However, Mr. LeRiche said the instinct to save lives doesn’t go away that easily. When he received a call around 11 p.m. on Aug. 25, he felt the familiar rush of adrenaline that he used to get from his old job.
The call was from a family member of a man lost on the Table Mountains. The man had taken a day trip into the mountains on his ATV. He had attempted to take an unfamiliar route down the mountain, got his ATV stuck in a bog, and became lost.
The man was able to contact family members with a cell phone from an abandoned cabin on the mountain. Those family members, in turn, contacted the RCMP and Mr. LeRiche.
“He called me and asked me if I was familiar with the Table Mountains,” said Mr. LeRiche.
Mr. LeRiche said he is only vaguely familiar with the main trails on the mountains, but he immediately knew to call his friend and former co-worker, Mr. Short.
“I was shocked when he said someone was missing on the mountain. He said he had a request from the family,” said Mr. Short.
Mr. Short said he knows the mountain better than Mr. LeRiche and agreed to go up right away. The men made contact with the Port aux Basques RCMP and with the missing man directly by calling his cell phone.
“We were ready to go at midnight, but we had to get the OK from the RCMP,” said Mr. LeRiche.
The RCMP advised the two searchers that it would not be safe to go in the dark, and advised them to meet up at first light.
Both men said they spent a sleepless night waiting to head out for the search.
They started up the mountain on their ATVs around 5:30 a.m.. The fog was still dense and they said it was slow going at first.
“We got stuck in the first five minutes of the bog, as usual,” said Mr. Short. “ We couldn’t see 10 feet in front of us. We really couldn’t get our bearings because of the dense fog. At first we were basically going around in circles.”
Mr. LeRiche had mechanical issues with his ATV.
“Of course I got a blowout in my tire. I did my best to keep the tire up. I had to put five plugs in it,” said Mr. LeRiche.
“I said to Rick, we’ll either have to leave the bike here or well have to fix this tire.”
The men eventually found their way to the first camp. They knew the missing man was staying at a camp further along, and Mr. Short believed he could find his way to the missing man as long as he could get to the second cabin along the trail.
When they arrived at the second cabin, the fog was still thick and Mr. Short didn’t think they would be able to go any further.
“We were over there and within five minutes the fog cleared off beautiful. I looked over and said, ‘Do you see that little camp on that knob over there? That’s where we have to go,’” said Mr. Short.
When they arrived at the abandoned camp where the missing man was supposed to be waiting, he wasn’t there. He had tried to walk out to stay warm and had collapsed. The searchers found him 500 feet from the cabin.
When we checked his vitals, he was really dehydrated and hypothermic,” said Mr. Short.
Mr. LeRiche said the man could barely stand on his own at that point.
“He wasn’t passed out but his energy was gone,” he said.
The two men gave him water and got some warm clothes on him. Mr. Short said he had to put bad feelings aside about his former employer and advised the RCMP to send an ambulance.
The RCMP, however, decided to send an SUV up the mountain road to bring the man down, and ended up transporting him to hospital that way instead.
Mr. LeRiche noted that an ambulance would not have been able to get up the rough terrain anyway, and the decision was probably for the best.
Mr. Leriche said the man’s cell phone probably saved his life. If he had not been able to contact family and give a description of his location, he might have succumbed to the cold and rain the following day.
He said knowing the man would be OK was a rewarding feeling.
“I said to Rick, despite of what went on through the workforce, this was better than a paycheque.”
.jpg)
.jpg)
