A dozen daring Trailblazers set out from Willow Springs Trailhead at 8:45 on a morning that was nice and cool. We followed the road for a while, then I decided to take the historic bushwhack route from the road on up to Prevention Gap, and from there over to Helmet Rock. The bushwhack to Prevention Gap was rougher than I remembered. Some game trails helped.

Helmet Rock has some of the most spectacular rock formations in the Goldfields, or anywhere! We took group pictures, then made our way down to the horse trail that parallels a stream. The trail is marked with cairns here and there.

By then, the day had gotten warmer than it should be this time of year. After discussing the situation with Andy, we decided to skip Wishbone Junction this time and just finish the hike the way it had been scouted by four of us. An easy bushwhack ensued, taking us up to a rock formation from which we could see a horse trail. It’s a good way down to Forest Road 12.

I appointed Andy as deputy leader, because he’s been here before.

Hikers get spread out on the trail. So it was that there were three groups of us on the horse trails. The trails fork and braid, but I was there to give directions.

Then one of our hikers told me she wasn’t feeling well, and wanted to stop and rest. Good idea. But then she stopped again, and didn’t get up and go on. After some discussion we decided to leave two of us with the stricken hiker, while Andy would lead everyone else back to Willow Springs Trailhead. Joe and I stayed behind.

Special thanks to Andy for serving as deputy leader!

Jim Buyens has provided an excellent Emergency Procedure which includes “Ask everyone in the group to turn on their cell phones and check for a signal. If even one person has one bar, use it to call 911.” We all checked. The only one who could get a 911 call out was me.

I called, then lost the connection. This happened several times, but finally I was able to give them all the information they needed. Then the three of us all decided to lie down in the shade, and wait. And wait. And wait.

Eventually we heard motor traffic. The sound got louder. It was three Jeeps from the Sheriff’s Office, coming our way. We walked to the Jeeps, then saw a helicopter coming. The sheriff’s deputies were there first, so they took us back to Willow Springs Trailhead.

What a hair-raising ride! Daredevil drivers on exceedingly rough roads. “Wouldn’t try this in an ordinary sedan,” I told John, my driver. But they got us back to the trailhead by 3:30.

November 11 is Armistice Day, commemorating the end of World War I. An uncle of mine was a veteran of that war, drafted in 1918 when President Woodrow Wilson needed railroaders to run the locomotives he had sent to France. Charles R. Goff, 1891-1975, was working for the Frisco Railroad in Springfield, Missouri, when he was drafted.