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A high school group’s weekend trip turns into a lesson in survival.
By Gail Geraghty
Staff Writer

PARIS – Eight high school students and two teachers on a school wilderness camping trip got to test their survival skills when a northeaster hit during a weekend hike in the White Mountain National Forest.

The two girls and six boys returned tired but safe to Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School Monday afternoon with wilderness leadership teacher Ann Speth of Bethel and English teacher Jeff Norton of Poland.

Members of the Maine Warden Service used snowmobiles and a tractor to reach the group after a warden pilot spotted them Monday walking single-file south on Route 113, about a mile from Evans Notch. Most of Route 113 is not plowed in winter.

The group was ferried back to a plowed road by wardens on snowmobiles.

Speth, a biology/health teacher who has taught the wilderness leadership course for five years, said the group trudged along the unplowed road for 12 hours Sunday. The snow was more than 36 inches deep and reached well above their knees. Members of the group took turns breaking a path, Speth said.

Temperatures were in the single digits Saturday and Sunday nights, and winds were at times up to 60 miles an hour, said Mark Latti, a spokesman for the warden service.

SAD 17 Superintendent Mark Eastman accompanied district transportation director Ron Deegan Monday to the rescue site, where the students were checked over by Mahoosuc Mountain Rescue Team medics before boarding the bus back to school. Other than being exhausted, no one was injured, Latti said.

The students were seniors Leah Jutras, Kyle Ingraham and Mike Damon, juniors Jeremy Garcia, Brandon Atkinson, Sean Bryant and Jen Norton of Boston, niece of Jeff Norton, and sophomore Josh Eichel. All except Jen Norton, are members of the school’s wilderness leadership class which has 11 students in all. Norton is a former class instructor.

Parents meet bus

Parents met the bus at the high school Monday afternoon to take their children home.

Wardens mounted the search after the group failed to meet a school bus at 3 p.m. Sunday as planned. Ten game wardens were joined by helicopter pilots of the Maine Army National Guard in the search.

Wilderness rescue volunteers searched the area on snowshoes for five hours Sunday night, but found no trace of the Oxford Hills students.

“This is some of the more rugged terrain we have in Maine,” said Warden Lt. Nat Berry. “I’m confused about why the school authorized the trip, knowing the storm was coming.”

Speth said when she checked Thursday night, snowfall of 8 to 12 inches was predicted. The group left Friday morning.

“I thought 8 to 12 inches, no big deal; let’s go,” said Speth.

The students, part of Speth’s wilderness leadership course, were well equipped for overnight winter camping with plenty of food and tents, but no snowshoes.

High School Principal Joe Moore said that by late Friday afternoon, when it was clear a major snowstorm was coming, “they were already in the woods.”

“We’re very proud of the teachers, and proud of the students” for the way they handled the experience, Moore said.

Norton said although they had a cellphone and radio there was no reception for either so they could not call for help or notify anyone of their decision to abandon the hike and head for the highway.

“There was never any panic,” Norton said, of the group. “They did what they needed to do.”

Hiking a loop

Norton said they mapped a route that would take them in a loop, beginning and ending on the Flat Road in West Bethel. The storm forced them to abandon the route to get out of the wilderness sooner.

The group traveled from the Flat Road in West Bethel south onto a road that brought them to the Miles Notch Trail. They went south on that trail through Mason Township into the White Mountain National Forest, then into Stoneham where they headed west and north on the Great Brook Trail. From there they hiked to the Red Rock Mountain Trail west of Butters Mountain in Mason Township and bushwhacked north to pick up the Haystack Notch Trail, which they were going to take east to return to the Miles Notch Trail.

On Saturday, Norton said, they had bushwhacked part way between Red Rock Trail and the Haystack Trail when they decided to camp for the night.

Speth said the group changed their hiking plans when it became clear the snowstorm was much worse than they expected. When they made camp Saturday night, “One of the kids shoveled us out during the night. Otherwise, we’d of been buried,” Speth said.

Norton said it was Ingraham who kept the campsite shoveled.

On Sunday, realizing they couldn’t reach their rendezvous point, they left their route and headed straight for Route 113, about a half-mile away, she said. They knew they would have a better chance of being spotted on the road, she said.

Norton said their hope was that snowmobilers would have broken a trail on Route 113 by then to facilitate their exit, but that was not the case.

They hiked north on Route 113 for 12 hours and got as far as Hastings Campground in Batchelders Grant where they set up camp on Sunday night, Norton said.

“It was a matter of hours pr mile, not miles per hour,” he said of hiking in the deep snow.

They camped right on the center line in the middle of the highway, according to Speth.

On Monday morning they hiked north for more than a mile before meeting up with wardens, Norton said.

Speth said the students, some of whom had winter camping experience, maintained good spirits throughout the trip.

“They all walked out of it happy,” she said. “This course is all about wilderness leadership. It was just more challenging than we thought,” Speth said. “The only people who were worried were the people who weren’t there.”

Latti said the search cost “several thousand dollars” and that a review will be done to see if the school district will be charged. “I don’t think even the forecasters could have forecast how severe this storm was going to be,” he said.

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