June 6, 2025 • 59 mins
Sarah Ledford shares her miraculous survival story after being stranded for 30 hours in freezing Wyoming wilderness with no supplies or communication. Her harrowing experience reveals how an unexplainable spiritual connection with her cousin across the country ultimately led to her rescue.
• Recently escaped an abusive relationship and was living with new roommates in Jackson, Wyoming
• Joined roommates on a ski trip to Targhee resort despite barely knowing them
• Became separated when her companions went off-trail into dangerous terrain
• Followed ski tracks that led her deeper into wilderness instead of back to resort
• Survived overnight in temperatures reaching -8°F by seeking shelter under evergreen trees
• Experienced hypothermia and frostbite, reaching a core body temperature of 86°F
• Heard and spoke with "search parties" throughout the night that weren't actually there
• Rescued at 4:50pm after creating a branch marker in a clearing
• Discovered her cousin 3,000 miles away had nightmares about being trapped with Sarah
• Cousin's persistent calls prompted the search party that ultimately saved Sarah's life
This world is amazing, and if you look around, just understand that what you see physically is not all there is to it. There are other dimensions that we can't see.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to the Sonic Hitchhiker podcast dedicated to
all things strange, mysteriousand just plain out of the
ordinary.
It is because of his interestin these experiences that this
podcast was created.
And now your host, billy Shadow.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hello everyone.
As the announcer said, this isBilly Shadow here with David
Fine, the producer, and I wantto let you guys know that today
we have an amazing show for you.
This is unlike any other showthat we've done so far.
This is a show about survival.
This is a show about beingrescued, this is a show about
(00:42):
spirituality, this is a showabout miracles, and I think
you're really going to enjoythis.
I'm telling you you're in for atreat, david.
What did you think about thestory that we're going to hear
today?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
It got me emotional, me too, and I just met Sarah
today.
I mean, she's a great personwith a great story, and in the
past season we had guests thatyou know, had stories that you
know that could be.
You may not believe, but trustme, folks, what you're about to
hear is it's just amazing thatshe's here today to talk about
(01:18):
it.
I mean, most people would havejust given up, but she didn't
give up and it's an amazingstory, it's.
It's one of those ones thatyou're going to want to pass on
to people going.
You know, determination, youknow, don't give up, you know,
and just go with your gut and uhand you'll be around, but it's
definitely definitely an amazingstory.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
And now, without further ado, sarah and Ledford
enjoy.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
So I do have to start with um, the there there's a
whole relationship part of thestory that is a big part of it.
Okay, um, I moved out there inin a very um, bad relationship.
Um, it was abusive and I reallydidn't know it was abusive
(02:03):
until we moved out there andthen it started becoming very
obvious.
We had a couple of incidencesleading up to this.
Let me back up.
Basically, some stuff hadhappened in Georgia that I had
confronted him about and we hadalready gotten married by that
(02:27):
point.
It was a very pressured,manipulated marriage and when I
confronted him about it he cameto me about a week later and
said he had decided that we weremoving to Wyoming.
It's a very classic isolationtype of action and his point of
(02:50):
view was that I was the wife andhe was the boss and that's what
we were doing.
So within a month we packed upour entire lives and moved to
Wyoming.
I did not know a soul out thereand he was definitely the boss.
I did not have a job, you know,money, didn't have my own car,
(03:13):
any of that.
So it quickly became obviousthat what he was doing was
abusing me because there was,you know, it was obvious then
there was, you know, it wasobvious then.
So there was an incident aroundNew Year's where it got really
really scary.
(03:34):
Cops were called and the resultof that was that his mom bought
me a plane ticket and flew mehome to kind of regroup with my
mom.
My mom and his mom have abackstory through church and
small town and that kind ofthing, and his mom always seemed
(03:56):
to come to his rescue, if youknow what I mean.
So I go back about a week laterand this is January, and he was
extremely nice for a coupleweeks.
Then February he started backwith the same behavior and it
(04:17):
got really really scary.
The week prior to this incidentwas the ultimate fight for my
life.
His abuse was more sexual andthe situation in February was a
(04:38):
full-on trying to rape mesituation when I was fighting
and trying to get away.
Then I'm finding myselfliterally fighting for my life.
He's strangling me from theback with my sweater and the
only reason miraculously that Igot away at that point is
because my sweater ripped offand I just run out of the room.
(05:02):
I run to the front door, I grabmy coat no shirt.
Throw my coat on and run outthe door no shoes, no shirt, but
I had the coat on and somepants and there was a police
station a few blocks up the road.
I literally ran straight to thepolice station.
Remember, this is Wyoming, it'sFebruary, everything is snow
(05:28):
covered.
So I'm I literally run to thepolice station in the snow.
In Wyoming they have reallystrict they had I don't know
this is back in 96 97 reallystrict domestic abuse laws and
so he was required to spend 72hours in jail and then we were
required to go 30 days with nocontact.
(05:49):
So in that 72 hours that he wasin jail I decided that that was
my chance to get away.
So I started asking forresources.
The police station gave me thislike I don't know what her
title is, but guidance person,guidance counselor person, uh,
(06:12):
contact.
She got me in contact with thecommunity center and she said
there's a lot of resources here.
So the next day it was like aMonday, uh, tuesday maybe I go
to the community center andthere's a board with all of
these little ads.
Remember, this is like beforethe Internet and before your
(06:32):
cell phones and all that stuff.
So there is an ad posted thatsays room for rent.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
What year was this?
Speaker 4 (06:42):
This was 97.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
97, okay.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
At the beginning of 97.
We moved out there at the endof 96, and we were there for
five months.
Okay, so five months.
So I see this little ad roomfor rent and I'm like, perfect,
I call them, I go to meet them,meet them it's a roommate type
of situation and they let memove in that day.
(07:08):
So when he got out of jail Iwas gone.
So I have to tell that wholepart of it, because that's how
you end up in a situation whereyou're going to a ski resort
with strangers you never metbefore, and I was so dumb and
(07:29):
naive, I just was, you know,just thought, oh, it'll be fine,
you know, the world's my oyster, right, like it'll be fine.
Um, so I had just met thisgroup that week and they say to
me we're going to Targhee thisweekend, this Saturday, do you
(07:51):
want to go?
And, of course, number one,everybody out there.
If you move out there forwinter events, you have your own
skis, you have your ownequipment.
Of course I had my ownequipment and all that.
Yeah, I want to go.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Can you explain to the audience and to us what
Targhee is exactly?
I know it's a ski resort, butit's located where.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Yeah, so we moved to Jackson, wyoming.
Most people know it as JacksonHole, but Jackson Hole is
actually the ski resort outsideof town.
The town is called Jackson,okay, so everybody's familiar
with Jackson Hole Ski Resort.
Targhee is on the other side ofthe mountain chain, so you got
(08:32):
the Teton Mountains.
On the other side of thatmountain chain are the Targhee
Mountains.
Targhee's located in Idaho andTarghee is known for the extreme
skiing.
Okay, and I was used to BlackDiamond, you know I I was like,
oh yeah, no problem, I'll befine.
Um, so that.
(08:54):
So yeah, so they're gonna goout of town across the pass.
The pass is a little bittytrail road basically that gets
you from one side of themountain to another.
So we're going to go over tothe pass and go ski Targhee this
weekend and they're allsnowboarders I'm the skier of
the bunch and I'm just thinking,oh yeah, I'll be fine, I can
(09:19):
hold my own on the slopes andstuff, slopes and stuff.
So that you know, it's asituation where I mean this is
before cell phones and I mean ofcourse there was cell phones
then, but it wasn't common, notlike it is now.
No, it's not like everybody hasa cell phone pretty much for
communicating.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
There was, there wasn't all of the technology
they have now.
So, yeah, when you tell us in afew minutes, when you get lost,
it's not like it is now.
You just can't call someone orget the signal to your phone and
all of this stuff.
It's totally different, okay.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Well, I didn't have a cell phone.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Okay, you didn't even have a cell phone.
No, I didn't.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
I do remember that I had a cell phone when I lived in
Georgia before we moved, butonce we moved out there then I
didn't get a replacement cellphone.
We had a home phone.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So, coming out of an abusive relationship, you're
away from that relationship andyou've met up with this group in
Wyoming.
Now, this is a group of skiers.
You decide to go skiing?
Yep, and now?
Speaker 4 (10:30):
so and, by the way, this is february yeah and it's
full on winter time yeah yeah,deep snow, yeah, bad weather at
night, yeah, very cold yes, um,I'll go ahead and tell you that
the night in the mountains itgot down to negative eight.
Oh, wow so it was about 12during the day and below.
(10:53):
You know it said in the townthat it was negative four, but I
mean I was back in themountains, so negative eight.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Windy?
Speaker 4 (11:08):
No, not really that windy just no, extremely cold oh
yeah, I'll tell you somethingcool when I get to that.
Um, we get there at eighto'clock in the morning, eight
o'clock in the morning, and westart by smoking a joint, right
that's?
I mean you know, right, set up,right ready.
(11:29):
Yeah, um, one of the guys hasextra stuff for me in his pack,
like a water bottle and snacksand whatnot, right, so I'm gonna
go through the.
The things that I have learnedis in regards to just caring for
yourself, being in the woods.
(11:49):
Number one do not have yourstuff in someone else's pack.
You carry your own pack.
So, number one lesson there.
All right, so we ride up, weride the ski lifts.
Remember, this is first thing inthe morning 8 o'clock in the
morning 8 o'clock in the morningwe ride the lifts all the way
to the top and immediately theystart talking about hey, let's
(12:16):
go over here.
They want to go past the ropethat says out of bounds to go
snowboard the bowl.
Okay, the bowl is an extremelydangerous avalanche prone area.
Snowboarders love it.
(12:36):
This is February, so avalanchesare really likely in February.
I was scared to death to goacross a boundary so I said I
don't think so, I'm just goingto keep on skiing the slopes.
(12:56):
We'll meet down at the bottomabout 2.30, you know.
So my trouble pretty muchimmediately started.
I mean, I'm telling you, assoon as they went one direction
and I went the other direction,I was thinking in my head I'm
going to cut off this part ofthe trail.
(13:21):
I'm going to ski down thislittle powder and cut off this
part of the trail and getfurther down the trail.
I'm gonna ski down this littleuh powder and cut off this part
of the trail and get furtherdown the trail quicker.
I just didn't want to be upthere by myself for very long.
I wanted to get back to whereeverybody else was on at the ski
resort.
Well, um, that it did nothappen that way, because when I
(13:45):
skied off that little powdercliff type of area, I actually
skied into a whole nother umdrainage area.
So it didn't, I didn't come outaround on a trail.
It came out around straightinto the wilderness on a trail.
(14:09):
It came out around straightinto the wilderness.
I saw some other tracks and theylooked like fresh tracks and so
I was like, okay, somebody elseobviously knows what they're
doing.
I'm gonna follow these tracks.
It's got to lead back around tothis, to the slope, to the
trail, and it never did.
Um, and there was, there was asign at one point that said you,
(14:30):
you you're out of bounds, goback.
But those um tracks led beyondit and I thought how this guy's
got to know what he's got to cut.
Over all of my experience inmountains, it just I just knew
it was just going to cut rightback to the trail, so I didn't
go back.
(14:51):
When I turned around and lookedhow I would get back If I went
back, those came same way I camedown.
It seemed way too hard for me.
I was going to have to take myskis off and actually mountain
climb, yeah, to get back up.
I'm like there is no way.
I'm just gonna keep onfollowing these tracks, okay, so
(15:16):
that.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
So I'm lost at that point and this is what do you
think?
Uh, still in the morning midmorning, and now you're lost.
For sure, I've never beenskiing, I've never had an
interest in it, but when you'reskiing, the trails that they
want you to keep on are there,like flags and things that keep
(15:36):
you from getting lost.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
They're groomed, the slopes and stuff are groomed and
so you can tell.
It's kind of like thedifference of if you're walking
a trail in the woods, you knowhow it's obvious that that is a
trail that the rangers have madeor the forest guys.
That's how it is on, especiallyat a resort.
(15:59):
They are very difficult,they're high difficulty level
slopes and whatnot trails, butthey make it obvious that those
are the trails.
It's either white or white,don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
It's either that white or that white, but the
trails are definitely groomed,and now you know you're not on
an obvious trail anymore.
Oh, I'm, and you know you'relost.
Yes, it's mid-morning.
Yeah, are you panicking at thispoint?
Speaker 4 (16:31):
No, because I still see the I still no because
here's the thing I kneweverything.
No, I wasn't panicking becauseI just felt like, oh, this is no
big deal.
No, I just was being stubbornand naive and thought, okay, I
(16:53):
just need to go a little bitfurther.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Now I'm going to ask this because I'm curious Are you
high at this point?
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Oh, probably not.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
No.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
I don't remember the joint had worn off at at this
point.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Okay, yeah, I have to ask.
Yeah, I know, because sometimesyou know I've been there, you
know I'm not much of a smokerbut I at times in my life I have
, and I know that sometimes thatcan, that can uh kind of jumble
up your judgment.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Yeah that's why I asked well, I don't smoke
anymore.
I mean, I'm a grown woman, sono, so that wasn't a factor.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
You're just lost, but you're confident.
You're a confident skier andyou're also confident that,
because you see this trail, itwill lead you back around.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
And so so far.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
You feel you're off the trail.
You know that, but you feelconfident, you're still okay.
You're not panicked yet,exactly Okay.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Exactly Mid-morning, you're not panicked.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Okay, yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
And I'm more just like God.
This sucks, like I have got areally hard way to get back up.
I mean it just no cell phone incase you get, yeah, no backpack
with any supplies.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
No, nothing on my back Now.
That's because you gave yoursupplies to someone else to
carry.
Yep, and okay, yep, okay.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
I mean, I didn't he just, you know he had the
backpack, I just wasn't.
I didn't know how to preparemyself to go out into the
wilderness.
I thought I did because I'vealready always been like an
outdoor girl.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Um, but you, I didn't know to be responsible for
preparing myself but you have noways of communicating, you have
no supplies.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
You're just just you and your skis, no water or
nothing.
Yeah, well, you got snow.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
I guess that's not a factor not the same thing not
the same thing okay all right,actually makes it worse okay, um
, so, so then, so you're lost.
All right.
So about midday, I mean, thisis going on for a while now and
I'm definitely starting to getworried about midday, yeah, and
(19:11):
I actually start kind ofhollering because I'm seeing the
tracks or whatever.
I don't really know how muchtime had gone by, but I know
that there was a point where Istart hollering because the
tracks really looked fresh,right and crazy enough.
a guy yells back from all theway down there in the basin and
he yells back and you know we'relike.
(19:33):
He says hey, I'm like I needhelp and he says I do too.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Oh no, the blind leading the blind OK.
Okay, so um he said this is thetrack.
These are probably the tracksyou're following.
This one is lost too.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Oh, my God.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Now what is so?
And we never saw each other.
We never saw each other.
We never got that close.
But he said I'm going to try toclimb back up and I said I
can't, I'm staying right here.
And he said I'll get help andsend help down.
(20:20):
So I said okay, and that was it.
And I thought, well, great, youknow, like this, you know I'm
fine.
Um, I waited there a while, awhile probably a few hours for
him to show up or send helping,send help back down.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Right, right, if he climbed up, send help back down.
Yes, gotcha.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
Yes, because it would have been him sending, I
understand, yeah, search andrescue to back down.
Anyway, nobody came.
And I'll tell you about thatwhen we get there.
But so nobody came.
And I'll tell you about thatwhen we get there.
But so nobody came.
And it so in winter, wyoming,the sun is setting at 5 o'clock,
(21:15):
maximum, the sun sets 5.02.
So I could tell the sun wasgetting close to set and that's
when I started really freakingout Like whole—.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yeah, because now darkness is coming Right.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
Oh, my God.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
And it's getting colder.
I'm sure I've got to get the Fout of here.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Yeah, let me—here's another piece of the survival
part.
I was dressed properly.
People don't dress the same.
Here in the south we have acold day and you know people put
their little mittens on andwhatever.
No, when it's cold, I've got mylong johns on and they're
(21:54):
probably fleece.
You know, I've.
I know how to dress that's.
That's a real big part of whatsaved my life with those temps
is that I was dressed properly.
I had, head to toe, real gearon, real sub freezing gear on.
(22:16):
So, yeah, it was cold.
It was more that I was scaredof the wilderness OK, scared to
death.
Here's what I was going to tellyou earlier.
The coolest thing was that thatnight was a full moon, and so a
full moon the moon reflectingon snow is very bright, and so I
(22:41):
never had a problem seeing, ohyeah, which I really took that
as a blessing because, you know,just Could have been worse, it
could have been pitch black.
It was very scary.
So so, yeah, so now it's nowit's nighttime, and I had walked
quite a bit.
(23:01):
Once I realized the sun wassetting, I had started walking,
I'd started just.
I just was determined to getthe F out of there.
So nightfall came, and that wasa struggle to survive.
I don't think that I slept oneminute.
(23:22):
I don't think that I slept oneminute.
Every time I started trying tofall asleep, my body would start
convulsing.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
How are you following ?
You're just laying on theground to sleep.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
No, what are you doing?
Oh, I'm glad you asked thatquestion.
Okay, the trees in Wyoming, youknow they're different.
They're like the big evergreens, right?
So you got the big triangletype of tree and the branches
are just all the way down andthe entire thing is covered in
(23:58):
snow.
But the coolest part is, if youdig a tunnel into the trunk,
there is a open space of groundwhere the snow hasn't gotten to
because the branches are hangingover.
The snow's blanketed over it.
(24:19):
And so I would continuously digmy way into the little bitty
perimeter around the tree trunkand lay down.
The problem is that you know,like every I'm going to guess
every 30 minutes or something,my body would start convulsing.
(24:41):
I was so cold so you have neverhad shivers, unless your body
is dying and trying to stayawake.
That is some freaking shivers.
Okay, true convulsions, justyeah, right.
(25:04):
So every time that would happen, I would get up and walk a
little bit more and um until Ijust couldn't are you walking up
, trying to climb up themountain?
No, I'm just walking around,just walk, just walking in that
general direction, but more of adownslope.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
What general direction?
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Where I thought I came from.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
So you're just guessing at this point.
Oh yeah, you can see, becausethe moon is out and it's
reflecting off the snow.
It's full wilderness.
You're trying to keep fromfreezing to death.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
And to do that.
Every now and then you'restopping at these trees, getting
up under it in the little spot.
That does kind of shelter yousomewhat.
Yes, and you know this.
Obviously you know no one'scoming to look.
No one has come to look for you.
You don't think.
Why didn't your friends, Iwonder, send?
Oh, that's a good question.
Yeah, where are they at this,in all of this?
Well, I mean they know you'remissing at this point we.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
We found out later that they and it says it in one
of the news articles theybasically said they did not know
me at all, they had just met me, yeah, and that they just
thought I got lucky and theydon't know you.
I had left my post in personalbelongings and they were
(26:19):
probably young and naive too anddidn't think anything about it,
and so they got in there.
I didn't show up at 2.30.
When they finished with theirday.
They got in their car and drovean hour and a half hour and 45
(26:40):
minutes all the way back toTeton, all the way back to
Jackson, without me and neverthought anything about it.
They just thought I would get aride, because the thing between
Jackson and Targhee, I guess,was a pretty common thing, and
so people would get rides backand forth all the time.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
So no one's looking for you.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Nobody even knows that I'm missing.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Nobody.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Now this is, we're in .
It was five o'clock when it gotdark, so now we're probably
what?
Four or five hours maybe later.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Well, I don't really know.
It is hard to tell uh-huh,uh-huh, did you have a?
Speaker 2 (27:22):
watch on no, no, no, no, watch, no, no, watch, no
communication, no, compassnothing.
I don't know if a compassnothing well, nothing, I will
tell you.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
There was a point in the.
In some point point in thenight, I heard a, I heard a car
and I I heard a car.
What I heard was actually aforest ranger on a service road,
but that gave me a generaldirection to head towards, and
(27:57):
so that's what I was basicallyheading towards.
But my progress was extremelyslow, extremely slow, I mean it,
I, you know.
It's not like I walked a milein 10 minutes, I mean it was.
It probably took me an hourjust to go 50 yards.
(28:19):
I don't know, but it was.
It was very slow going, um areyou?
Speaker 2 (28:24):
even though you heard this and you're headed in a
general direction, you're tryingto keep from freezing to death.
That's why you have to keepstopping at these trees.
Is it fair to say you'repanicked at this point?
Speaker 4 (28:35):
no, I was scared to.
I wasn't panicked, I wasterrified.
But when I got terrified, I I'mI'm like kind of a freeze type
of person.
Um, so I mean panicked, I guess, is one way to say it, but no,
I was terrified.
I've never been that scared inmy entire life.
I was terrified.
(28:57):
Uh, you know, I knew that mylife was in danger.
It wasn't just the freezing, itwas um the animals, the
wilderness, all that stuff yeah,what type of wildlife is that?
Speaker 2 (29:08):
the wolves?
Speaker 4 (29:09):
elk, yeah, wolves um elk and moose are the are the
big game.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
The wolves I would be worried about.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
I was.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Did you hear any of this?
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Yes, of course they didn't seem like they were very
close.
I did get walked up on by awhole herd of elk and that was
scary because you know, theyseemed to be right next to me.
Maybe they didn't realize I wasthere because I was in that
(29:41):
little, the little hole aroundthe tree trunk.
But I just terrified was moreof my feelings.
Yeah, just um, were you crying?
Speaker 2 (29:53):
have you ever been emotional?
Speaker 4 (29:54):
no, have you ever been so scared that you, you
like you get nauseous?
yeah well, that's where it was.
It was more just just terrifiedall night and shaking and
freezing and, um, funny thing is, if I had a snickers bar in my
(30:15):
pocket, it was going to solveeverything.
Like I was so dang hungry, thatall like a thing.
And I mean I wasn't even acandy bar eater.
It was a weird thing.
But if I could have eaten aSnickers bar it would have just
fixed everything and gone tosleep.
When you have hype, the partabout it that's not in the
articles is the biggest dangerto my life was hypothermia.
(30:38):
When you are dying fromhypothermia, your body just
wants to go to sleep and so, um,you know I was fighting all
that.
There was a few moments, okay.
So here's the really coolthings that happened to keep me
alive in my body, in my mind.
(30:59):
Okay, there was a handful oftimes overnight that I
definitely heard the search crew.
Now, there's nobody searching,nobody even knows that I'm
missing.
So keep that in mind.
Nobody even knows that I'mmissing.
So keep that in mind.
I definitely heard the searchcrews to the point where we
(31:21):
yelled back and forth to eachother several times.
You know I had back and forthconversations with the search
party, at least four or fivedifferent times.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
This is probably your mind helping you to get comfort
, like when someone's lost inthe desert.
You know, they see mirages,they see water and that's their
target.
They think there's water in thedistance because their mind is
so desperate for water that theysee it, literally see it, and
they go toward it, only to findout it's not there.
It sounds like the same thingYou're, you're, you're, you're
wanting a search party.
Your mind is fooling you intothinking there is one, to give
(32:01):
you hope, maybe.
I know the mind works strangeways.
We've all experienced that.
So, even though there was nosearch party, you're here in a
search party.
You're actually communicating.
That had to give you somecomfort in all of this.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Yeah, chaos yep, well , are you ready for this?
Yes, go ahead.
All right.
My cousin manda was leading thesearch party and she and her,
she was yelling to me that, um,it's that, we're almost there.
We're about to get you out.
(32:39):
Hang on just a little bitlonger, we're almost there.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
This fake search party was her leading the charge
.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Yeah, and I only heard her a few times.
I mean, I definitely heard themale voices.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
And I said fake.
Fake I meant like a mirage of asearch party.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
Yes, yeah, yes, yes, um so, okay, I make it through,
I'm gonna come back to that.
Okay, I make it through, I'mgoing to come back to that.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (33:17):
I make it through the night.
The sun is coming up and I hadheard that herd of elk over this
direction.
You know, in my mind I'm like,okay, they were headed that
direction.
And I look over that directionand I see this big clearing in
the trees, and so it's a field,field, snow-covered field.
(33:41):
Um, but in my mind I thoughtI'm gonna make it to that field.
I'm gonna make it.
That was my goal, because atthis point, I mean I'm at one
point, I, you know, in themiddle I don't have my shoes, my
boots, on anymore.
The reason my ski boots.
(34:02):
The reason why is because myfeet were so cold that I was
taking my boots off and holdingmy toes to try to warm them up.
But the problem is that my feetfroze almost immediately and I
couldn't get them back in myboots.
So by this point I got no bootson.
I do have triple, triple woolsocks and all that stuff, um,
(34:25):
but I thought if I can just makeit to that clearing, then I
know that they'll at least findme.
Um, because I knew that Ididn't have any more in me to
make other than to make it tothat clearing.
So I did, I made it to thatclearing about, I'm gonna guess,
11 am.
(34:46):
And the reason why I say it wasaround there is because the sun
was, the sun was full out and Igot in the middle of that
clearing.
I had got, I had broken offsome branches and I put branches
in a big x and I oh sorry no, Isee you getting emotional.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
That's okay, you're reliving it, I can tell in your
mind so this was very traumatic.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, near deathexperience is what you had.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
Yeah, for sure, oh there is a whole divine
intervention.
Part of it we'll get to when Iget through this.
I put a little cradle hole inthe middle of that X that I had
made with those branches.
Yeah, I lined it with branchesand that's where I laid for the
(35:36):
rest of the time and until I wasdown, that was it.
That was my final resting spotand they found me and I was
there all day during the—nowthis is Sunday, this is already
Sunday afternoon, and I canremember the sun was straight
(35:59):
out, straight out.
It was just, you know, full sun, which is like 12 degrees.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Yeah, okay, were you getting any warmth?
Speaker 4 (36:07):
Yeah, that was that was it Is that the sun was on my
face to the point where Ithought if I did not have that
sun directly on my face, I wouldnot have made it.
It was my last hurrah as far asthe earth keeping me alive, the
God keeping me alive, that onepiece of sun, sunshine on my
(36:34):
face.
I didn't feel the sunshineanywhere else.
I mean it's 12 degrees, butthere was just something about
that direct sun on my face thatwas, I didn't feel the sunshine
anywhere else, I mean it's 12degrees, but there was just
something about that direct sunon my face.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Um, that kept me alive and, by the way, I want to
interject because I I to the,to the person that has never
experienced cold like that andI'm from, yeah, you know, I
lived in oklah, oklahoma, for along time and I've been in
blizzards.
I lived in near Chicago at onepoint, so I know winter can be
harsh and in the mountains whenit's way below freezing, it's
(37:05):
really harsh.
And for someone that may bethinking, oh, you know, it was
from 8 o'clock to the next day,11 o'clock not a big deal.
You've never been in that kindof situation, a big deal.
You've never been in that kindof situation that you can freeze
to death very quickly.
Once that cold weather hit, oncethat, once you get below
freezing and you're not prepared, you're not set up for survival
(37:27):
, you can freeze to death veryquickly.
So for a person lost like thatand it's a one hour has to seem
like an eternity.
So so imagine almost I don'tknow, I know we're going to get
to it almost 24 hours of justbeing lost in the wilderness, in
the mountains, below freezing,no food, no drink, no
(37:50):
communicating.
That's a long-ass time to belost.
So if you're thinking, oh,that's not that long, if you're
in that situation that's aneternity and that's very fatal
and you can die very easily andyou can lose hope and just
freeze to death.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
So I'm sorry, I wanted to interject that,
because I know that some of youare getting emotional too.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
People don't realize maybe how can she get so much.
That's tough, man.
Be in that situation even a fewhours and see how hard it is.
Lost in the woods for a fewhours, not thinking you're going
to get out is bad enough, socontinue.
I just wanted to interject forthe audience.
Speaker 4 (38:27):
Yeah, um, they have.
You know, I didn't find outuntil, but the search party for
me did not even start untilSunday afternoon.
Wow, so and it says it in oneof the articles, they did not
even start a search party until1 pm Sunday.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
And I'll post these articles on the.
Facebook page and the Instagrampage so the audience can read
this.
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:03):
So all afternoon I'm getting that last piece of life
$4.50.
Pm.
Sun's already starting to godown again.
Again, I knew I wasn't makingit through the second night
Cause I mean, I hadn't movedsince that morning.
Right Um 4, 50 PM I hear asnowmobile and he's there.
(39:28):
It's definitely the search andrescue team.
They have tracked me from adifferent direction.
They tracked me from thedirection that I came.
They found my skis where I hadtaken them off, and then they
brought in snowmobiles from theservice road that I had heard in
(39:54):
the sweetest sound, to knowthat, oh, someone is actually
has.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
They're there that snowmobile?
I don't, I don't know about you, but I would have probably
thought is it even real, is thateven a real thing?
But what a relief that had tobe like overwhelming.
Did you break down?
Yes, I'll bet you did.
Yeah, I would have too.
Speaker 4 (40:15):
Yeah euphorically broke down.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
So yeah, hope was lost.
And now suddenly, yeah, no, Isee the emotion.
I don't blame you at all.
Wow, I'm just reliving.
I'm not I wasn't there, but myhead.
I'm thinking about the factthat you're without hope and
suddenly, when it's getting dark, you're like, oh, here we go
(40:39):
again.
Then you hear a snowmobile andyou're like, oh, you just have
to be overwhelmed with apositive emotion like, oh, my
God, I'm going to be rescued.
This is amazing.
Wow, what an experience.
Continue.
I know it's not over yet, butgo ahead, yeah.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
Well, that's, that is the, that is the um, 30 hours
basically from from you know Imean, if you think about I,
wasn't lost that long, but I wasout in the exposure in the in
the elements from 8.00 AM.
Saturdayurday morning to 4 50pm.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
Sunday night, sunday evening that's a long, I'm
telling you.
I one time I'm gonna.
I'm going to say this I gotlost in the mountains.
I was hiking with a group.
Um, I had my son with me, whowas small at the time.
I put him on my shoulders and Iremember going back on the
trail and then I thought, youknow, it's kind of what you said
(41:37):
you did.
I said this is nothing comparedto what you had and I said I'm
going to take this shortcutbecause I remember and I got
lost in the wood for two and ahalf hours.
Now, that's not, that soundslike nothing.
But I was like, oh my God,there's, there's things out,
there are things out here that,if it gets in it.
By the way, it was like fouro'clock, so it was getting close
(42:00):
to getting dark and I thoughtif I'm here in the dark with a
little kid, I'm in trouble, ohgosh.
So fortunately, I heard thestream at some point and I
followed the sound and becausethe stream led right by the
cabin we were staying in.
But that was only two and ahalf, three hours, that's
nothing, yeah, but that wasenough to make me think I'm in
(42:21):
trouble.
So your experience with wolves,possibly out there too, that
could get closer the elements,the, the cold.
That's an eternity, sarah.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
That's an eternity to be lost in the mountains and to
be saved that way is so, yeah,when I went, when they got me to
the hospital, um, in somewhereI forgot, didn't you know,
nearest hospital, um, hospital,um.
(42:54):
So, for people who have diedfrom hypothermia, okay, you fall
in icy water or you get, you'restuck out in the elements too
long or whatever Um, when yourcore body temperature drops
below 90, between 85 and 90,some people die and some people
live, some people make it, somepeople live, some people die.
(43:16):
When I got to the hospital, mycore body temperature was 86.
86.
Anything below 85 and you'regone.
And my core body temperaturewas 86.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
You wouldn't have survived the night.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
No, I wouldn't have survived another three hours.
I wouldn't have survived thenight.
No, I wouldn't have survivedanother three hours.
Yeah, I wouldn't.
I wouldn't have even gotten tomidnight, um.
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna fastforward a little bit and go
about two weeks out afterwardsokay, afterwards Okay.
Because this is the reallyundeniable part of my story and
(43:58):
how it was truly divineintervention.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
Can I ask you one thing before you go there?
Yeah, what were the physicalrepercussions of being out there
that long?
Speaker 4 (44:10):
Well, I had frostbite on three, four different places
on my feet and it wasn't justthe black pieces of frostbite,
it was that my feet were prettymuch frozen up for a few months.
So that was the biggest thing.
(44:31):
And, of course, the hypothermia.
How do they treat that?
Whirlpool therapy?
Um, you know those like medicalwhirlpool things?
Um, when I got, when I gotflown back to Georgia, when they
released me out of ICU, they sothey, the exes, the abuser's
(44:55):
mom paid for me to have, I think, paid for me I think she's the
one that paid for it, but they Igot a medical transport from
that hospital straight to thetarmac of an airport and flew me
back home when my mom waswaiting for me waiting for me.
(45:21):
When I got back home, my momgot started, got me set up and
started with chiropractic andmassage therapy immediately.
So within six months I waspretty much walking normal again
.
I came back in a wheelchair andthen I moved up to a walker, wow
.
And then, um, I was on a canefor a while.
I remember that I was on a cane, um, but after I think it like
(45:44):
six months or something, I waswalking on the cane, yeah, so
okay, I just wanted to.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
Yeah, I wanted to get that, so now we'll go back or
we'll go forward two weeks weekslater.
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (45:54):
When I came.
So yeah, so I'm glad I justkind of filled in those pieces.
Is that I spent?
I thought I spent four nightsin the ICU.
When I was rereading thearticle it says two nights, so
maybe I got that confused, Idon't know.
But I went straight from ICU tothe airport.
Medical transport, like I said,flew me back home into the arms
(46:18):
of my mama and Will said thatI'd never talk to him again.
So I think that if God wouldnot have removed me physically
from the area, I probably wouldhave went back, just like I had
already.
Um, you know.
(46:38):
So anyway, right back into thearms of mama um, but out of the
abusive relationship.
Yes for good yes yeah so I wasthe first couple weeks, the
first.
I mean I'd spent yearstraumatized, okay, ptsd and all
that.
But the first couple weeks wereextremely isolated.
(47:02):
I could not leave the bedroom,I couldn't take any phone calls,
no visitors, no, nothing.
I could not have a conversationwith my mom, I could not talk
about it, period, there was nodetails coming out of my mouth,
um, and I mean I could barelytalk.
I was just in severe PTSD,severe traumatized for a lot of
(47:28):
reasons.
Um, so a couple of weeks go byand you know I've got the
therapists coming in and out,for they came to my house to do
the massage and the um, physicaltherapy, the chiropractic, all
that.
So we were having three, four,five times a week in and out.
(47:49):
Um, and then I had a friendthat would he's family to me,
he's like a brother, he's beenmy friend for my whole life
pretty much.
He never asked me anything, buthe would come over and rub aloe
vera stuff into my feet,because that was another part of
(48:09):
the treatment, but he wouldcome over and just sit with me
and not say anything.
So those were my mom and Justin.
Those were the only two peoplethat I spoke to at all in the
first couple of weeks.
Okay, after a couple of weeks,my mom comes in the room and
says we got a package in themail and it is the articles from
(48:33):
the newspaper.
The newspaper sent you thearticles.
And I was like, oh, and shesaid, do you, do you want to
read through them?
And I was like, yeah, you know,um.
So I start reading the articlesand she's sitting right on,
she's sitting right next to me,and I get to the one that says
something about you know,initial reports went nowhere.
(48:56):
No, you know, search partywasn't looking for her until
Sunday.
Nobody reported her missing,and all that.
And I was like, well, that'snot true.
I heard the search parties,yeah, and she said um.
She said um, she said no, no,nobody was looking for you.
And I said, yes, they were.
(49:18):
I heard the search parties.
I had conversations with themback and forth.
Mandy was leading them, and shesaid what?
And I said, mandy, amanda wasleading the search parties at
three different times, you know.
And she said, sarah, thinkabout what you're saying.
Amanda is in Charleston,amanda's in South Carolina, and
I just that was a big realitymoment for me.
(49:42):
Then she's sitting there.
She looks like she's seen aghost and she says maybe you
heard me talking about it withsomebody whoever, because
Amanda's the one who got thewhole search party started on
(50:05):
Sunday.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (50:07):
And I said what she said Aunt Karen called me.
She said Aunt Karen called meand she said that Amanda now
this is why I wish we had Amandaon there, because there's a
whole, you know, they just havea whole different point of view.
But she said that Amanda neededto talk to me and that she had
(50:35):
told her mom she was stayingwith.
Amanda was staying with her momat the time.
So her mom, aunt Karen, callsmy mom, my mom calls the guy's
mom and gets phone number.
It's's hours of back and forth.
(50:55):
The reason why is becauseAmanda had started saying
something at 6 o'clock in themorning.
I got the details from her afew years later, like the
details details.
She had had nightmares allnight long that her and I were
(51:15):
stuck in a pitch black room andnow Amanda is one year exactly
younger than me I'm the olderone, but that I was the one
scared to death.
And she kept on saying they'regoing to find us.
They're going to know thatwe're in here.
You just got to hold on and becalm and they're going to find
us.
They're going to know thatwe're in here.
(51:35):
You just got to hold on and becalm and they're going to get us
out and she literally had theseupsetting, disturbing
nightmares all night long.
She gets up 6 o'clock in themorning when she hears her mom
in the kitchen.
She goes straight out andstarts telling her mom have we
(51:57):
talked to Sarah?
Do you have our new number?
Do you have any way to get intouch with Sarah?
I need to talk with Sarah.
And this was a whole morning ofan event.
All these phone calls goingback and forth between my cousin
in South Carolina, my mom inSouth Carolina, my mom in North
(52:19):
Georgia, his mom in NorthGeorgia, this guy that I had
just been estranged from out inWyoming no cell phones, no,
nothing.
There's a lot of phone callsgoing back and forth.
And Mandy and he first blew mymom off and said you know, oh, I
(52:41):
had been out.
I went out to the store.
He wasn't going to be home whenI got back but he'd leave a
note for me or whatever.
And Amanda just said she had aterrible feeling about his
response and that she calledback and left a message on his
machine that if she didn't hearfrom me in the next hour, she
was calling the cops and shejust wanted to let him know in
(53:03):
case he wanted to do anythingdifferent.
That's when he started tryingto figure out where I was in
town.
I'm not really sure how hefigured out who I had moved in
with, but I know that he wasable to get that information
within an hour to find out mywhereabouts.
That's when police went totheir door and they told the
(53:31):
cops that I hadn't come backhome.
That is when everybody puttogether that I was missing and
that was about, I'm going to say, 11 am on Sunday, maybe 12.
And the search got started at 1pm on Sunday and I mean there's
(53:54):
no, no reason.
There's no reason for it.
There's no reason for it.
When she told me what herdreams were and I mean just the
fact that you know, here she is3,000 miles away having
nightmares about us, to thepoint where she's waking up and
(54:17):
alarming bells for hours to getsomeone to get me on the phone
and the fact that throughout thenight, the search party that I
heard was her leading it I meanit's undeniable.
Speaker 2 (54:37):
That's amazing.
Speaker 4 (54:39):
It is.
Speaker 2 (54:41):
I will say, I'll say this For this show the one
reason that we put this showtogether is because a lot of it
is, you know, to have somethingout there for people to listen
to.
But because I've had so manyexperiences in my life and I
know other people who have thatare not explainable necessarily,
(55:05):
but they're true, they're outthere.
And if you think well, that'swhy we do this podcast is to
hear stories, and sometimesyou'll have stories come through
that are mind blowing.
This is one of those.
But I will say, if anyone outthere, anyone not just listening
to this, but anyone thinks thatwe only live on a physical
(55:28):
plane, then you're either indenial or sadly mistaken,
because there is more to thislife than just what you see
physically.
There is a spiritual bondbetween everything.
Everything is made up.
You have to understandeverything is made up of the
same material in the end, andeverything is connected.
(55:49):
The universe is connected.
Love, hate all of theseemotions also are part of that
connection, and sometimes lovefor people will, I think, signal
a warning or send a signal out,almost like a.
What's the signal that send out?
(56:12):
The SOS signal spiritually, tolet someone know that
something's either in a dream orjust a feeling.
I should call this person todayanything.
This stuff happens all the time.
So, again, the stories that wehear on this show, the stories
(56:32):
that you hear all over the worldnot just this has to let you
know and Sarah's emotionalthinking about it and I've had
plenty of those experiencesmyself.
We all have, whether we want toadmit it or not.
And why was she saved?
Why was she?
Why was she?
She could have frozen to deathout there, like many people
(56:53):
would, but why was she rescuedwithout no ways of communicating
?
And why did she see and hear asearch party?
And that was led by her sisterwho was actually having these
dreams about her?
A warning, I think so.
And enough to where the signalwas put out We've got, there's
(57:16):
something wrong.
And she was rescued in the nickof time, by the way, in the
nick of time.
That's an amazing story.
That's an amazing ending and Ican tell you from watching Sarah
this is she is, first of all,the story is obviously
absolutely true, but the emotionis not fake.
(57:49):
She is very emotional tellingthis story because when you have
an experience like that, thatit maybe not just saves your
life, but something that happens, that you can't explain, but it
but it's.
It makes you see lifedifferently.
You never get over that.
It makes you see lifedifferently.
You never get over that, andwatching her tell that story,
she's gone back there in hermind.
It's like she's reliving it inthe now, as it was then.
This world is amazing, folks,and if you look around, just
(58:10):
understand that what you seephysically is not all there is
to it.
There are other dimensions thatwe can't see, and I believe
there's a God that has createdeverything, and I believe that
everything is connected and Idon't care what you believe in.
If you don't believe inanything beyond what you see,
again you're missing out, you'resadly mistaken and you're wrong
(58:34):
.
Sarah, thanks for being with ustoday.
Thank you Really for sharingthat.
Speaker 3 (58:39):
Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (58:40):
You got me emotional.
Almost that's amazing.
So thank you for telling usthat story.
I know you've never told thisto anyone in a setting like this
before and we really appreciateit.
Thank you so much.
We feel privileged that youcame and told us, and one day I
would like for we've had so manyguests so far that just blew
(59:01):
our minds and one day I wouldlove to have almost like a big
Zoom reunion and talk to so manypeople about sharing their
experiences just in a smallforum, to get the perspective
from all these different people.
We've heard so many stories andwe're going to hear many more,
but this is yet another good one.
So again, thank you, sarah.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (59:22):
Thanks for having me.
Thanks for checking out theSonic Hitchhiker podcast.
Follow us on Instagram at SonicHitchhiker podcast and get new
episodes Wednesdays, whereveryou get your podcasts.
Welcome to the Sonic Hitchhiker podcast dedicated to
all things strange, mysteriousand just plain out of the
ordinary.
It is because of his interestin these experiences that this
podcast was created.
And now your host, billy Shadow.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hello everyone.
As the announcer said, this isBilly Shadow here with David
Fine, the producer, and I wantto let you guys know that today
we have an amazing show for you.
This is unlike any other showthat we've done so far.
This is a show about survival.
This is a show about beingrescued, this is a show about
(00:42):
spirituality, this is a showabout miracles, and I think
you're really going to enjoythis.
I'm telling you you're in for atreat, david.
What did you think about thestory that we're going to hear
today?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
It got me emotional, me too, and I just met Sarah
today.
I mean, she's a great personwith a great story, and in the
past season we had guests thatyou know, had stories that you
know that could be.
You may not believe, but trustme, folks, what you're about to
hear is it's just amazing thatshe's here today to talk about
(01:18):
it.
I mean, most people would havejust given up, but she didn't
give up and it's an amazingstory, it's.
It's one of those ones thatyou're going to want to pass on
to people going.
You know, determination, youknow, don't give up, you know,
and just go with your gut and uhand you'll be around, but it's
definitely definitely an amazingstory.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
And now, without further ado, sarah and Ledford
enjoy.
Speaker 4 (01:38):
So I do have to start with um, the there there's a
whole relationship part of thestory that is a big part of it.
Okay, um, I moved out there inin a very um, bad relationship.
Um, it was abusive and I reallydidn't know it was abusive
(02:03):
until we moved out there andthen it started becoming very
obvious.
We had a couple of incidencesleading up to this.
Let me back up.
Basically, some stuff hadhappened in Georgia that I had
confronted him about and we hadalready gotten married by that
(02:27):
point.
It was a very pressured,manipulated marriage and when I
confronted him about it he cameto me about a week later and
said he had decided that we weremoving to Wyoming.
It's a very classic isolationtype of action and his point of
(02:50):
view was that I was the wife andhe was the boss and that's what
we were doing.
So within a month we packed upour entire lives and moved to
Wyoming.
I did not know a soul out thereand he was definitely the boss.
I did not have a job, you know,money, didn't have my own car,
(03:13):
any of that.
So it quickly became obviousthat what he was doing was
abusing me because there was,you know, it was obvious then
there was, you know, it wasobvious then.
So there was an incident aroundNew Year's where it got really
really scary.
(03:34):
Cops were called and the resultof that was that his mom bought
me a plane ticket and flew mehome to kind of regroup with my
mom.
My mom and his mom have abackstory through church and
small town and that kind ofthing, and his mom always seemed
(03:56):
to come to his rescue, if youknow what I mean.
So I go back about a week laterand this is January, and he was
extremely nice for a coupleweeks.
Then February he started backwith the same behavior and it
(04:17):
got really really scary.
The week prior to this incidentwas the ultimate fight for my
life.
His abuse was more sexual andthe situation in February was a
(04:38):
full-on trying to rape mesituation when I was fighting
and trying to get away.
Then I'm finding myselfliterally fighting for my life.
He's strangling me from theback with my sweater and the
only reason miraculously that Igot away at that point is
because my sweater ripped offand I just run out of the room.
(05:02):
I run to the front door, I grabmy coat no shirt.
Throw my coat on and run outthe door no shoes, no shirt, but
I had the coat on and somepants and there was a police
station a few blocks up the road.
I literally ran straight to thepolice station.
Remember, this is Wyoming, it'sFebruary, everything is snow
(05:28):
covered.
So I'm I literally run to thepolice station in the snow.
In Wyoming they have reallystrict they had I don't know
this is back in 96 97 reallystrict domestic abuse laws and
so he was required to spend 72hours in jail and then we were
required to go 30 days with nocontact.
(05:49):
So in that 72 hours that he wasin jail I decided that that was
my chance to get away.
So I started asking forresources.
The police station gave me thislike I don't know what her
title is, but guidance person,guidance counselor person, uh,
(06:12):
contact.
She got me in contact with thecommunity center and she said
there's a lot of resources here.
So the next day it was like aMonday, uh, tuesday maybe I go
to the community center andthere's a board with all of
these little ads.
Remember, this is like beforethe Internet and before your
(06:32):
cell phones and all that stuff.
So there is an ad posted thatsays room for rent.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
What year was this?
Speaker 4 (06:42):
This was 97.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
97, okay.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
At the beginning of 97.
We moved out there at the endof 96, and we were there for
five months.
Okay, so five months.
So I see this little ad roomfor rent and I'm like, perfect,
I call them, I go to meet them,meet them it's a roommate type
of situation and they let memove in that day.
(07:08):
So when he got out of jail Iwas gone.
So I have to tell that wholepart of it, because that's how
you end up in a situation whereyou're going to a ski resort
with strangers you never metbefore, and I was so dumb and
(07:29):
naive, I just was, you know,just thought, oh, it'll be fine,
you know, the world's my oyster, right, like it'll be fine.
Um, so I had just met thisgroup that week and they say to
me we're going to Targhee thisweekend, this Saturday, do you
(07:51):
want to go?
And, of course, number one,everybody out there.
If you move out there forwinter events, you have your own
skis, you have your ownequipment.
Of course I had my ownequipment and all that.
Yeah, I want to go.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Can you explain to the audience and to us what
Targhee is exactly?
I know it's a ski resort, butit's located where.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
Yeah, so we moved to Jackson, wyoming.
Most people know it as JacksonHole, but Jackson Hole is
actually the ski resort outsideof town.
The town is called Jackson,okay, so everybody's familiar
with Jackson Hole Ski Resort.
Targhee is on the other side ofthe mountain chain, so you got
(08:32):
the Teton Mountains.
On the other side of thatmountain chain are the Targhee
Mountains.
Targhee's located in Idaho andTarghee is known for the extreme
skiing.
Okay, and I was used to BlackDiamond, you know I I was like,
oh yeah, no problem, I'll befine.
Um, so that.
(08:54):
So yeah, so they're gonna goout of town across the pass.
The pass is a little bittytrail road basically that gets
you from one side of themountain to another.
So we're going to go over tothe pass and go ski Targhee this
weekend and they're allsnowboarders I'm the skier of
the bunch and I'm just thinking,oh yeah, I'll be fine, I can
(09:19):
hold my own on the slopes andstuff, slopes and stuff.
So that you know, it's asituation where I mean this is
before cell phones and I mean ofcourse there was cell phones
then, but it wasn't common, notlike it is now.
No, it's not like everybody hasa cell phone pretty much for
communicating.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
There was, there wasn't all of the technology
they have now.
So, yeah, when you tell us in afew minutes, when you get lost,
it's not like it is now.
You just can't call someone orget the signal to your phone and
all of this stuff.
It's totally different, okay.
Speaker 4 (09:56):
Well, I didn't have a cell phone.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Okay, you didn't even have a cell phone.
No, I didn't.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
I do remember that I had a cell phone when I lived in
Georgia before we moved, butonce we moved out there then I
didn't get a replacement cellphone.
We had a home phone.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
So, coming out of an abusive relationship, you're
away from that relationship andyou've met up with this group in
Wyoming.
Now, this is a group of skiers.
You decide to go skiing?
Yep, and now?
Speaker 4 (10:30):
so and, by the way, this is february yeah and it's
full on winter time yeah yeah,deep snow, yeah, bad weather at
night, yeah, very cold yes, um,I'll go ahead and tell you that
the night in the mountains itgot down to negative eight.
Oh, wow so it was about 12during the day and below.
(10:53):
You know it said in the townthat it was negative four, but I
mean I was back in themountains, so negative eight.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Windy?
Speaker 4 (11:08):
No, not really that windy just no, extremely cold oh
yeah, I'll tell you somethingcool when I get to that.
Um, we get there at eighto'clock in the morning, eight
o'clock in the morning, and westart by smoking a joint, right
that's?
I mean you know, right, set up,right ready.
(11:29):
Yeah, um, one of the guys hasextra stuff for me in his pack,
like a water bottle and snacksand whatnot, right, so I'm gonna
go through the.
The things that I have learnedis in regards to just caring for
yourself, being in the woods.
(11:49):
Number one do not have yourstuff in someone else's pack.
You carry your own pack.
So, number one lesson there.
All right, so we ride up, weride the ski lifts.
Remember, this is first thing inthe morning 8 o'clock in the
morning 8 o'clock in the morningwe ride the lifts all the way
to the top and immediately theystart talking about hey, let's
(12:16):
go over here.
They want to go past the ropethat says out of bounds to go
snowboard the bowl.
Okay, the bowl is an extremelydangerous avalanche prone area.
Snowboarders love it.
(12:36):
This is February, so avalanchesare really likely in February.
I was scared to death to goacross a boundary so I said I
don't think so, I'm just goingto keep on skiing the slopes.
(12:56):
We'll meet down at the bottomabout 2.30, you know.
So my trouble pretty muchimmediately started.
I mean, I'm telling you, assoon as they went one direction
and I went the other direction,I was thinking in my head I'm
going to cut off this part ofthe trail.
(13:21):
I'm going to ski down thislittle powder and cut off this
part of the trail and getfurther down the trail.
I'm gonna ski down this littleuh powder and cut off this part
of the trail and get furtherdown the trail quicker.
I just didn't want to be upthere by myself for very long.
I wanted to get back to whereeverybody else was on at the ski
resort.
Well, um, that it did nothappen that way, because when I
(13:45):
skied off that little powdercliff type of area, I actually
skied into a whole nother umdrainage area.
So it didn't, I didn't come outaround on a trail.
It came out around straightinto the wilderness on a trail.
(14:09):
It came out around straightinto the wilderness.
I saw some other tracks and theylooked like fresh tracks and so
I was like, okay, somebody elseobviously knows what they're
doing.
I'm gonna follow these tracks.
It's got to lead back around tothis, to the slope, to the
trail, and it never did.
Um, and there was, there was asign at one point that said you,
(14:30):
you you're out of bounds, goback.
But those um tracks led beyondit and I thought how this guy's
got to know what he's got to cut.
Over all of my experience inmountains, it just I just knew
it was just going to cut rightback to the trail, so I didn't
go back.
(14:51):
When I turned around and lookedhow I would get back If I went
back, those came same way I camedown.
It seemed way too hard for me.
I was going to have to take myskis off and actually mountain
climb, yeah, to get back up.
I'm like there is no way.
I'm just gonna keep onfollowing these tracks, okay, so
(15:16):
that.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
So I'm lost at that point and this is what do you
think?
Uh, still in the morning midmorning, and now you're lost.
For sure, I've never beenskiing, I've never had an
interest in it, but when you'reskiing, the trails that they
want you to keep on are there,like flags and things that keep
(15:36):
you from getting lost.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
They're groomed, the slopes and stuff are groomed and
so you can tell.
It's kind of like thedifference of if you're walking
a trail in the woods, you knowhow it's obvious that that is a
trail that the rangers have madeor the forest guys.
That's how it is on, especiallyat a resort.
(15:59):
They are very difficult,they're high difficulty level
slopes and whatnot trails, butthey make it obvious that those
are the trails.
It's either white or white,don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
It's either that white or that white, but the
trails are definitely groomed,and now you know you're not on
an obvious trail anymore.
Oh, I'm, and you know you'relost.
Yes, it's mid-morning.
Yeah, are you panicking at thispoint?
Speaker 4 (16:31):
No, because I still see the I still no because
here's the thing I kneweverything.
No, I wasn't panicking becauseI just felt like, oh, this is no
big deal.
No, I just was being stubbornand naive and thought, okay, I
(16:53):
just need to go a little bitfurther.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Now I'm going to ask this because I'm curious Are you
high at this point?
Speaker 4 (17:03):
Oh, probably not.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
No.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
I don't remember the joint had worn off at at this
point.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Okay, yeah, I have to ask.
Yeah, I know, because sometimesyou know I've been there, you
know I'm not much of a smokerbut I at times in my life I have
, and I know that sometimes thatcan, that can uh kind of jumble
up your judgment.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Yeah that's why I asked well, I don't smoke
anymore.
I mean, I'm a grown woman, sono, so that wasn't a factor.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
You're just lost, but you're confident.
You're a confident skier andyou're also confident that,
because you see this trail, itwill lead you back around.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
And so so far.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
You feel you're off the trail.
You know that, but you feelconfident, you're still okay.
You're not panicked yet,exactly Okay.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Exactly Mid-morning, you're not panicked.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Okay, yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:46):
And I'm more just like God.
This sucks, like I have got areally hard way to get back up.
I mean it just no cell phone incase you get, yeah, no backpack
with any supplies.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
No, nothing on my back Now.
That's because you gave yoursupplies to someone else to
carry.
Yep, and okay, yep, okay.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
I mean, I didn't he just, you know he had the
backpack, I just wasn't.
I didn't know how to preparemyself to go out into the
wilderness.
I thought I did because I'vealready always been like an
outdoor girl.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (18:22):
Um, but you, I didn't know to be responsible for
preparing myself but you have noways of communicating, you have
no supplies.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
You're just just you and your skis, no water or
nothing.
Yeah, well, you got snow.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
I guess that's not a factor not the same thing not
the same thing okay all right,actually makes it worse okay, um
, so, so then, so you're lost.
All right.
So about midday, I mean, thisis going on for a while now and
I'm definitely starting to getworried about midday, yeah, and
(19:11):
I actually start kind ofhollering because I'm seeing the
tracks or whatever.
I don't really know how muchtime had gone by, but I know
that there was a point where Istart hollering because the
tracks really looked fresh,right and crazy enough.
a guy yells back from all theway down there in the basin and
he yells back and you know we'relike.
(19:33):
He says hey, I'm like I needhelp and he says I do too.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Oh no, the blind leading the blind OK.
Okay, so um he said this is thetrack.
These are probably the tracksyou're following.
This one is lost too.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Oh, my God.
Speaker 4 (19:55):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
Now what is so?
And we never saw each other.
We never saw each other.
We never got that close.
But he said I'm going to try toclimb back up and I said I
can't, I'm staying right here.
And he said I'll get help andsend help down.
(20:20):
So I said okay, and that was it.
And I thought, well, great, youknow, like this, you know I'm
fine.
Um, I waited there a while, awhile probably a few hours for
him to show up or send helping,send help back down.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Right, right, if he climbed up, send help back down.
Yes, gotcha.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
Yes, because it would have been him sending, I
understand, yeah, search andrescue to back down.
Anyway, nobody came.
And I'll tell you about thatwhen we get there.
But so nobody came.
And I'll tell you about thatwhen we get there.
But so nobody came.
And it so in winter, wyoming,the sun is setting at 5 o'clock,
(21:15):
maximum, the sun sets 5.02.
So I could tell the sun wasgetting close to set and that's
when I started really freakingout Like whole—.
Speaker 2 (21:27):
Yeah, because now darkness is coming Right.
Speaker 4 (21:30):
Oh, my God.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
And it's getting colder.
I'm sure I've got to get the Fout of here.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
Yeah, let me—here's another piece of the survival
part.
I was dressed properly.
People don't dress the same.
Here in the south we have acold day and you know people put
their little mittens on andwhatever.
No, when it's cold, I've got mylong johns on and they're
(21:54):
probably fleece.
You know, I've.
I know how to dress that's.
That's a real big part of whatsaved my life with those temps
is that I was dressed properly.
I had, head to toe, real gearon, real sub freezing gear on.
(22:16):
So, yeah, it was cold.
It was more that I was scaredof the wilderness OK, scared to
death.
Here's what I was going to tellyou earlier.
The coolest thing was that thatnight was a full moon, and so a
full moon the moon reflectingon snow is very bright, and so I
(22:41):
never had a problem seeing, ohyeah, which I really took that
as a blessing because, you know,just Could have been worse, it
could have been pitch black.
It was very scary.
So so, yeah, so now it's nowit's nighttime, and I had walked
quite a bit.
(23:01):
Once I realized the sun wassetting, I had started walking,
I'd started just.
I just was determined to getthe F out of there.
So nightfall came, and that wasa struggle to survive.
I don't think that I slept oneminute.
(23:22):
I don't think that I slept oneminute.
Every time I started trying tofall asleep, my body would start
convulsing.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
How are you following ?
You're just laying on theground to sleep.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
No, what are you doing?
Oh, I'm glad you asked thatquestion.
Okay, the trees in Wyoming, youknow they're different.
They're like the big evergreens, right?
So you got the big triangletype of tree and the branches
are just all the way down andthe entire thing is covered in
(23:58):
snow.
But the coolest part is, if youdig a tunnel into the trunk,
there is a open space of groundwhere the snow hasn't gotten to
because the branches are hangingover.
The snow's blanketed over it.
(24:19):
And so I would continuously digmy way into the little bitty
perimeter around the tree trunkand lay down.
The problem is that you know,like every I'm going to guess
every 30 minutes or something,my body would start convulsing.
(24:41):
I was so cold so you have neverhad shivers, unless your body
is dying and trying to stayawake.
That is some freaking shivers.
Okay, true convulsions, justyeah, right.
(25:04):
So every time that would happen, I would get up and walk a
little bit more and um until Ijust couldn't are you walking up
, trying to climb up themountain?
No, I'm just walking around,just walk, just walking in that
general direction, but more of adownslope.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
What general direction?
Speaker 4 (25:19):
Where I thought I came from.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
So you're just guessing at this point.
Oh yeah, you can see, becausethe moon is out and it's
reflecting off the snow.
It's full wilderness.
You're trying to keep fromfreezing to death.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
And to do that.
Every now and then you'restopping at these trees, getting
up under it in the little spot.
That does kind of shelter yousomewhat.
Yes, and you know this.
Obviously you know no one'scoming to look.
No one has come to look for you.
You don't think.
Why didn't your friends, Iwonder, send?
Oh, that's a good question.
Yeah, where are they at this,in all of this?
Well, I mean they know you'remissing at this point we.
Speaker 4 (25:55):
We found out later that they and it says it in one
of the news articles theybasically said they did not know
me at all, they had just met me, yeah, and that they just
thought I got lucky and theydon't know you.
I had left my post in personalbelongings and they were
(26:19):
probably young and naive too anddidn't think anything about it,
and so they got in there.
I didn't show up at 2.30.
When they finished with theirday.
They got in their car and drovean hour and a half hour and 45
(26:40):
minutes all the way back toTeton, all the way back to
Jackson, without me and neverthought anything about it.
They just thought I would get aride, because the thing between
Jackson and Targhee, I guess,was a pretty common thing, and
so people would get rides backand forth all the time.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
So no one's looking for you.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
Nobody even knows that I'm missing.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Nobody.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Now this is, we're in .
It was five o'clock when it gotdark, so now we're probably
what?
Four or five hours maybe later.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Well, I don't really know.
It is hard to tell uh-huh,uh-huh, did you have a?
Speaker 2 (27:22):
watch on no, no, no, no, watch, no, no, watch, no
communication, no, compassnothing.
I don't know if a compassnothing well, nothing, I will
tell you.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
There was a point in the.
In some point point in thenight, I heard a, I heard a car
and I I heard a car.
What I heard was actually aforest ranger on a service road,
but that gave me a generaldirection to head towards, and
(27:57):
so that's what I was basicallyheading towards.
But my progress was extremelyslow, extremely slow, I mean it,
I, you know.
It's not like I walked a milein 10 minutes, I mean it was.
It probably took me an hourjust to go 50 yards.
(28:19):
I don't know, but it was.
It was very slow going, um areyou?
Speaker 2 (28:24):
even though you heard this and you're headed in a
general direction, you're tryingto keep from freezing to death.
That's why you have to keepstopping at these trees.
Is it fair to say you'repanicked at this point?
Speaker 4 (28:35):
no, I was scared to.
I wasn't panicked, I wasterrified.
But when I got terrified, I I'mI'm like kind of a freeze type
of person.
Um, so I mean panicked, I guess, is one way to say it, but no,
I was terrified.
I've never been that scared inmy entire life.
I was terrified.
(28:57):
Uh, you know, I knew that mylife was in danger.
It wasn't just the freezing, itwas um the animals, the
wilderness, all that stuff yeah,what type of wildlife is that?
Speaker 2 (29:08):
the wolves?
Speaker 4 (29:09):
elk, yeah, wolves um elk and moose are the are the
big game.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
The wolves I would be worried about.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
I was.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Did you hear any of this?
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 4 (29:20):
Yes, of course they didn't seem like they were very
close.
I did get walked up on by awhole herd of elk and that was
scary because you know, theyseemed to be right next to me.
Maybe they didn't realize I wasthere because I was in that
(29:41):
little, the little hole aroundthe tree trunk.
But I just terrified was moreof my feelings.
Yeah, just um, were you crying?
Speaker 2 (29:53):
have you ever been emotional?
Speaker 4 (29:54):
no, have you ever been so scared that you, you
like you get nauseous?
yeah well, that's where it was.
It was more just just terrifiedall night and shaking and
freezing and, um, funny thing is, if I had a snickers bar in my
(30:15):
pocket, it was going to solveeverything.
Like I was so dang hungry, thatall like a thing.
And I mean I wasn't even acandy bar eater.
It was a weird thing.
But if I could have eaten aSnickers bar it would have just
fixed everything and gone tosleep.
When you have hype, the partabout it that's not in the
articles is the biggest dangerto my life was hypothermia.
(30:38):
When you are dying fromhypothermia, your body just
wants to go to sleep and so, um,you know I was fighting all
that.
There was a few moments, okay.
So here's the really coolthings that happened to keep me
alive in my body, in my mind.
(30:59):
Okay, there was a handful oftimes overnight that I
definitely heard the search crew.
Now, there's nobody searching,nobody even knows that I'm
missing.
So keep that in mind.
Nobody even knows that I'mmissing.
So keep that in mind.
I definitely heard the searchcrews to the point where we
(31:21):
yelled back and forth to eachother several times.
You know I had back and forthconversations with the search
party, at least four or fivedifferent times.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
This is probably your mind helping you to get comfort
, like when someone's lost inthe desert.
You know, they see mirages,they see water and that's their
target.
They think there's water in thedistance because their mind is
so desperate for water that theysee it, literally see it, and
they go toward it, only to findout it's not there.
It sounds like the same thingYou're, you're, you're, you're
wanting a search party.
Your mind is fooling you intothinking there is one, to give
(32:01):
you hope, maybe.
I know the mind works strangeways.
We've all experienced that.
So, even though there was nosearch party, you're here in a
search party.
You're actually communicating.
That had to give you somecomfort in all of this.
Speaker 4 (32:17):
Yeah, chaos yep, well , are you ready for this?
Yes, go ahead.
All right.
My cousin manda was leading thesearch party and she and her,
she was yelling to me that, um,it's that, we're almost there.
We're about to get you out.
(32:39):
Hang on just a little bitlonger, we're almost there.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
This fake search party was her leading the charge
.
Speaker 4 (32:51):
Yeah, and I only heard her a few times.
I mean, I definitely heard themale voices.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
And I said fake.
Fake I meant like a mirage of asearch party.
Speaker 4 (33:00):
Yes, yeah, yes, yes, um so, okay, I make it through,
I'm gonna come back to that.
Okay, I make it through, I'mgoing to come back to that.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (33:17):
I make it through the night.
The sun is coming up and I hadheard that herd of elk over this
direction.
You know, in my mind I'm like,okay, they were headed that
direction.
And I look over that directionand I see this big clearing in
the trees, and so it's a field,field, snow-covered field.
(33:41):
Um, but in my mind I thoughtI'm gonna make it to that field.
I'm gonna make it.
That was my goal, because atthis point, I mean I'm at one
point, I, you know, in themiddle I don't have my shoes, my
boots, on anymore.
The reason my ski boots.
(34:02):
The reason why is because myfeet were so cold that I was
taking my boots off and holdingmy toes to try to warm them up.
But the problem is that my feetfroze almost immediately and I
couldn't get them back in myboots.
So by this point I got no bootson.
I do have triple, triple woolsocks and all that stuff, um,
(34:25):
but I thought if I can just makeit to that clearing, then I
know that they'll at least findme.
Um, because I knew that Ididn't have any more in me to
make other than to make it tothat clearing.
So I did, I made it to thatclearing about, I'm gonna guess,
11 am.
(34:46):
And the reason why I say it wasaround there is because the sun
was, the sun was full out and Igot in the middle of that
clearing.
I had got, I had broken offsome branches and I put branches
in a big x and I oh sorry no, Isee you getting emotional.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
That's okay, you're reliving it, I can tell in your
mind so this was very traumatic.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, near deathexperience is what you had.
Speaker 4 (35:14):
Yeah, for sure, oh there is a whole divine
intervention.
Part of it we'll get to when Iget through this.
I put a little cradle hole inthe middle of that X that I had
made with those branches.
Yeah, I lined it with branchesand that's where I laid for the
(35:36):
rest of the time and until I wasdown, that was it.
That was my final resting spotand they found me and I was
there all day during the—nowthis is Sunday, this is already
Sunday afternoon, and I canremember the sun was straight
(35:59):
out, straight out.
It was just, you know, full sun, which is like 12 degrees.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Yeah, okay, were you getting any warmth?
Speaker 4 (36:07):
Yeah, that was that was it Is that the sun was on my
face to the point where Ithought if I did not have that
sun directly on my face, I wouldnot have made it.
It was my last hurrah as far asthe earth keeping me alive, the
God keeping me alive, that onepiece of sun, sunshine on my
(36:34):
face.
I didn't feel the sunshineanywhere else.
I mean it's 12 degrees, butthere was just something about
that direct sun on my face thatwas, I didn't feel the sunshine
anywhere else, I mean it's 12degrees, but there was just
something about that direct sunon my face.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Um, that kept me alive and, by the way, I want to
interject because I I to the,to the person that has never
experienced cold like that andI'm from, yeah, you know, I
lived in oklah, oklahoma, for along time and I've been in
blizzards.
I lived in near Chicago at onepoint, so I know winter can be
harsh and in the mountains whenit's way below freezing, it's
(37:05):
really harsh.
And for someone that may bethinking, oh, you know, it was
from 8 o'clock to the next day,11 o'clock not a big deal.
You've never been in that kindof situation, a big deal.
You've never been in that kindof situation that you can freeze
to death very quickly.
Once that cold weather hit, oncethat, once you get below
freezing and you're not prepared, you're not set up for survival
(37:27):
, you can freeze to death veryquickly.
So for a person lost like thatand it's a one hour has to seem
like an eternity.
So so imagine almost I don'tknow, I know we're going to get
to it almost 24 hours of justbeing lost in the wilderness, in
the mountains, below freezing,no food, no drink, no
(37:50):
communicating.
That's a long-ass time to belost.
So if you're thinking, oh,that's not that long, if you're
in that situation that's aneternity and that's very fatal
and you can die very easily andyou can lose hope and just
freeze to death.
Speaker 1 (38:06):
So I'm sorry, I wanted to interject that,
because I know that some of youare getting emotional too.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
People don't realize maybe how can she get so much.
That's tough, man.
Be in that situation even a fewhours and see how hard it is.
Lost in the woods for a fewhours, not thinking you're going
to get out is bad enough, socontinue.
I just wanted to interject forthe audience.
Speaker 4 (38:27):
Yeah, um, they have.
You know, I didn't find outuntil, but the search party for
me did not even start untilSunday afternoon.
Wow, so and it says it in oneof the articles, they did not
even start a search party until1 pm Sunday.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
And I'll post these articles on the.
Facebook page and the Instagrampage so the audience can read
this.
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (39:03):
So all afternoon I'm getting that last piece of life
$4.50.
Pm.
Sun's already starting to godown again.
Again, I knew I wasn't makingit through the second night
Cause I mean, I hadn't movedsince that morning.
Right Um 4, 50 PM I hear asnowmobile and he's there.
(39:28):
It's definitely the search andrescue team.
They have tracked me from adifferent direction.
They tracked me from thedirection that I came.
They found my skis where I hadtaken them off, and then they
brought in snowmobiles from theservice road that I had heard in
(39:54):
the sweetest sound, to knowthat, oh, someone is actually
has.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
They're there that snowmobile?
I don't, I don't know about you, but I would have probably
thought is it even real, is thateven a real thing?
But what a relief that had tobe like overwhelming.
Did you break down?
Yes, I'll bet you did.
Yeah, I would have too.
Speaker 4 (40:15):
Yeah euphorically broke down.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
So yeah, hope was lost.
And now suddenly, yeah, no, Isee the emotion.
I don't blame you at all.
Wow, I'm just reliving.
I'm not I wasn't there, but myhead.
I'm thinking about the factthat you're without hope and
suddenly, when it's getting dark, you're like, oh, here we go
(40:39):
again.
Then you hear a snowmobile andyou're like, oh, you just have
to be overwhelmed with apositive emotion like, oh, my
God, I'm going to be rescued.
This is amazing.
Wow, what an experience.
Continue.
I know it's not over yet, butgo ahead, yeah.
Speaker 4 (40:56):
Well, that's, that is the, that is the um, 30 hours
basically from from you know Imean, if you think about I,
wasn't lost that long, but I wasout in the exposure in the in
the elements from 8.00 AM.
Saturdayurday morning to 4 50pm.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
Sunday night, sunday evening that's a long, I'm
telling you.
I one time I'm gonna.
I'm going to say this I gotlost in the mountains.
I was hiking with a group.
Um, I had my son with me, whowas small at the time.
I put him on my shoulders and Iremember going back on the
trail and then I thought, youknow, it's kind of what you said
(41:37):
you did.
I said this is nothing comparedto what you had and I said I'm
going to take this shortcutbecause I remember and I got
lost in the wood for two and ahalf hours.
Now, that's not, that soundslike nothing.
But I was like, oh my God,there's, there's things out,
there are things out here that,if it gets in it.
By the way, it was like fouro'clock, so it was getting close
(42:00):
to getting dark and I thoughtif I'm here in the dark with a
little kid, I'm in trouble, ohgosh.
So fortunately, I heard thestream at some point and I
followed the sound and becausethe stream led right by the
cabin we were staying in.
But that was only two and ahalf, three hours, that's
nothing, yeah, but that wasenough to make me think I'm in
(42:21):
trouble.
So your experience with wolves,possibly out there too, that
could get closer the elements,the, the cold.
That's an eternity, sarah.
Speaker 4 (42:32):
That's an eternity to be lost in the mountains and to
be saved that way is so, yeah,when I went, when they got me to
the hospital, um, in somewhereI forgot, didn't you know,
nearest hospital, um, hospital,um.
(42:54):
So, for people who have diedfrom hypothermia, okay, you fall
in icy water or you get, you'restuck out in the elements too
long or whatever Um, when yourcore body temperature drops
below 90, between 85 and 90,some people die and some people
live, some people make it, somepeople live, some people die.
(43:16):
When I got to the hospital, mycore body temperature was 86.
86.
Anything below 85 and you'regone.
And my core body temperaturewas 86.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
You wouldn't have survived the night.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
No, I wouldn't have survived another three hours.
I wouldn't have survived thenight.
No, I wouldn't have survivedanother three hours.
Yeah, I wouldn't.
I wouldn't have even gotten tomidnight, um.
So I'm gonna, I'm gonna fastforward a little bit and go
about two weeks out afterwardsokay, afterwards Okay.
Because this is the reallyundeniable part of my story and
(43:58):
how it was truly divineintervention.
Speaker 2 (44:01):
Can I ask you one thing before you go there?
Yeah, what were the physicalrepercussions of being out there
that long?
Speaker 4 (44:10):
Well, I had frostbite on three, four different places
on my feet and it wasn't justthe black pieces of frostbite,
it was that my feet were prettymuch frozen up for a few months.
So that was the biggest thing.
(44:31):
And, of course, the hypothermia.
How do they treat that?
Whirlpool therapy?
Um, you know those like medicalwhirlpool things?
Um, when I got, when I gotflown back to Georgia, when they
released me out of ICU, they sothey, the exes, the abuser's
(44:55):
mom paid for me to have, I think, paid for me I think she's the
one that paid for it, but they Igot a medical transport from
that hospital straight to thetarmac of an airport and flew me
back home when my mom waswaiting for me waiting for me.
(45:21):
When I got back home, my momgot started, got me set up and
started with chiropractic andmassage therapy immediately.
So within six months I waspretty much walking normal again
.
I came back in a wheelchair andthen I moved up to a walker, wow
.
And then, um, I was on a canefor a while.
I remember that I was on a cane, um, but after I think it like
(45:44):
six months or something, I waswalking on the cane, yeah, so
okay, I just wanted to.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
Yeah, I wanted to get that, so now we'll go back or
we'll go forward two weeks weekslater.
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (45:54):
When I came.
So yeah, so I'm glad I justkind of filled in those pieces.
Is that I spent?
I thought I spent four nightsin the ICU.
When I was rereading thearticle it says two nights, so
maybe I got that confused, Idon't know.
But I went straight from ICU tothe airport.
Medical transport, like I said,flew me back home into the arms
(46:18):
of my mama and Will said thatI'd never talk to him again.
So I think that if God wouldnot have removed me physically
from the area, I probably wouldhave went back, just like I had
already.
Um, you know.
(46:38):
So anyway, right back into thearms of mama um, but out of the
abusive relationship.
Yes for good yes yeah so I wasthe first couple weeks, the
first.
I mean I'd spent yearstraumatized, okay, ptsd and all
that.
But the first couple weeks wereextremely isolated.
(47:02):
I could not leave the bedroom,I couldn't take any phone calls,
no visitors, no, nothing.
I could not have a conversationwith my mom, I could not talk
about it, period, there was nodetails coming out of my mouth,
um, and I mean I could barelytalk.
I was just in severe PTSD,severe traumatized for a lot of
(47:28):
reasons.
Um, so a couple of weeks go byand you know I've got the
therapists coming in and out,for they came to my house to do
the massage and the um, physicaltherapy, the chiropractic, all
that.
So we were having three, four,five times a week in and out.
(47:49):
Um, and then I had a friendthat would he's family to me,
he's like a brother, he's beenmy friend for my whole life
pretty much.
He never asked me anything, buthe would come over and rub aloe
vera stuff into my feet,because that was another part of
(48:09):
the treatment, but he wouldcome over and just sit with me
and not say anything.
So those were my mom and Justin.
Those were the only two peoplethat I spoke to at all in the
first couple of weeks.
Okay, after a couple of weeks,my mom comes in the room and
says we got a package in themail and it is the articles from
(48:33):
the newspaper.
The newspaper sent you thearticles.
And I was like, oh, and shesaid, do you, do you want to
read through them?
And I was like, yeah, you know,um.
So I start reading the articlesand she's sitting right on,
she's sitting right next to me,and I get to the one that says
something about you know,initial reports went nowhere.
(48:56):
No, you know, search partywasn't looking for her until
Sunday.
Nobody reported her missing,and all that.
And I was like, well, that'snot true.
I heard the search parties,yeah, and she said um.
She said um, she said no, no,nobody was looking for you.
And I said, yes, they were.
(49:18):
I heard the search parties.
I had conversations with themback and forth.
Mandy was leading them, and shesaid what?
And I said, mandy, amanda wasleading the search parties at
three different times, you know.
And she said, sarah, thinkabout what you're saying.
Amanda is in Charleston,amanda's in South Carolina, and
I just that was a big realitymoment for me.
(49:42):
Then she's sitting there.
She looks like she's seen aghost and she says maybe you
heard me talking about it withsomebody whoever, because
Amanda's the one who got thewhole search party started on
(50:05):
Sunday.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (50:07):
And I said what she said Aunt Karen called me.
She said Aunt Karen called meand she said that Amanda now
this is why I wish we had Amandaon there, because there's a
whole, you know, they just havea whole different point of view.
But she said that Amanda neededto talk to me and that she had
(50:35):
told her mom she was stayingwith.
Amanda was staying with her momat the time.
So her mom, aunt Karen, callsmy mom, my mom calls the guy's
mom and gets phone number.
It's's hours of back and forth.
(50:55):
The reason why is becauseAmanda had started saying
something at 6 o'clock in themorning.
I got the details from her afew years later, like the
details details.
She had had nightmares allnight long that her and I were
(51:15):
stuck in a pitch black room andnow Amanda is one year exactly
younger than me I'm the olderone, but that I was the one
scared to death.
And she kept on saying they'regoing to find us.
They're going to know thatwe're in here.
You just got to hold on and becalm and they're going to find
us.
They're going to know thatwe're in here.
(51:35):
You just got to hold on and becalm and they're going to get us
out and she literally had theseupsetting, disturbing
nightmares all night long.
She gets up 6 o'clock in themorning when she hears her mom
in the kitchen.
She goes straight out andstarts telling her mom have we
(51:57):
talked to Sarah?
Do you have our new number?
Do you have any way to get intouch with Sarah?
I need to talk with Sarah.
And this was a whole morning ofan event.
All these phone calls goingback and forth between my cousin
in South Carolina, my mom inSouth Carolina, my mom in North
(52:19):
Georgia, his mom in NorthGeorgia, this guy that I had
just been estranged from out inWyoming no cell phones, no,
nothing.
There's a lot of phone callsgoing back and forth.
And Mandy and he first blew mymom off and said you know, oh, I
(52:41):
had been out.
I went out to the store.
He wasn't going to be home whenI got back but he'd leave a
note for me or whatever.
And Amanda just said she had aterrible feeling about his
response and that she calledback and left a message on his
machine that if she didn't hearfrom me in the next hour, she
was calling the cops and shejust wanted to let him know in
(53:03):
case he wanted to do anythingdifferent.
That's when he started tryingto figure out where I was in
town.
I'm not really sure how hefigured out who I had moved in
with, but I know that he wasable to get that information
within an hour to find out mywhereabouts.
That's when police went totheir door and they told the
(53:31):
cops that I hadn't come backhome.
That is when everybody puttogether that I was missing and
that was about, I'm going to say, 11 am on Sunday, maybe 12.
And the search got started at 1pm on Sunday and I mean there's
(53:54):
no, no reason.
There's no reason for it.
There's no reason for it.
When she told me what herdreams were and I mean just the
fact that you know, here she is3,000 miles away having
nightmares about us, to thepoint where she's waking up and
(54:17):
alarming bells for hours to getsomeone to get me on the phone
and the fact that throughout thenight, the search party that I
heard was her leading it I meanit's undeniable.
Speaker 2 (54:37):
That's amazing.
Speaker 4 (54:39):
It is.
Speaker 2 (54:41):
I will say, I'll say this For this show the one
reason that we put this showtogether is because a lot of it
is, you know, to have somethingout there for people to listen
to.
But because I've had so manyexperiences in my life and I
know other people who have thatare not explainable necessarily,
(55:05):
but they're true, they're outthere.
And if you think well, that'swhy we do this podcast is to
hear stories, and sometimesyou'll have stories come through
that are mind blowing.
This is one of those.
But I will say, if anyone outthere, anyone not just listening
to this, but anyone thinks thatwe only live on a physical
(55:28):
plane, then you're either indenial or sadly mistaken,
because there is more to thislife than just what you see
physically.
There is a spiritual bondbetween everything.
Everything is made up.
You have to understandeverything is made up of the
same material in the end, andeverything is connected.
(55:49):
The universe is connected.
Love, hate all of theseemotions also are part of that
connection, and sometimes lovefor people will, I think, signal
a warning or send a signal out,almost like a.
What's the signal that send out?
(56:12):
The SOS signal spiritually, tolet someone know that
something's either in a dream orjust a feeling.
I should call this person todayanything.
This stuff happens all the time.
So, again, the stories that wehear on this show, the stories
(56:32):
that you hear all over the worldnot just this has to let you
know and Sarah's emotionalthinking about it and I've had
plenty of those experiencesmyself.
We all have, whether we want toadmit it or not.
And why was she saved?
Why was she?
Why was she?
She could have frozen to deathout there, like many people
(56:53):
would, but why was she rescuedwithout no ways of communicating
?
And why did she see and hear asearch party?
And that was led by her sisterwho was actually having these
dreams about her?
A warning, I think so.
And enough to where the signalwas put out We've got, there's
(57:16):
something wrong.
And she was rescued in the nickof time, by the way, in the
nick of time.
That's an amazing story.
That's an amazing ending and Ican tell you from watching Sarah
this is she is, first of all,the story is obviously
absolutely true, but the emotionis not fake.
(57:49):
She is very emotional tellingthis story because when you have
an experience like that, thatit maybe not just saves your
life, but something that happens, that you can't explain, but it
but it's.
It makes you see lifedifferently.
You never get over that.
It makes you see lifedifferently.
You never get over that, andwatching her tell that story,
she's gone back there in hermind.
It's like she's reliving it inthe now, as it was then.
This world is amazing, folks,and if you look around, just
(58:10):
understand that what you seephysically is not all there is
to it.
There are other dimensions thatwe can't see, and I believe
there's a God that has createdeverything, and I believe that
everything is connected and Idon't care what you believe in.
If you don't believe inanything beyond what you see,
again you're missing out, you'resadly mistaken and you're wrong
(58:34):
.
Sarah, thanks for being with ustoday.
Thank you Really for sharingthat.
Speaker 3 (58:39):
Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (58:40):
You got me emotional.
Almost that's amazing.
So thank you for telling usthat story.
I know you've never told thisto anyone in a setting like this
before and we really appreciateit.
Thank you so much.
We feel privileged that youcame and told us, and one day I
would like for we've had so manyguests so far that just blew
(59:01):
our minds and one day I wouldlove to have almost like a big
Zoom reunion and talk to so manypeople about sharing their
experiences just in a smallforum, to get the perspective
from all these different people.
We've heard so many stories andwe're going to hear many more,
but this is yet another good one.
So again, thank you, sarah.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (59:22):
Thanks for having me.
Thanks for checking out theSonic Hitchhiker podcast.
Follow us on Instagram at SonicHitchhiker podcast and get new
episodes Wednesdays, whereveryou get your podcasts.
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