News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Mikayla Duvenick is no stranger to adventure. The 16-year-old Sisters High School student and her 20-year-old brother Charles Duvenick have done a lot of trekking in the Sisters backcountry. But they've never experienced anything like the race for survival they experienced on Sunday, September nine, as they hiked - then ran - to escape the raging Pole Creek Fire.
The siblings set out Saturday afternoon with Charles' friend Greg McVickers, 36, from the Pole Creek Trailhead to Camp Lake, which would serve as a for Charles and Greg's ascent of the South Sister from the north side. Mikayla stayed at Camp Lake with the party's two dogs, relaxing and reading a book.
At about 10 a.m., she spotted the smoke billowing up from the area of the trailhead and dialed 9-1-1 and learned that there was a forest fire. She couldn't leave immediately though; she had to wait for the climbers to return to Camp Lake.
Charles and Greg had seen the fire on their descent and when the arrived at Camp Lake, Mikayla laid out the options.
Other hikers determined to hike over the saddle between North and Middle Sister and out to the Obsidian Trailhead (see related story, "Fire turns Bend couple's weekend hike into adventure," link below). That option held little appeal after a strenuous climb. The party could stay near the safety of the lake, but they had no idea how long that might leave them stranded and awaiting rescue - and they didn't have the food to extend their stay.
The hikers decided to trek out of the fire aerea by following a creekbed east.
Mikayla already had them packed.
"Idiotically, I made my pack the heaviest," she recalled ruefully.
The trek was rough going.
"It was so rocky," Mikayla said.
The terrain was steep, shale-strewn ridges. It proved almost too much for Mikayla's dog Red.
"My dog just gave up," she said. "He wasn't in as good shape as Edgar, the other dog."
It looked like they'd have to either carry the dog or leave him, but they finally got him going and pressed on. The fear was rising.
"The fire was moving so fast; it was jumping through the trees at that time," Mikayla recalled.
The hikers couldn't always see the fire, and not knowing where they were in relation to it added to the anxiety.
Hitting the Green Lakes trail brought almost ecstatic relief and the trekkers hit the trail running, with Charles and Greg taking turns carrying Mikayla's heavy pack.
They got out of the woods at Three Creeks Road and emergency personnel shuttled them into town after a harrowing 15-mile race.
"When I got home I started throwing up," Mikayla said. "I was just so tired."
As experienced as she is in the backcountry, "we weren't prepared for that," Mikayla said. "It was scary. It was really, really scary at times."
Mikayla realizes that she and her brother and their friend were at serious risk.
"We got pretty lucky in multiple situations," she said.
McVickers, who had recently repaired his car, was convinced that it had burned at the trailhead. Luck was with him again though. The car survived undamaged.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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