Life in the Woodpile©

For a moment, JC hung above the trail. Time and gravity seemed too stop. And he knew, if he survived, what he needed to do with his life.

Josh hit the ground with a bone jarring thud. Tumbling head over heals, he landed in the Talus next to the class 5 rapid, the Vale of Tears.

CJ was worried. Josh should have been home hours earlier. Their dinner, uneaten, sat cold on the stove. She tried his cell phone. No answer.

Broken, battered and bleeding, Josh drifted in and out of consciousness. The star filled sky offered no protection from the chilling cold.

911, what’s your emergency? My boyfriend went for a day hike on the Headlands and hasn’t come home yet CJ said with some panic in her voice.

What’s your name the 911 operator asked? Callisto Johansen CJ replied. Then she gave the operator JC’s name, address and where he had gone.

The knock at the door was the County Sheriff. Did you and your boy friend have a fight, were things ok at work, was he suicidal, he asked?

At dawn, a Deputy Sheriff was dispatched to the trail head at Owyhee Uplands. He found Valiant parked where JC had left it. The doors locked.

“There’s a powder blue Plymouth Valiant Station wagon matching the description of the missing mans car parked here”, he radioed dispatch.

“Looks like we need the Search and Rescue Teams and a command center up here”, he continued. “Get the chopper up for an overhead look too.”

Dispatch called CJ and told her they had found Josh’s car and that they were calling out SART and setting up a command center at Owyhee.

CJ called the office. ”Nosmo, Josh is missing. The Sheriff found his car at Owyhee Uplands. I’m going there to see what I can do”, she said.

The world slowly came into focus for JC. The Vale of Tears roared at his feet as the sun rose over the Sinkiuse River. He hurt all over.

The roaring in his ears was not from the river at his feet, but from the concussion he suffered falling from the trail 200 feet above him.

JC tried to take a personal inventory. His blurred vision made it difficult. He flexed his hands and painfully raised his arms over his head.

The pain in left arm nearly caused him to blackout. He took a deep breath and lowered his arms to his side. The sun was warm on his face.

CJ drove to Owyhee as the sun rose behind her. She met the Deputy Sherriff, unlocked Valiant, confirmed nothing was missing then broke down.

Nosmo emailed Jolene, Insalata’s manager. Get a mobile soup kitchen out to Owyhee. “Send soup, sandwiches, coffee; the works, and bill me”.

Grubby punched in, grabbed his tools and headed for the Steel Shop. Notbob was already there disconnecting the power from the overhead crane.

“Did you hear about Josh”, Grubby asked? “Rumor is he committed suicide” he continued. Notbob shook his head, “never ever happen”, he said.

Kaseowiski was getting an earful from Easymoney about the Steel Shop crane being down for 3 days. “If JC was here it would have been fixed”.

Kaseowiski bristled at the comment. “He’s not here” he grumbled. “Good riddance”, he continued. “It’ll be fixed as soon as we get parts”.

Grubby hated working 50 ft above the concrete floor, but was able to control his anxiety as he unbolted the hoist motor form the gear box.

The sun warmed the late fall morning as Miss Kitty sat in the kitchen window watching the mist rise like a breath from the jumbled woodpile.

The Search and Rescue Team arrived at Owyhee and setup a command center. The Sherriff arrived dispatching teams up the trail to Eagles Nest.

The sheriff radioed dispatch, “send the chopper down the valley to look along the river”, he said as dark clouds began to blanket the area.

With the hoist motor on the pallet for repairs, Notbob returned to the shop, put his tools away, punched out and headed for the parking lot.

Indian Johnny was leaning against Notbob's car when he got there. "You headed to Owyhee", he asked Notbob . "Yes”, was the terse response.

“Can I catch a ride” Johnny asked? Notbob grumbled about not being a taxi but pointed to the passenger door nodding his head affirmatively.

When he arrived at Owyhee Notbob gave CJ a bear hug and told her “we’ll find him”. Johnny talked to the Sherriff then headed up the trail.

The Sherriff shook his head as he watched Indian Johnny head up the trail to Eagles Nest. “I told him to wait”, he said to his deputy.

“I don’t need two fools lost up hear”, he continued. Shifting gears he asked, “Any word from the chopper pilot”? “Nothing”, said the deputy.

CJ walked over to the Insalata Lunch wagon, got a cup to navy bean soup and thanked them for being there. The soup helped her feel better.

The weather continued to deteriorate. A storm, blowing in from the west, pushed dark clouds and a razor sharp wind up the Sinkiuse Valley.

Josh, shivering, heard the helicopter overhead. He forced himself upright with a great deal of effort looking in the direction of the sound.

Standing next to the river, his head spinning, he saw the chopper, raised his right hand over his head and started yelling, “Help, help me”.

The scruffy, omnipresent, Deacon Blue came up the road to Owyhee chanting; “Turn, most gracious advocate, your eyes of mercy toward us”.

CJ, worried about the weather moving in, approached the Sherriff and asked if he had heard anything from the search parties. “No, not yet”

Search parties were spread out across the Headlands looking in every nook and cranny. Exploring deer trails, rock outcrops and underbrush.

The first search party reached Eagles Nest. They radioed that they hadn’t found or seen any sign of Josh and that they were heading back.

Spreading out, beating the brush, they started down the trail taking their time, looking for any sign of JC they might have missed earlier.

Josh realized yelling at the chopper was fruitless. His head spinning, body aching, he watched as the chopper flew further down the valley.

By lunch, the Tonsgard Boatbuilding maintenance crew had punched out and left the yard heading to Osneset Headlands. Kaseowiski was furious.

“I’ll fire the lot of them”, he fumed. “They can’t leave me in the lurch like this”. Shuddering, he eyed the repair requests on his desk.

The Sheriff was concerned by the parade of people showing up to help search for Josh. The Headlands were full of trained searchers already.

The Insalata Mobile kitchen was swamped with searchers waiting for a sandwich and coffee. CJ joined the team inside helping serve the crowd.

Indian Johnny stopped halfway to Eagles Nest. Sitting on a stump beside the trail, he removed a braid of sweetgrass from his medicine bag.

Miss Kitty was hungry. Her food bowl was empty with no one around to fill it for her. Maybe she could find something in the woodpile.

Kitty stalked the woodpile looking to catch a meal. She stopped, listening intently for critters living there to give their locations away.

Lighting the braid of sweetgrass, Johnny fanned the aromatic smoke first to his heart, then his head, his body and finally back to his heart.

Holding the sweetgrass his over his head, Johnny offered a prayer to the Creator. Great Spirit, give me power in my quest to find your son.

Josh watched at the chopper disappeared down the valley. His instinct was to find shelter so he stumbled up the talus away from the river.

The roaring in his ears and dizziness continued as he struggled to climb away from the Vale of Tears rapids. He needed cover for the night.

The talus escarpment was daunting. The loose stone made each staggering step more painful than the last. He thought he saw a cave above him.