A nice night for a hike

The pager went off at 8:49, just as I was about to begin the process of brewing my first batch of homemade beer. (More on that later.) The call out said 69 year old woman hiking alone on the Kachina Trail was over due. Well, call out information is rarely worth a damn, it could as easily be a 45 year old german man in the grand canyon, but nonetheless I grabbed my gear and headed for the Search and Rescue building. The usual, issue radios, grab stretches and litters, complain about how cold/windy/dark/late it is, even though everyone there is excited to be there and going on a search. "Gets me outta the house..." one guy says. When we get near the mountain, we find out it is actually the Humphrey's Peak Trail she is on, but remarkably the rest of the information is good. I think to myself that I should have brought gaiters; we'll probably be in the snow. We get on scene, meet with the incident commmander for a quick briefing and head out. Seems the DPS helicopter saw a flashlight, but had to refuel and should be back shortly. We think she is about is in the bowl, about halfway up the mountain. Split into two teams, my team starts up the main trail, stopping to whistle and shout every so often. The lights of town below blink through the trees and fool me into thinking it is a flashlight. And the wind has picked up, gusts to 40 mph now, so trees are creaking and falling around us. Helicopter won't be able to do much in this wind, at this altitude, at night. But come back he does, if only for a few moments. He sees us and then sees teh flashlight again. We are close, but he can't stay, too high winds. We pick up our pace and shortly after midnight, we see her flashlight and call out to her. She seesms a bit disoriented, can't hear very well, doesn't respond to most questions. Then she takes her earplugs out. Ahh, much better. She is ok, not hurt, but cold. Got dark and got lost on the way down, was tired and didn't think she could make it out that night. Had planned to sleep under a rock. Did she see the helicopter? Oh yes, she thought they were looking for criminals, but she shined her light at it just playing. All things considered she was in good shape: had food, water, warm clothes, two flashlights, and a space blanket. And she had never been hiking before in her life. Well, we walked her out, got her checked out by the medics, wished her well, and went home. Sure I missed out on dime beer night (last call at 2, didn't get home till 3) but it was worth it. A nice night for a hike.