"In response to your request for a report of the events transpiring January 10th and 11th, 2002 in Mortimer, NC I am preparing the following transcript:
"By this time I had been serving in Boone, NC for about 3 months. (A little about Boone: IT'S COLD!) We lived in a basement apartment at the bottom of a hill with very little heat used, because power bill was too high. But we had fun. Elder Zobell and Elder Unsworth were assigned to Lenoir, NC area and we did a lot of things together on preparation days.
"One thing that we had particularly enjoyed participating in was mountain biking. We went a couple of times, but we knew there were better trails around, after we were in the mountains of North Carolina. So we asked around and heard of a place right in between Boone and Lenoir that "had some gnarly sights." It was Wilson's Creek . . .
"So we bought a map; asked around some more and we were finally ready to go. But snow impeded our attempt. Well, the next week it snowed Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Elder Horspool and I couldn't get our car out of the driveway any of those days and we were getting restless. But lo and behold, Wednesday was as beautiful of a day as we had seen in a long while. And all the snow melted so we decided to go ahead with our plans.
"Elder Unsworth and Elder Zobell were to meet Elder Horspool and I in Mortimer at 1:00 P.M. and we'd make more specific plans from there.
"So Thursday morning after study and breakfast, we headed off to Mortimer. Our bikes were strapped to the back of our car, the sun was shining, and smiles were upon our faces as we headed off on an adventure to remember. If only we'd know how much we'd remember later, we might have rethought our plans.
"The road to Mortimer went through a town called "Globe." But before we'd even gotten to Globe the road because a very muddy dirt road due mostly in part to the previous snow. So VERY SLOWLY we traversed up and down mountains and though windy mountain road, all the while sliding back and forth.
"Soon, however, that ordeal was over and we arrived safely, but muddily, at our humble destination. I use the words humble because all Mortimer was, was a store with Dinty Moore Beef Stew and some country style hams completing it's entire inventory.
"At this time however, we didn't seem to mind the fact that we'd completely left civilization. Elder's Unsworth and Zobell had already arrived about 5 minutes previous to our arrival and they were "scooping" out the area. And our seeming utter isolation added to the adventurous spirit.
"After our excited "hellos" we needed to decide where to ride. We couldn't make up our minds, so we went to the store. There we found two men who probably hadn't seen many people in months. Normally these men would have been somewhat intimidating, but being missionaries these two were pretty normal compared to the people we sometimes run into.
"At the store we proceeded to introduce ourselves and as any good Elder would, we taught a quick "First Discussion." The owner of the store ("Joe" as we would later call him) had polio as a child and still felt many effects of that disease in his legs. His friend was a mountain Baptist who was cordial, but didn't really want to hear anything "new." He probably thought we were hippies or something.
"Well, Joe liked us because we were crazy like him. So he gave us some good directions to "two of the most beautiful waterfalls you'll ever see." We were pretty excited about that, but we probably should have listened as he told us about the Green Beret Orienteering training that went on there, but we decided to go for it anyway.
"The trailhead was 3/4 of a mile away and we had little trouble finding it. The excitement mounted as we took off our bikes and went to the river to pray, the first prayer of many that day.
"We soon realized that the trail was in disrepair due mostly to falling leaves and the winter snows. But being in the out-of-doors was very relaxing and as our legs loosened our hearts lifted even higher as the journey began.
"Our first close call came as I almost fell down a ravine, when my bicycle slipped on some leaves, but I caught myself. Elder Horspool helped me up and we continued, things like that were normal to us it seemed.
"We soon heard a distant thunder and our excitement climbed, and before we knew it we were over-looking a beautiful waterfall plummeting about 100 feet. Upon examination we found a rope about 2 inches in diameter, which led to the bottom of the falls on a semi-gradual decent. The only drawback was that the rope was frozen to the rock by several inches of ice. So we shook the rope out of the ice, slid to the bottom and climbed back out. But the view was spectacular.
"We climbed back out of the gully, and after a little bit of a hard time finding the trail again headed on our way.
"The trail conditions, however, had taken a serious turn for the worse, as we found ourselves walking down trails with steep inclines in all directions and carrying our bikes. These conditions seriously impeded our rate of travel and caused us to watch every step very closely. We paused to rest on a creek side, after we had been battling the trail for a good while. But while we were sitting, Elder Unsworth slipped and fell waist deep in the water. But he didn't think it was too funny as most of the water had come from snow melt and was barely above freezing. He looked at us and said, "I think we should go back." We contemplated the idea, but thought of having to go back over that horrible trail we had just passed, AND the thought of giving up persuaded us to move on.
"The trail flattened out a good deal, but we were forced to cross the creek several times which wouldn't have been so bad except for the fact that because of all the recent snow melt all the crossings were flooded and we occasionally slip into the creek. Elder Unsworth eventually gave up and just walked on through.
"We kept thinking, "The 1/2 way point is soon." Keeping a positive outlook, but we kept going and going. Eventually we heard the distant thunder again and knew we were close to the second waterfall and our halfway mark. We soon were looking up at a beautiful waterfall only to realize that 4 feet away the falls fell another couple hundred feet. And we were in the middle.
"We didn't have long to admire the scene, as we felt hurried by the quickly setting sun. The next strech of the trail was strenuous, as we had to climb the highest of the waterfall in addition to the opposite cliffs to finish our journey. We figured it was all down hill from there.
"On the Opposite ridge we looked down to admire the "double falls" as we called them and studied the map by the light of our watches. We soon came across several trail intersections (we here began to understand the seriousness of the situation and offered a fervent prayer) and went the way that seemed best but the trail became very steep and I became very tired. We were all exhausted, cold, and hungry and as the sun went down our light left too.
"We thought of leaving the bikes and moving on but we knew we'd need the bicycles. Eventually we were to a point where I was so exhausted I didn't think I could go another step. The other Elders gathered around and gave me a blessing, and I had strength throughout the rest of the journey. It eventually got so dark that travel was dangerous. Elder Zobell wanted to stop and wait for daylight. I wanted to move on, but decided rest was good. We piled under some leaves and snuggled together, but the wind cut deep, especially for Elder Unsworth who was soaking wet. Eventually I talked the other into moving on, anywhere so at least we could get some shelter of some sort if nothing else.
"So we continued on down our "trail" until it simply quit! It just ended. We couldn't believe it! We figured that that place was as good as any to stay especially seeing as we had nowhere else to go. But we hoped morning would shed some light on things.
"We picked a rhododendron tree to sleep under to protect us, at least in part, from the rain. And began tearing trees down and stacking branches and bark to block the wind on the sides. Our main hindrance however, was the fact that there was absolutely no light and we could not see a thing. Nor was there any way to start a fire especially since everything was wet. So Elder Horspool took it upon himself to lay in our makeshift "hut" and feel for the flowing air. However, in about 5 minutes he was out. Probably the only sleep any of us received all night.
"We soon had to wake him however as our next assignment was to pile all the leaves we could find into our shelter. Not recommended as a good source of insulation, but in a pinch it'll work. We piled the leaves on top of us and used everything we could find to keep us warm; gloves, helmets, watches, and most of all, each other's body heat. Elder Zobell once in a while would get out and "exercise" (jumping jacks) to keep his body going, but we stayed put most of the night, except to switch places once so someone else could be on the outer edge of our "Edler Huddle." I'd like to say our shelter kept us warm, but that would be a total lie. We didn't sleep a wink (neither did President Smith or I, Elder Darrington), it was so cold, and I would have sworn it was below freezing, but it rained. That was probably the longest night of my life 7:00 P.M. to 7 A.M. Stuck in a little shelter, cuddled up to Elder Zobell and knowing this was going to be a while. We prayed a lot that night, but through it all, we all knew we would be okay, so we prayed that the others would know we were okay.
"After what seemed like years, daybreak hit. And we were able to see well enough to venture out. We looked around, but were unable to find the rest of the trail, so we back tracked. In the daylight we soon realized what we thought was a hiking trail was actually a 4-wheeling trail someone had made, and when we realized our mistake that we had made during the night we soon found the correct trail with the "white dots" marking it. Once on the right trail we were out in about an hour with some of the best mountain biking I've ever seen, four miles of downhill over which we dropped 2,000 feet or so that we'd climbed up and down the day before.
"When we had finally found our way out rather uneventfully compared to the night before, we said a prayer of thanks, and as we were re-raking our bikes, old "Joe" came by having just gone shopping. He summed up our experience pretty well saying, " ya'll just getting out? Boy, ya musta had quite a night." I was thinking, "boy whatta understatement." He however invited us over for breakfast with eggs, sausage, biscuts, pancakes, syrup, grits, and red eye gravy (which Elder Zobell later told us had coffee in it), but it was good meal.
"We left Joe very thankful for what he'd done and we went home to 20 something messages on our phone and to clear up the mess we caused. In after thought we made some mistakes, but the event was a faith builder and made the 4 of us best friends.
Elder Brett John Darrington"
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