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My friend Jason Pede saved himself over the weekend of Feb 7th, after being stranded in the snowy mountains of Colorado for four days.  He took a “shortcut” that his cellphone GPS recommended and was confirmed by a local resident.  It almost cost him his life!

Jason was transporting a rescue dog from southern California to its new home in Pueblo, CO.  He was going to pick up another animal for transport in Aspen, CO, while en route.  He was using two different GPS programs:  DeLorme Street Atlas on his laptop, and Verizon GPS on his cell phone.  Verizon’s GPS told him that if he took a shortcut down several county roads, he could save about 200 miles.  Jason stopped at a convenience store in Saguache, Colorado, and talked to a local who assured him he could travel those roads with his four wheel drive vehicle.

Jason Pede digging his Lincoln Navigator out of a snow drift.

All of this took place on Thursday, Feb. 4th.  Jason took Colorado 114 northwest out of Saguache that morning and traveled about 27 miles before turning into the mountains for his “shortcut”.  He drove about seven miles before reaching snow so deep that it was going over the hood of his four wheel drive 2000 Lincoln Navigator.  He decided he should turn around, but the road was so narrow that he would need to back down the mountain for quite a distance.  Less than 100 yards later, the left front wheel ran off the edge of the narrow road…and Jason was stuck.  For those of you are are interested, the rough coordinates of his “stranded” location is 38.194N 106.490W.

Jason survived three full days and nights by scrounging in his vehicle for food and drinks.  He found some soft drinks left by his children and some sugar free cookies left by his wife.  When the drinks ran out, he attempted to melt snow and ice by putting it in a soft drink can and melting it by putting the can on the exhaust manifold of the engine.  He also ate ice.

During the day, he stayed warm by burning some bamboo chairs that he also was transporting.  His fire was located mere feet from the right side of his vehicle.  At one point, he realized the plastic moulding on the vehicle was warping and the paint on the right rear passenger door was blistering.  He told me about frantically trying to throw snow on the fire to cool it down, yet not put it out.  During the night, Jason ran the engine in his vehicle for warmth and put on several layers of clothes, and snuggled with the dog.

Throughout all of this, Jason could hear truckers talking with each other on I-70, which was roughly 90 miles away.  He attempted to use his Galaxy 88 radio to reach them, but no one responded, much to his frustration.  Later, as he and I were heading eastward toward Walsenburg, we discovered that his microphone didn’t work.  Jason was stunned to realize that he might have been able to contact someone much earlier if his mike had been working.  He monitored news channels on his XM radio in the hopes that he would learn that we were looking for him.  Although it didn’t happen in time for him to hear it, Linda Ramos (LinRon Pilot Cars) and Kaye Greene-Smith (Pilotcarz4U) had partnered together and were working the phones, contacting news media in Denver and Colorado Springs, as well as churches in the area.

On Jason’s third evening (Saturday, Feb 6) in the wilderness, he decided that he would need to walk out of the woods on his own the following morning.  Part of the reason he had delayed making this decision was that the only shoes he had with him were some walking shoes that got soaked in the snow.  In addition, he was concerned about large predators that might be in the woods.   On Sunday morning, the fuel finally ran out for the vehicle, so Jason’s decision was made for him.  He put on all the layers of clothing he could wear, covered the dog with blankets and his leather coat, and struck out.  Before leaving the vehicle, he wrote two letters:  one for anyone who might find him; and the other for his wife.

Jason had carefully looked at his GPS, so he knew that he needed to walk almost 7 miles back to Colorado 114.  He set some goals for himself.  For example, a particular fork in the road represented the halfway point.  Jason said there were many times when he would stop to catch his breath.  His body kept telling him that he needed to stop and rest, but his mind kept telling him to keep going.  Jason said he thought of his wife and children when he was so tired and out of breath that he wanted to stop.  He said he knew that if he did that, it was entirely possible he would fall asleep and never wake up.

It took only an estimated 2 hours for Jason to make his way back to the paved road.  When he got there, he looked one way down the road and saw no vehicles.  To his relief, when he looked the other way there were two or three vehicles coming his way.  He waved at them with his flashlight and basically collapsed on the road.  The first vehicle that got to him was a van of skiers from a church in Amarillo, TX.  They were doubtful about his story, and asked him if they could search him for weapons before they took him onboard.  All they found was a small pocket knife, so they transported Jason to the Sheriff’s Office in Saguache, CO.

MEANWHILE

I had heard about Jason’s plight Friday evening while enroute home from Houston where I had dropped a load.  When I got in at about 3:00 AM, I resolved to follow up on the latest news Saturday, and considered heading to Colorado to help in the search.  My plan was to try to organize pilot car operators from the area to actually drive a couple of hundred yards, stop and go to the edge of the road and look down the slopes for any sign of a vehicle having gone off the road.

Saturday afternoon, I called the Sheriff’s Office dispatcher in Saguache County, Colorado.  He assured me that there was an active search ongoing for Jason.  However, as he talked, I began to realize that their “active search” was being conducted from the windshields of the cruisers.  They would not call out search and rescue crews until they had a targeted location for where to search.  Mr. Pede had told his wife that he was heading from Dulce, NM, to Aspen, CO, but never gave her his route.  We had two clues to work with.  The first was that Jason mentioned that he was using the GPS on his cellphone for navigation.  The second was that Verizon reported that the last contact their system had with his phone was on a tower located in Center, CO, at about 2:30 PM on Thursday, the day he disappeared.

Since we didn’t have Jason’s cell phone, I tried to estimate his route based upon my own laptop GPS programs.  Both the Streets and Trips and the DeLorme Street Atlas routed me from Dulce to Pagosa Springs eastward to Del Norte, then north on US 285 to Colorad 82 west to Aspen.  Jason’s wife Amanda had used internet mapping resources such as Google and Mapquest, and they suggested the very same route.  Since the cell tower in Center was located east of Wolf Creek Pass, I figured that he either was between Wolf Creek Pass and South Fork, CO, or north of Poncho Pass on US 285.  My thinking was that the roads from South Fork to Poncho Pass were relatively flat and someone would have spotted Jason’s vehicle by now.  By Saturday evening, I headed to Center, CO.

Before I ever left, John Boykin from San Antonio (CIS Safety Cars) called to offer to come along with me to assist in the search and with the driving.   Since John had lived in that general area, he would have a special knowledge and insight to the area.  In addition, he had some political connections that he might be able to use to generate an active search by authorities.  Unfortunately, he was almost 500 miles further away than I was.  I didn’t want to wait for him because I knew a new winter storm was coming into SW Colorado.  I felt that time was of the essence if we were going to be able to save Jason’s life.  Reluctantly, we decided that I needed to head out without waiting for John.  During this same time, Kaye Greene-Smith (Pilotcarz4U) offered financial support for the search.  Later, Steve Komlosi of Hudson Valley Pilot Cars in New York State, William Edwards of Diamond Flag Cars in NC, and Steve Barnes of Barney’s Pilot Car Equipment in Portland, OR, offered financial help with fuel and lodging costs.

Along the way, Kaye continued to communicate with me.  Linda Ramos also called several times late into the early hours of the morning.  Apparently Kaye and Linda partnered up.  Linda was contacting the news media in Denver and Colorado Springs.  Kaye was calling churches in the area.  Throughout this, they would ask me to forward information to the various TV stations.  Kaye asked me to talk to a Church of Christ minister headquartered in Pagosa Springs on the west side of Wolf Creek Pass.  I spoke with Brother Dorman Daller, who promised he would search from the top of Wolf Creek Pass to South Fork the following morning, weather permitting.  That allowed me to concentrate on the northern part of the route.

I got to Center, CO, at about 9:15 AM on Sunday after stopping by the State Highway Patrol office in Alamosa to drop off a flyer.  To my amazement, they did not have a flyer that Amanda Pede had prepared.  At about 9:15 AM, I stopped by a convenience store near Center to drop off a flyer.  They already had one.  As I got back into my truck, Amanda Pede called to tell me that Jason had been found alive and was being taken to the Sheriff’s Office in Saguache, CO.  I was just 23 miles from there!  I rushed there and found Jason still being checked out by paramedics and interviewed by deputies.

About an hour after I arrived there, we got a report that the Forest Service Law Enforcement officer had found Jason’s Lincoln Navigator, rescued the dog and handed it off to a Colorado State Trooper who transported the animal to her personal vet in Monte Vista.  Jason and I picked up the dog the following day (Monday) and headed our separate ways.

In my next post, I will examine what went wrong with this situation, how technology went wrong, and how technology could prevent something like this in the future.