Our recent camping trips with the Wilsons have been full of the unknown and unexpected, and while we did everything we could this year to prepare and make things go smoothly for ourselves, we still ended up having a memorable (not in a good way) experience with the unexpected. Even with a rough start, we ended up having a great time together and made good memories together.
Friday late morning we all drove up together and stopped in Stevenson for pizza on our way to our reserved campsite at Lower Falls Campground up in Washington. We had an uneventful drive there, , got our campsite all set up, complete with a homemade teeter totter, which was pretty awesome, and then we went to explore along the river a bit. We made our way down the path to Lower Falls and stopped at look-out spot above the falls. A man walked past us and down below the look out spot and did the same at the next fenced-in look-out spot. We were looking down from the top of the falls when we noticed what looked like a backpack floating in the water just below us. We quickly realized it was not just a backpack but a person, face-down in the water. It was the same man we'd just seen above with a hat and backpack on. We saw a woman running along the bank and into the water to get to him, and saw her turn him over. His face was purple/blue and appeared unconscious. This all happened in a matter of seconds. I will never forget the screams of the woman, as she was pulling him out of the water. As we were turning away, trying to figure out how to get down to them to help, two women came running up asking if anyone had cell service, that their friend had slipped and fallen and needed emergency help. None of us had cell service. We were 45 minutes away from cell service, as far as we knew. Andy and Jen took off running down the trail to go help, as both of them had had recent CPR training. Greg took off running the other direction to go get the camp host who would be able to radio for help. And I was left with all the kids, not knowing what to do. I pulled them all away from the trail, away from where we could see Andy and Jen doing chest compressions on the man down below, and I prayed aloud with the kids. I waited there with them there until Greg got back with the camp host and went down to the water, and then I brought all the kids back to our campsite. We prayed more and then busted out some cards to give us something to do, to keep our minds off the tragedy we had just witnessed. They were gone quite a while and all came back after the emergency rescue people got there and took over. The man had died, drowned, we found out later. (Andy called a couple weeks later and talked with the medical examiner. Apparently, the 24 year old man was healthy and a strong swimmer. He didn't have any head trauma, but we figure he must have lost consciousness somehow, which led to his drowning.) He never did regain consciousness after he fell. We all talked and debriefed a bit around the campfire that night, and we prayed for the young man's family and friends. Greg told us about his conversation with the girlfriend of the man and her 5 year old daughter as he was helping them get back to their car after the emergency workers got there. They were trying to make small talk, not talk about what they'd all just witnessed, and the little girl piped up and said, "Andrew was dating my mom. He's probably dead. He's not my dad." We got a little laugh over her matter-of-factness and the way her little mind was processing the horrific event. It wasn't exactly how we'd expected our first night of camping to go. Such a shocking, awful, sad, sobering, surreal experience to witness a stranger die a sudden, accidental death.
The next morning we all got up, had breakfast, and went on a hike up the trail in the opposite direction of where we'd been the night before. There were several waterfalls to hike to. It was a beautiful hike, good for our souls. All of us were extremely safety conscious, after witnessing an accidental death less than 24 before. We're all pretty careful anyway when we are hiking and exploring with the kids, but everyone was even more on edge about going near the edge of any ledge. Upper Falls was beautiful and a perfect spot to stop and have a snack before turning back. Kari, Joel, and Aidan ran the whole way back down, promising to be very careful (there really weren't any very dangerous areas on the trail). I limped my way back down, as my right knee was not cooperating with the downhill walking. Greg walked with me, as I was the slow gimpy one, and we made it back eventually.
We had some lunch and took an afternoon rest/nap before we headed back down to the river. We decided we should go back down to Lower Falls to "redeem" the spot in our minds and help the kids make some different better memories at Lower Falls. They (and I) still hadn't gone down below the falls. There were tons of people around, playing in the water and some even walking on the rocks above the falls, right where the man had slipped and fallen! Jen and I wanted to scream at them to be careful. We had to turn away a couple times, not wanting to see anyone else die. The guys and the kids played in the water below the falls and had a great time, so it was a successful endeavor. We enjoyed our campfire dinner and s'mores that night and just enjoyed relaxing around the fire and playing games. We packed up the next morning and headed home, stopping in Cascade Locks for ice cream to end our trip. Memorable, for sure!
