Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful that Brian and John were watched over and protected last week on their hunt. They went up in the afternoon last Saturday and started hiking in but decided to leave their snow shoes in the truck since it seemed the snow was packed down pretty good. It was also a pleasant afternoon so Brian went up with just a t-shirt and heavy flannel shirt but no coat. They had a little bit of food in their pack and a small amount of water thinking they were only going to be up there a few hours. They spotted a herd of elk and started hiking up to get close to the herd. They both got shots off and ended up hitting one of the elk that they proceeded to chase until it died. By this time it was around 6:00 pm and starting to get dark. In order to haul it out they were going to quarter it (I know...gross) and put half of it in a large garbage sack inside a large backpack (about 70 pounds) and they had rope tied around the hind quarters that they were pulling. By this time it was very dark and they only had headlamps and had lost the trail so they just started heading back "cross country" toward lights. They realized they were about 3-4 miles from the road and it became quickly evident that they might have some trouble getting back because every step they took sunk them in snow up to their knees with the added weight. It was very laborious and getting very cold. Brian had called me when they shot the elk and I hadn't heard anything after that. It was getting to be 9:00, 9:30, 10:00, 10:30 and no word. The thought that kept coming to my mind was, "This is Brian. If he has to, he'll put the animal and John on his back and get them down that mountain." Come to find out, that's pretty much what he did.

The more they "walked" the more they realized they might be in some trouble. John is smaller than Brian and when he tried to take a turn with the heavy pack he couldn't go more than 10 minutes with it. They didn't have water left, the temperature was dropping and their feet were soaking wet. They decided to stop pulling the hind quarters and tucked them out of the way to come back and get them another day. Their goal now was just to make it to the road. John was losing energy fast from the knee deep snow and came to a point where he didn't think he could take another step. Brian gave him a priesthood blessing at this point and he gained enough strength to keep going. Within a few minutes of the blessing they came upon the road that lead them to the truck. By the time they got there they were both completely exhausted. I finally heard from him at 11:50 pm and was so relieved to hear his voice.

I am thankful he came home to me safely that night and I'm thankful that the thoughts of his family were helping pull him down that mountain. I'm also thankful for all his mornings in the gym and marathons he's run that made him strong enough both mentally and physically to get back to the truck. I'm also thankful he knew to rely on his Heavenly Father to help them both!

(For those of you curious, John went back up on Monday with his cousin who has a horse and they retrieved the hind quarters. They were concerned they would be eaten or picked at by other animals or birds but they were untouched and in perfect shape.)