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Finding the Boy Scout
Gandalf trotted to the left, out of sight behind the cliff face, and Misha scrambled up the trail behind him. She turned the bend, and there -- 50 yards up on the ledge, in a direct line ahead of Gandalf -- was a boy in a red jacket. He was dazed from hunger and fatigue.
Misha and Danny began yelling, "Michael, is that you? Michael?"
The boy turned silently toward them. Danny clambered up the steep embankment to help Michael down. Working her way halfway across the creek, Misha passed the boy to Erin. The team carried him to the bank and set him down next to Gandalf. "Are you okay with dogs?" Misha asked. He nodded. "Well, this is Gandalf," she said as the dog nuzzled the boy.
While the rescuers contacted the base camp, Michael ate a few peanut butter crackers they'd given him. He set the rest of the crackers down, and Gandalf snatched them up. "Is a helicopter coming to get me?" Michael asked. "I'd like a chopper ride."
The terrain was too rough for a helicopter to land. Rangers came up to carry Michael out. After they arrived, Misha struggled to hold Gandalf back as he tugged at his leash. He wanted to follow the boy. Misha had never seen her gentle giant act this way. He was obviously proud of himself -- "gloating" is what dog handlers call it. It was the equivalent of an NFL receiver dancing in the end zone.
Michael was dehydrated, hungry, exhausted and freezing. He had first-degree frostbite, and it would take a couple of weeks for the feeling to return to his toes. After a short stay in the hospital, he was discharged in good health.
As it turned out, Michael's experience was nothing like his novels. Unlike their protagonists, he had not been lucky enough to find a cave or a fishhook-shaped twig or any other tool that would have helped him. But he had remembered that it was important to stay warm and hydrated. He used leaves as insulation at night, and he sucked on icicles. Michael earned his Wilderness Survival Merit Badge last summer. He now knows the biggest mistakes he made: not staying in one place and not making enough noise to attract attention. He plans to never get lost again. He is grateful to everyone who looked for him, he says, but maybe no one more than Gandalf.
Back at the base camp, Misha finally got a strong enough cell signal to call her husband. "I can't tell you much right now," she told him. "But Gandalf has just found that Boy Scout."
"Yeah, right," Chuck said. Then he realized she was serious. "Well, I guess that's the last time I'll tell you what you and Gandalf can't do."
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