Blake Summers

You pass Mira Lake, pretty well-known big lake out there, and then you come to what's called Hayden Peak, and it's kind of the biggest, most striking formation out there you can see.

It's right off Mary Lake Highway, so it's like pretty well known. A lot of people there, a lot of horse packers.

We were just focused. You know, you didn't have a choice but to do everything you could at the moment.

hanging out and being excited to see him, and a couple hours passed.

Gotta be your own advocate, no matter what it is.

That was the most frustrating part, that he had a GPS unit, but we couldn't see where he was with it because it's not that kind of a device.

And so, you know, we hiked out the trail a little ways, still not there.

And more hours passed, and he's not there.

You know, that's when you start thinking, uh, what was his plan B? And I don't, I don't remember talking about that. We might have of what the plan B was of like, if you're not here, next steps.

Probably called Devin and was like, how do we get in touch with her to let her know he didn't show up?

And that we had called search and rescue and yeah.

You come back the next day, okay, maybe they'll be there. They'll hitchhike out.

There was a trailhead kiosk that had a notebook in it. And, you know, it said trail registry or something on it. And sign this and put where you're going, your time out.

I think that just starts the unknown of like, you just don't know.

You know, it's gotten harder. It's started to become almost like ice.

You can slip on it if you don't have crampons kind of thing.

You have no information, and you just start, you know, thinking through every scenario and what the terrain is and what the exit points could have been that he could have gone on.

Not being the sheriff, like, I didn't have a full picture on everything that was happening.

Other things are being coordinated, you know, like the helicopters and the horses and things like that.