August 5th we are back in the Pecos Wilderness. Given that the subjects left from Nambe Lake in a storm there was a good chance they missed the Windsor trail and continued down the Nambe Drainage. So, our mission, that included five members of the Brigade, was to hike up the Nambe Drainage from the Nambe Reservoir. We meet up with the Nambe Tribal Police at the Nambe Falls Recreation Area and pickup our guide early in the afternoon. Unfortunately, we don’t get far down the trail before one of our team members badly sprains an ankle while attempting to cross the Nambe river. The injury is bad enough the he can’t walk on it. Two of us head back to the vehicles to retrieve our litter and return to the stream crossing. We load our team member into the litter and return to the vehicles where an ambulance awaits.
The plan was to have another team member drive our injured member to the Los Alamos Medical Center, assuming he declines the ambulance ride, while the rest of us continued the mission. However, when we got back to the vehicles we learn our subjects have been found and extricated by the New Mexico State Police’s ABL 7 helicopter. Turns out the two subjects were just a few miles up the Nambe Drainage from our location. We would have found them if the helicopter hadn’t beat us to them. Thanks NMSP and ABL 7 for saving the day!