Written by Judy Johnson
February 17, 2008
Over the weekend, after the church potluck on Sabbath afternoon we went on a hike to the Lord's Hill park in Everett in northwest of Washington. A few of us, Suzy Best, Gay Frizzel, Joe Shabro and his wife, Kim, and their two kids, Jeff Thompson, Mike Johnson and me along with our two kids decided to take a shortcut down through the thick woods.
It had rained in the morning leaving the trail a little muddy as the clouds cleared in the afternoon. It is really a rough hike where there are a lot of fallen logs. We had to pull out legs over the log each time the logs crossed the path. It was late in the afternoon. Pretty soon it would be getting dark. It was still in the winter season. I became a little worried. What if it gets dark? We would not see our way back because we did not bring any flashlights with us. I would walk like a drunk person because of my poor balance walking, swaggering all over the trails like a blind person trying to find my way back.
We had to hurry along in fear of getting lost. No one knew about our plans to go hiking in the Lord's Hill park. The park went far into the farming country.
Let me tell you a story that came to my mind as we were hiking along in Everett, WA on Sabbath. The story was first told to us by Arlene Belser, and then updated by David Trexler and George Belser recently. A bit additional information by Arthur Griffith a while ago. The story was about an experience the deaf group had in 1971 during the fall season on a warm Saturday afternoon, August 29th, on the top of Larch Mountain situated above the beautiful Multnomah Fall, Oregon.
There was a group of nine deaf adults, Pastor David Trexler and his wife Francisca, Pastor George Belser and his wife Arlene, Harry Britzius, Pastor Arthur Griffith and his wife Alyce, Lorna (Yuros) Strait, and Gary Holden.
They were having a picnic on Saturday afternoon on the top of Multnomah Falls. When it is getting a little late. They looked at their watches, and they thought maybe would have a little time left to go on hiking down the Larch Mountain by Multnomah Falls. Arthur Griffith did not go down hiking with them. He drove his car going down the gorge to the bottom of the gorge by a lodge. He was to pick them up and bring them back upon the top of the Multnomah Falls because several of hikers have left their cars up there on the top of the Multnomah Falls.
While Arthur Griffith was waiting for the hikers down by a lodge. The hikers hurried down the trails. They came upon the two split trails. One hiker voted and wanted to go down on the left trail, but the other hikers voted go down the horse trails on right trail. Seven hikers outvoted one hiker. One hiker had no choice but went along with the seven other hikers. That brought on the unforgotten experience they have that night.
While the hikers continued walking down the horse trail. Arlene noticed something is wrong. The sun is going down behind their back, not going down by their side. Arlene realized that they might had went the wrong way going west instead of going down south. Arlene halted the deaf group, and she explained them about the sun going down behind them. They looked at their watches, and checked the distance of the sun going down. They hurried back and tried to find their way back down on Larch Mountain. They came up onto a little cabin. No one were home, and was locked. They would not get in. They have decided to use the tree-lined fire escape route from a cabin going down.
The darkness were settling in. The hikers were getting worried. Several hikers have poor balance once the darkness settled in. They would not walk down any further. The hikers were forced to stay overnight upon the hill. They wore only light short sheelves, and pants, and summer dresses. They did not bring their sweaters with them. The night was getting chilly. They huddled and sat close together to keep themselves warm during the chilly night. They would not see each other in dark. They only can feel the hands when were signed to each other like the blind and deaf person do.
Francisca got very cold and was in the danger of getting hypothermia. Her husband, David sat by her side, feel her shaking so badly. He alerted the two other females hikers by guided their hands toward and touched Francisca's body to feel her shaking. Several female hikers finally understand what David wanted the female hikers to do. They took turns stood next to Francisca to warm her up. Lucky for Francisca, Arlene had brought two little dogs with her on the hike. The dogs helped warm Francisca up by sitting on her lap to hold to her chest to keep warm.
Arthur Griffith was at a lodge waiting for their arrival. But, no sign of the hikers show up. He got really worried, and felt very uneasy all night while he was sitting in his car by the lodge in the park lot.
Alyce Griffith and Harry Britzius had gone down early, and hitch a ride to get some help at lodge but they were not allowed by sheriff to return to the deaf group. Arthur was so relieved when he saw Alyce and Harry showed up at the lodge. They told him what were happening.
The group of hikers was left sitting in the cold in total darkness through the night. They gave up waiting, and decided to send David Trexler and Gary Holden down the rough hill. They both slid down the rocks on the path several times in total darkness. They were using the belt to hold on to the ends to keep them together. When they got close to the bottom of the hill, they saw a shining light moving around in the dark woods. They tried to shout to the person with the flashlight but the person did not zoom on on these two, David and Gary. They were puzzled as to why the person would not come to them. They tried to rush to the person with the flashlight. They were surprised to find it was Gus Cordero.
It was no wonder that Gus could not hear David and Gary shouting because Gus was deaf. Gus explained to them that when he heard the news, he rushed home to get his rope and climbing equipment because he was a certified climber. He decided to go up on the search for the deaf group. Gus felt impressed by the Holy Spirit to go on another route and attempt to climb while the sheriff and the search and rescue group did not do anything.
Gus knew what to do. Once he got up to the deaf group, he built a fire to warm everyone up. He brought with him some food to get the hikers' sugar level back to normal. Then when everyone felt warm enough and ready to go down the hill, he had one person hold the rope while he himself held the other end of the rope. Each person held on to the rope, one by one, while walking down the hill in a single file at a time. Gus led them down the hill safely. He is a real hero.
Lorna's father is one that called the sheriff, and arranged for the Explorer group to check on the hikers. Because the deaf group did not show up at a surprise farewell party set up by her father for Lorna while she is up stranded in the hill. Gus Cordero were at the farewell party waiting for the deaf group, but no sign of them show up that got him worried when he heard the news. That is how he found out and was up with the hikers, helped them brought down safely.
Then a group of the grown men, Explorers, came up and tried to bring everyone down from the slope at the same time. Gus tried to warn them to not bring everyone down at the same time, but they would not listen to him. The foot of one Explorer clumsily dislodged the rock caused a rock to tumble down the path. The rock sideswiped Lorna's side but hit Francisca on the right side of her body because she had been told to move to left side of the path waiting for everyone to arrive down safely.
Francisca got seriously injured when the rock hit her because she would not hear the rock coming toward her. The rock that had tumbled down to Francisca was about a foot in diameter. David rushed to his wife's side. He had to take a boy who was standing at Francisca out of the way. David kneeled down to comfort her. Francisca was taken to the hospital by an ambulance to treat the injury that she had received.
Everyone was relieved that the hikers got down safely and were all alive. The Oregonian newsletter carried the story and was on the national news about the deaf group getting down safely after they had spent the night on the gorge. David Trexler told me that as he looked back at the gorge in the daylight he was surprised to see how rough it was to climb down that rocky cliff through the fire escape route. He thanked God for guiding them down safely. There were two other hikers in the Three Sisters mountain area in Oregon near Bend who got lost and died at the same time the deaf group got stranded up on the hill. Arlene added, she said, while the other two hikers died in the Three Sisters mountain, it was snowing there. But, at the Larch Mountain, even through it was chilly night, but it did not snow that night. She knew that the Lord protected the deaf group that night.
Now, back to our own situation, I wondered what is going to happen to us?
We continued to march on in the single line. When I saw the log, I leaped over the log and suddenly my feet landed into a mud rut. My right shoe got stuck in the mud. When I tried to pull out my shoe, my shoe got stuck in the rut route and my sock and foot got muddy. I lost my balance but I was fortunately that a friend ahead of me, Gay Frizzel caught me and held on to me as I stood with one feet up in the air.
The other friend, Joe Shabro stood behind me retrieved my muddy black shoe and handled it to me to put it back on. A fresh thought rushed through my mind. How good it is for a real friend to help another friend when something has happened.
I looked ahead on the trail. I saw my husband turn around and come back t check on me. he shook his head and smiled when he learned of my misfortune with my shoe. He stayed along in front of me, and he keep looking back behind him to check on me to make sure everything was going ok.
The time had came to walk extra hard as I saw the steep hill before me. I am the last person and got behind from the group. Mike got behind me and pushed and shoved me up the hill to help get me up and over the hill quickly. Once again another steep hill came up and he pushed me again to help me got over the hill. At last an opening in the trail became visible. By now it is pretty dark and the sunset is just beautiful. I maneged to try and take a few pictures of the group walking as their shadows were ahead of me in contrast to the bright yellow sunset ahead of us.
When we got to the last hill, I realized we were back to the car parking lot. We were relieved to know we got back just in time before the darkness settled in. I was thankful for Mike's shoves to help me make it up the hills and to keep on going. That made me remember the advice that Paul tells the Christian people who lived in the city of Thessalonian. Paul told them to comfort one another and encourage one another to stay faithful to God especially during the last days before Jesus comes again.
Edited by AMB, GB
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