A tragic story unfolds in the Owyhees

By: 
Steve Lyon
Eye On Weiser
A tragic story recently unfolded in Owyhee County, where a couple and an infant child made the unfortunate mistake of trying to drive to Silver City and got stuck on the way in deep snow.
 The two were headed to California on U.S. Highway 95. For whatever reason, maybe in a misguided moment of adventure, they decided to get off the highway and drive back into the hills.
 I’m familiar with the road to Silver City. I’ve made the trip on Highway 95 to Nevada many times. More on that later.
 Once you get past a couple of ranches near the highway, there isn’t much back there, and it’s about 30 miles to Silver City. 
 At some point, they could go no farther. They were buried in deep snow on gravel road that is not plowed and all but abandoned in the winter. 
 I can imagine the moment of panic when reality set in. There’s nobody on the road and nothing for miles in any direction. They stayed in the truck for four or five days, until the gas ran out.
 By then, it’s likely that the storms we’ve had covered their vehicle tracks and any sign of them with fresh snow.
 The 32-year-old man, desperate after days trapped in a pickup, struck out on his own to find help. His last known location was in the remote area of Cow Creek and Trout Creek roads. 
 He has not been seen since and it has been two weeks now. The road to Silver City is closed from Nov. 1 until the Friday near Memorial Day. 
 It became a story of survival for woman and infant. She and the baby left the truck, found a cabin and broke in through the back window. The mother was able to find some supplies for herself and baby. 
 She went back to the truck and was found by a snowmobiler and rescued on Feb. 15, one week after they got stuck.
 The woman, 29, suffered some frostbite on her nose, but she and the 1-year-old child have since recovered. She told news sources that she melted snow and mixed a formula for the baby.
 Photos show the pickup truck they were driving buried in deep, drifting snow. It looked like there was no way forward and no way back. 
 The 32-year-old man remains missing, despite extensive searching by law enforcement and a professional search and rescue team using dogs.
 Recent storms have added to the snow and made the search even more difficult. The Owyhee County Sheriff’s Office has asked that nobody, however well-intentioned, try to search on their own for the missing man. It doesn’t look good.
 My story of a misguided trip on the road to Silver City ends on a better note. 
 Back when I was a serious runner, I sought out backroads and trails away from the crowds to get in a few miles. 
 One summer weekend, driving on Highway 95 from Fallon, Nev., to Boise to visit my mom, I drove down the Silver City road with a brilliant plan to do some running. It’s a nice location, for sure. 
 I got on my shorts, laced up my sneakers, put my wallet in the trunk and slammed it shut with the car keys still in the pocket of my jeans.
 I walked for about 30 minutes on the Silver City road toward the highway before a truck came by going my direction. He gave me a lift to a farmhouse, where the kind residents let me use their phone to call a locksmith. He drove from Nampa. Boy was I happy to see him.
 Steve Lyon is the editor of the Weiser Signal American. Contact him at scoop@signalamerican.com.

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