In a tragic final few days a man saw as a trial from God, he sat chronicalling his dying thoughts, as he ran out of water with hos dog by his side and a glittering lake just a few steps away from him.
An experienced hiker embarking on a solo trek across Wyoming left behind an eerie and tragic diary detailing how a freak accident led to his tragic death.
Presbyterian minister Mike Turner had left to go on a religious journey, and hike, in an effort to reconnect with God, along with his beloved black Labrador, Andy.
It was due to Andy that Mike made a last-minute change to his plans. As podcaster Mr Ballen explains: “He and Andy had been up at an elevation of about 13,000 ft, walking on some icy parts of the mountain and Andy’s paws were getting really raw from walking on the jagged ice.
“On the fourth day Mike had noticed Andy was whimpering and struggling to keep up, when normally he was super-energetic.”
Mike decided to take a different route around the mountain rather than over it. This decision ultimately cost Mike his life. Shortly after leaving his planned route, Mike was giving Andy some water when the dog made a break for some nearby trees.
Following him, Mike walked through the patch of woodland only to discover a vast lake surrounded by a mass of boulders.
Andy climbed over the rocks and was happily lapping water from the lake. Mike began navigating his way across the rocky terrain to reach his dog.
But then catastrophe struck. One of the boulders began shifting as he stood on it, and as the 48-year-old attempted to steady himself, he tumbled between two of the rocks. Before he could escape his predicament, the unstable boulder toppled over entirely, leaving him trapped.
The way he was trapped meant that Mike wasn’t harmed but could not escape. Mr Ballen said: “After two hours of trying in vain to free himself it dawned on Mike that he was not going to be able to free himself. The only way he was getting out of here is if somebody found him and rescued him.”
Mike had some food and water and he chose to keep a diary until help arrived. However, as the days dragged on, his entries gradually transformed from hopeful to a kind of dark humour.
He wrote: “I am concerned about first losing my legs, second running out of snow to melt for water, and fuel, third hypothermia. My biggest concern is water. I have only 2 quarts left. The irony is that the lake is only 30 feet away…I am drinking 1 quart today, saving a quart for tomorrow. I am also saving my urine. I wonder how it will taste with Crystal Light?”.
Temperatures soared to 37ºC during daylight hours, but dropped to nearly freezing overnight. Mike said initially believed God was putting him through this trial as a lesson.
Later, he wrote that God must be punishing him, before ultimately accepting that he was going to die.
Andy never left his master’s side, spending days on end lying on a ledge above him. On 5 August, after four days trapped between the stones, Mike wrote: “I feel so foolish taking this longer pass. So lonely, more than I imagined. Who would have guessed that four days would have gone by and no one has come this way?”.
Meanwhile, Mike’s wife was growing worried as he hadn’t met her at the end of the trail as planned. She alerted the authorities and a search was launched – but since no-one knew about Mike’s change in route, the searchers were looking in entirely the wrong part of the vast wilderness.
It wasn’t until 28 August, nearly a full month after Mike had embarked on his trek and a week after the search had been called off, that two hikers found a dishevelled-looking black Labrador wandering miles away from the search area. After Andy had been examined by a vet, a new search was launched – this time in the correct area.
But by then Mike had been found. Another solo hiker, Jeff Stewart, was walking near the unnamed lake in the Wyoming wilderness when he spotted a man, seemingly sitting on a rock.
He said: “I had seen the posters at the trailhead and knew they were looking for someone,” he told Backpacker magazine. “So I called out, ‘Hey, are you all right?’ There was no answer. I knew there wouldn’t be.”
A final message, intended for Mike’s wife, states: “Thank you for letting me live this adventure. Know wherever I am and whatever I’m doing, I am thinking of you.”
Mike had died of exposure, hypothermia, and dehydration approximately nine days following his accident. His journal was found near his body, thoughtfully placed in a plastic bag to shield it from the weather.
On a nearby stone, Mike had positioned his wedding ring: “He knew once he died and decomposed the ring would fall off his bones and be lost in the rocks below,” Mr Ballen explains.
“He clearly wanted his family to have that wedding ring, so he placed it on the Rock and then he prepared to die.”
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