All the search and rescue training I did with Ryder and with the horses came back to mind today. This was something that I wasn’t expecting.

Pete and I heard helicopters this morning. We speculated that someone, perhaps an ATVer, had an accident on the muddy and rutted trail going up the bench.

I found out what was going on when on my way to the former banquet room of the historic Eagle Hotel. There were numerous cars and vehicles at the upper Murphy Road trailhead. I saw a man wearing a search and rescue vest and stopped and asked if someone was missing. He responded in the affirmative, saying that one of the Asians, picking ferns, disappeared the evening before.

I told him that I rode the trails everyday and that one of my horses alerted yesterday. I did not say because it would not have made a difference to him, that it was Tyra. I added that my horses have had search and rescue training. I had to get going, but I said that the horse alerted in the area that is marked with a tin can on a limb.

Making shelves comliant with fire codes

The guys were appreciative. I then stopped on the return trip. All the vehicles were still there. I got out of my car and went over to a woman who was standing, with a computerized map in hand and said who I was, and that I lived in the neighoborhood. She looked annoyed.

I told her the same thing that I told the guys. I also offered to check out the area in question, on horseback. Her one question was, what organization do you belong to? I simply said that I, my horses, and the dog had search and rescue training, and that I rode the area trails almost every day.

She told me not to go out on the trails because she “didn’t know how it would work out with the dogs.” Her attitude was off putting, which is why I got back in my car and drove home.

I saddled up Hrimmi because she would be least bothered by dogs, and then got out on the trail. I decided to go up Jim’s Road, where the pickers were in great abundance a few days ago. Pete and our new neighbor, Jim, were at this trailhead. They knew that the woman was missing, and in fact, Jim had gotten out on his four wheeler the night before and rode around looking for her. He added that the Alaska State Troopers had postponed the search until this morning.

I rode Hrimmi around the loop, with the intention of coming upon the search and rescue dogs and people, who’d be coming from the lower trailhead. I didn’t see anyone. Hrimmi did alert on Siggi’s Trail maybe because searchers were in this area.

I got back to the trailhead and learned that the woman had come out of the woods onto the road about five miles distant. So we all got it wrong in thinking she’d be close by.

I rode home and put Hrimmi away and of course thanked her for being such a good search and rescue horse.

Next: 145. May 27, 2025: No end to Hard Work