and asked his scout leader if he could go back to camp. His scout leader pointed him the way (and his scout leader actually thought Jared was going back to get a lure, so that's what's on the news) and Jared left. At a point, the trail split off and the right way didn't look familiar to him, so he went the other way. After a little while he realized he was on the wrong trail, so he took another trail thinking it would circle back to the right trail and then just kept trying to circle around thinking he would find the trail. Once he realized he was lost and it was starting to get dark, he built a lean-to and dug a hole, laid in it and covered him up with the dirt, pine needles and bark. The temperatures got down to 32 degrees that night but Jared said he only got a little cold, not too bad. He said the scariest thing that happened was when he was hiking around, he came upon a moose and it's baby and it scared him because he had read a book on moose so he froze and the moose looked at him, then he backed up and headed out of that area. He said all night he was scared with the noises, shadows and when we asked him what he was thinking all night he said, "That I wouldn't see a bear, I just kept thinking please don't let me see a bear, don't let there be any bear." He fell asleep finally when it was starting to get light for a little bit and when he woke up a tree shadow looked like a bear standing up so it freaked him out a little bit. :) He said on Friday he could hear people yelling for him, but he wasn't sure where the voices were coming from and they couldn't hear him back. The next morning he walked down the mountain some more. When he tried crossing a stream, he fell in and it was going faster than he thought so he had to grab onto a rock to pull himself out, so he was wet when he was found. The people that found him (actually my nephew Jake knows the people) were up there for a family reunion and decided to go help search. They hadn't even gone to check in with the search and rescue yet and were on 4-wheelers. They had the feeling to stop and they did, called Jared's name, and he yelled back.
Dawn was at the command center and Lisa and Ryan came by telling her to listen on the radio. She heard them say he was found and her response was the same, she bawled but just needed that confirmation that he really was found. Ben (a family friend and one of the people in charge of the search and rescue) asked over the radio to confirm they had Jared. Dawn said right then she turned around and there was Jared riding in the Razor to her! I can't even imagine the incredible feeling that was for her!
That was by far the longest and one of the most emotional two days I have experienced. Every person involved (even each family member) is going to have their own experiences from this. There's things Justin told me and I'm sure there's much more that he hasn't said yet about this. He told me that when he was hiking with his dad, his dad told him that he just had the feeling that Jared wouldn't be found Friday night but it would be the next day. Even after they had heard on Friday that Jared was found, they said a prayer thanking Heavenly Father and even after he just didn't feel like he was really found. Not until later when they were almost out and had packed Jared's things out from camp, they saw some people headed up the trail to look for Jared and said that he wasn't found. Friday night, Dawn was on the phone with Larry and asked, "Bishop, do you have any inspiration?" and he just told her, "There are angels with him." I don't doubt that for a minute. Jared is one that is energetic, enthusiastic and doesn't always remember what you tell him. He has also had hardly any camping experience and just hadn't been taught from the family what to do. We were all very impressed that he knew what to do and to do it in a situation like that with high emotions. He said last year in scouts they learned how to make a lean-to and about digging a hole so that's how he knew what to do. He was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans...I would never have thought to do that and I know the Spirit was definitely there calming Jared enough and reminding and prompting him what to do, because that's probably the only thing he could have done with what he had to stay warm while using little energy. Very impressed about that.
Once we were getting close to home, the 2 roads heading into the Ropelato's were lined with yellow ribbons, yellow balloons and signs welcoming Jared. It was awesome to see and Jared loved it! When we got out, Fox 13 was there for the return and a couple of Trichelle's friends gave Jared a gift with the newspaper with him on the front page, a whistle, light sticks, bells, and a buch of other things to keep him from getting lost again. After we left to go get Mya and Parker and shower before we came back down, channel 5 came by, too.
Oh, another thing. Search and Rescue were saying that it's a natural human instict to walk down hill and because of the basin area, figured about where Jared would come out at...that's exactly where he was found. About a quarter to a half mile from the road.
Words can't even describe the gratitude we have felt during this time. It was incredible to me how quickly everyone in my family dropped everything they were doing and their plans (and everyone else that went up for that matter) and just headed right up there. Today in sacrament meeting, my eyes flooded with tears when Kevin Purcell in my ward sang Be Still My Soul, especially the first verse got to me. "Be still, my soul the Lord is on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain. Leave to thy God to order and provide; In every change, He faithful will remain. Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end." I just thought that was exactly what we went through this weekend. We had to be patient through the grief and pain, but that God would provide for us and even though it was hard and thorny, we had a very joyful end. Then in young womens they chose to sing Did You Think To Pray? and I had to push the tears back while I played the piano for them, because prayer is exactly what got us though this weekend.
Last night we took Mya and Parker to go see Jared. Parker of course didn't act any different because he had no clue, but Mya for the first time, ran up to him and hugged him, sat right by him for a long time, then even gave him another hug when we left. That's huge for her because she usually won't hug Jared when we leave and will only give him a high-5. It started out with her teasing Jared not to give him hugs and watching him react trying to get a hug, but then I think it just turned into a habit and Jared just wouldn't get hugs from her...at least not very often. I told Jared in the Search and Rescue truck that he had a little neice that was very excited to see him and he said he was sure excited to see her and said it a couple of times.
A lot, I know. Emotions are still high just because of everything and being so overwhelmed with emotions this weekend. We are just so so thankful that it turned out great for us. Jeff Bardsley, Garrett Bardsley's dad, was up there. He talked to Larry and said that it's been 7 years since his boy went missing up there and he's still hoping a hunter or that when they do these searches that someone will come across his son's remains. He says he never misses these. Anytime he hears of a boy missing, he calls people up and heads up to help find them. Then he told Larry, "So I guess I'll see you at the next one." Larry said he would see him. Jeff also went and talked to Jared too before he left. A lot of memories came back for us that Father's Day weekend when we were driving around looking for animals when the people from Grayson Wynne's group stopped us and told him Grayson was missing. This was before search and rescue or any officials were even there. We had 2 vehicles driving around and all of the guys jumped out and headed out searching while us girls piled in one car and drove around the camps telling people to go help search. That was such a hard night knowing he wasn't found yet and emotions were high then...this was escalated tons having it be someone you actually know and are close to. So so glad, especially for Dawn and Larry, that this turned out so wonderful!
Pictures from KSL 5 and Fox 13. The next post after this are links for the news coverage.
