Good News -- Boy Scout Found in Utah

Yep, just read that. That was truly GREAT news that sadly doesn't happen enough with cases of lost children.

Jerry

Jeff Strickland wrote:

That one is a little close to home for me. In 5 weeks I am taking a group of scouts up to that same place. In my 10 or so years of being a scout leader we have taken 3 or 4 groups of kids to those scout camps. That kid spent 4 nights out in the cold, in my book that makes him a pretty tough guy. I would not want to go through what he has gone through. I understand that he finally walked himself to a road and was picked up from there, it was about 3 miles from where he was last seen.

Rusted did pass the time by typing:

What gets me is Scouts teaches the buddy system. Given that kids (myself included) do wander away on campouts, at least the kid had some common sense and followed water to roads. One thing for sure he will now have something to remember.

I was worried he tried to cross the river. Most folk don't get it, but only 2-3" of running water can pull your legs right out from under you and it's hell to get back to shore without getting beaten on the rocks. Deeper water is actually easier to get out of since you can swim at an angle and eventually reach shore.

He wasn't actually part of the event, he was not a member of any of the Boy Scout troops that were there. He attended with an adult friend for the day, so he was not a member of any Patrol or Troop organization that do always use the Buddy system.

Jerry

DougW wrote:

A few thoughts with that. After years of lower than normal water fall Utah finally had a huge snowfall / rainfall catch up year. We have had lots of water, all of the streams are over flowing, many are being sand bagged. That river up there is plenty to wash about anyone or anything down stream right now. I can't foresee a kid that size being able to cross the river that they were searching

This kid is 11 years old. I had a very smart kid who got lost in his own neighborhood just 3 houses away from his. I am not kidding. He had lived there his whole life, I pulled into the drive way and all of the kids were just going to walk home since they all live close. This one kid started walking west when you can see his house from my house just 3 doors away to the east. Once he was about 5 houses away still going the wrong direction I flagged him down to ask where he was going. He was very insistent that he was going home. We walked back to my house, I had to point to his house before he finally believed me and realized that he was going the wrong way. That little experienced made me realize just how close you have to watch these guys. It was a funny story at the time, but did wake me up to the abilities.

One thing that was in his favor was that the nights were only down to the low 50's. So the nighttime temperatures were very survivable, not that I would want to sleep the night out there with a sweatshirt and shorts, but it could be done.

Well yeah, most kids that are missing aren't lost at all, they're stolen.

I think he was part of the camp, but not a full part. Normally the 11 year old kids can not attend multi-night events. Those camps up there are set up for week long summer camps. Our 11 year old kids are invited to attend Friday night, and come home with the group on Saturday. That way they get one over-night camp and get an idea of what the week long camps are like. He went missing on a Friday night, so I think he was up there for his one night.

The initial reports that I heard -- very sketchy at best -- were that he DID cross the river at some point. I assume they know this because they found him on the other side from where he went missing.

FYI - some of the local jeep guys were up there looking for the kid. The jeep groups seems to attract lots of personalities that take action on community events. Always willing to help out.