A pastor trapped between boulders for nine days chronicled his final thoughts in a diary before dying of exposure, hypothermia, and dehydration. Mike Turner, a 48-year-old Presbyterian minister, was hiking in the Wind River Range in Wyoming when a freak accident left him pinned between rocks.
A Last-Minute Change of Route
Turner had set out on a solo religious journey with his black Labrador, Andy, hoping to reconnect with God. On the fourth day, Andy began whimpering and struggling to keep up, his paws raw from walking on jagged ice at an elevation of about 13,000 feet.
Turner decided to take a different route around the mountain rather than over it. Shortly after leaving his planned route, he was giving Andy water when the dog made a break for some nearby trees. Following him, Turner walked through the woodland and discovered a vast lake surrounded by boulders.
Andy climbed over the rocks and lapped water from the lake. As Turner navigated the rocky terrain to reach his dog, a boulder shifted beneath him. He tumbled between two rocks, and before he could escape, the unstable boulder toppled over entirely, trapping him.
Diary Entries Turn from Hope to Despair
Turner was not harmed but could not free himself. After two hours of trying, he realized he would only get out if someone found him. He had some food and water and chose to keep a diary until help arrived.
As days passed, his entries shifted from hopeful to darkly humorous. He wrote: "I am concerned about first losing my legs, second running out of snow to melt for water, and fuel, third hypothermia. My biggest concern is water. I have only 2 quarts left. The irony is that the lake is only 30 feet away...I am drinking 1 quart today, saving a quart for tomorrow. I am also saving my urine. I wonder how it will taste with Crystal Light?"
Temperatures soared to 37°C during daylight hours but dropped to nearly freezing overnight. Turner initially believed God was putting him through this trial as a lesson. Later, he wrote that God must be punishing him, before ultimately accepting he was going to die.
Andy never left his master's side, lying on a ledge above him for days. On 5 August, after four days trapped, Turner wrote: "I feel so foolish taking this longer pass. So lonely, more than I imagined. Who would have guessed that four days would have gone by and no one has come this way?"
Search and Discovery
Meanwhile, Turner's wife alerted authorities when he didn't meet her at the end of the trail. A search was launched, but since no one knew about his change in route, searchers looked in the wrong part of the wilderness.
It wasn't until 28 August, nearly a month after Turner embarked on his trek and a week after the search was called off, that two hikers found a dishevelled black Labrador wandering miles away. After Andy was examined by a vet, a new search was launched in the correct area.
But by then, another solo hiker, Jeff Stewart, had found Turner's body near the unnamed lake. Stewart told Backpacker magazine: "I had seen the posters at the trailhead and knew they were looking for someone. So I called out, 'Hey, are you all right?' There was no answer. I knew there wouldn't be."
A final message intended for Turner's wife read: "Thank you for letting me live this adventure. Know wherever I am and whatever I'm doing, I am thinking of you."
Turner died of exposure, hypothermia, and dehydration approximately nine days after his accident. His journal was found near his body, placed in a plastic bag to shield it from the weather. On a nearby stone, he had positioned his wedding ring, knowing that once he died and decomposed, the ring would fall off his bones and be lost in the rocks below. He clearly wanted his family to have that ring, so he placed it on the rock and prepared to die.
