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 wasn’t marked,” Judy told Runner’s 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 Sheriff’s 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 brush—and fell 30 feet below into an abandoned mine shaft.
“They were screaming ‘We’re 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 Runner’s World. “But they couldn't hear me.”
(Excerpt) Read more at runnersworld.com ...
You’re probably right.
I did a casual search and found several maps which say it’s marked and point out interesting sights at X miles along the trail and which way to turn. It is run by the Parks Service so, of course it’s marked.
“Predator bait” for sure.
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