Hiking Remote Utah's Desert

"People from all over the world come to hike this area because it's a challenge.  It's jagged rocks, it's sheer cliffs, it's sliding sandstone, juniper and sagebrush.  That's the kind of terrain.  It's not easy and not something an inexperienced person should ever consider."  Becki Bronson, Garfield County sheriff spokesperson

It sounds, in short, formidable.  As though anyone intending to breach the fastness of the uninviting landscape should be fully confident in skills, and well versed in wilderness survival.  The area, in fact, is used primarily by wilderness schools to teach survival skills.  In recent days the prevailing temperatures had reached and risen beyond 37.8-degrees Centigrade.

And this was the very venue that was chosen by a young man identified as autistic, to launch a personal adventure from.  He decided he would make the long, lonely trek across the remote Escalante Desert of southern Utah from Boulder, Utah, to Page, Arizona.  William Martin LaFever, 28, set out to complete about 145 kilometres, and managed to go as far as 65 kilometres, when he was found beside the Escalante River, completely debilitated.

He had set out with his dog and with supplies and with the determination to embark and succeed on this adventure.  He had spoken with his father around June 6 to explain he had hitchhiked with his dog to Boulder, Utah with the intention to set out on the long hike.  He had found his money trickled away, and, he told his father, some of his gear had been stolen.  His father planned to wire money to Page, Arizona, but his son didn't call back.

He ended up wandering alone, telling those who finally rescued him that his dog had run off.  His food had run out, and he dug up roots and caught river frogs to keep himself alive.  It isn't known precisely how long he was on his own and stranded, but the estimate is roughly three weeks.  He was officially reported missing about a month after having spoken with his father. 

"Considering the lack of foresight that went into his trip, he did some remarkable things to keep himself alive.  He was emaciated and he couldn't walk and he couldn't crawl.  He said he has been in that spot three or four days", Reuters was briefed by Utah Highway Patrol helicopter pilot Shane Oldfield.

A Garfield County deputy had a hunch that resulted from a search-and-rescue training class he had attended where those in attendance were informed that people with autism were often drawn to water.  Ray Gardner proposed a fly-over of the river, as a result.  And that was when the missing man was spotted, and finally rescued from his long ordeal.