Posted on 04/23/2019 3:02:48 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Around noon on Sunday, March 31, Alicia Judy, 40, left her home in Scottsdale to run 16 to 18 miles on the Spur Cross Trail, which would lead her to Skull Mesa, a breathtaking summit surrounded by towering cactus trees.
The path was very familiar to Judy, an experienced trail runner and nurse who has been running through the parks in her area regularly since moving to Arizona five years ago. Still, she studied the map before she left, double-checked her route with a fellow hiker on the trailhead, and made sure to pack her phone, compass, water, and maps with her.
She reached Skull Mesa about 9 to 10 miles into her run, and snapped a photo of the top to send to her dad, Leonard Judy, to let him know she made it.
On the return trip, however, things turned south.
It was like a jungle, and I just lost the trail. It wasnt marked, Judy told Runners World. Then I started doing all of the things I know to do to try and find a trail.
After hours of searching her surroundings and communicating back-and-forth by phone with her dad, she finally made her way out of cell reception, and became unreachable. He called the Maricopa County Sheriffs Office, who sent a rescue team to contact her and track her location. They arrived at around 9 p.m.
It seemed like Judy was saved. But just as she was waving her hands to get their attention, she stepped on some brushand fell 30 feet below into an abandoned mine shaft.
They were screaming Were here! We can't see you! We can't see you! And I'm screaming in the hole, I'm in here! I'm in here! Judy told Runners World. But they couldn't hear me.
(Excerpt) Read more at runnersworld.com ...
This occurred in Scottsdale. Pure Sonoran Desert. No Joshua trees there (limited to the Mojave Desert).
Photo at site confirms its saguaro country (Sonoran Desert).
Wow, what a story! Right out of an adventure novel. Preparation saved her life.
A little bit of trivia my father taught me when I was young and we would head out for some distant lake to camp and fish. Every two hundred yards or so, we’d stop, turn around and study the terrain. That way you’d recognize the objects that stood out. Simple trick that saved my bacon over the years - hiking, riding, jeeping.
re: “Im surprised all these thousands of open, abandoned mines have been ignored for so many decades. “
The BLM or BOM (Whomever) are working to plug those adits, but, there areas so many in some area and they don’t catch them all. That, ans sometimes the stopes are worked clear-through to ‘daylight’ at the top of the mine.
There are a number of mine explorers on Youtube, it’s an education viewing their explorations ...
Wise.
“It seemed like Judy was saved. But just as she was waving her hands to get their attention, she stepped on some brushand fell 30 feet below into an abandoned mine shaft. “
Man, i just HATE when that happens ...
She did find a complete backup of Hillarys email wrapped in Obamas birth certificate.
They hardly look like trees. I guess big plant = tree in J school.
Thanks for saving me time.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. January 21, 2017
Right about inaugural time, apparently.
I guess spray painting a big X on the ground, rocks or shrubbery every 20 feet or so is not a good idea. Is there a good way to mark a trail in tHe desert?
I had to re-read it to make sure I hadn't missed the exciting and intelligent way she got out. But nothing. Map, compass and cell phone. She followed the trail just fine on the way out but she blames getting lost on it not being marked. No one to blame but herself.
Yes. Phoenix is pure Sonoran Desert (saguaro) and Vegas is pure Mojave Desert (Joshua tree). The floral boundary between the two deserts is very noticeable on Highway 93 between Wickenburg (Sonoran) and Kingman (Mojave).
Its a great stretch of road. At some point the saguaros peter out and the Joshua trees take over, but theres a wonderful transition zone (I believe near Wikieup) that features JTs growing next to saguaros.
Beautiful to the botanist and non-botanist alike!
Even EMS get their noses stuck in their gps rather than look out the windshield. Six of us were out in the middle of the residential street waiting for the EMS. He arrived, in plain view, at the corner 3 houses down. We waved and hollered. He turned the other direction....
Yup. Some folks would find it boring. We enjoyed the heck out of it.
I think it was her guardian rattlesnake who saved her. The searchers heard the rattles shaking and the sound led them right to her!
Too many times these idiots risk the lives of rescuers.
Cairns.
I was taught the same thing. People look funny at me sometimes if they see me looking back, but I grew up hiking off trail in the Rincon Mountains east of Tucson. One kept an eye out for rattlesnakes, made certain you didn’t fall, and memorized the way back before you turned around.
I’m in my 60s now. Still like jogging in the desert. Still keep an eye out for rattlers, am careful not to fall, and sometimes stop and look at how it WILL look when I turn around and want to jog back!
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