May 26 2022 around 8:30 in the morning our local Incident Commander calls asking for a couple of 4×4 teams to retrieve a woman stranded in a stuck vehicle outside Tres Piedras. She had cell phone service and from her cell phone and OnStar we had her exact coordinates. So easy – just send in a couple of 4×4’s, pull her car out if possible and if nothing else bring her out without her car and figure out how to retrieve the car later. How many of you out there are saying, “yeah right, bet it won’t be easy.” Well, you would be right. This blog will highlight the dangers of blindly following Google Maps directions and the kindness of strangers.
We pulled up Gaia GPS on our smartphones and iPads and soon found the shortest route to the subjects location and hit the road. Well, this area is a patchwork of private land holdings, BLM and State Trust Land so our progress was soon blocked by a locked gate. No worries, the map showed several other possible routes so we back tracked to another promising route. The new route ended at a mine pit even though the the map showed it went through. Backtrack again and try again. Another locked gate. The routine continued until late afternoon with all routes shown on the map ending with either a locked gate or a road that ended. By this time our subject had been out for over 24 hours, was out of food and water and was starting to worry and threatening to start walking. Given her remote location walking would have been a very dangerous endeavor.
Our Incident Commander decided it was time to try a helicopter and managed to get the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office to fly the mission. By this time we had relocated to a spot where most of the routes converged into one main road and setup Incident Base. Shortly after getting off the phone with the Sheriffs office the owner of the property of the last locked gate we encountered drove by on his way home. We showed him where the subject was and he was glad to escort us to the location and help in anyway he could. You may be wondering, “If the SAR team couldn’t get past the locked gates how did our subject?” Well, it turns out the day she came through the owner was having some well drillers working on his property and had left the gates open so the workers could come and go. When he left for the day he locked the gates locking her in and us out.
We decided to have the helicopter continue in route as it is always good to have a plan B although the ground team is usually the plan B. We reached the subject about 20 minutes before the helicopter, provided food and water to our subject, determined she was ok and puller her car out of the ditch. When the helicopter arrived we discussed the situation and they decided to return to base and we would drive the subject and her car out. No use risking a wilderness landing if you don’t have to.
The next problem was the subject had idled her vehicle for long periods and was almost out of gas. We had enough to get her car to the highway but not enough to reach the nearest gas station. The property owner that graciously helped us out had a large flatbed trailer near by and offered to trailer her car to Taos where she was scheduled to stay in a B&B that evening. Gotta love New Mexicans!
Now for the general lesson – be careful following Google Maps directions. Our subject had entered a search for the “Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument” thinking that would be an interesting place to visit during her tour of Colorado and New Mexico. Google Maps places a pin for the monument about 15 miles northeast of Tres Piedras out in the middle of nowhere. For those that don’t know the Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument is not a location per say put approximately 242,000 acres of land in north central New Mexico. Our subject asked Google Maps to create a route for her that she followed until here light duty crossover just couldn’t go any further and she slid off the side of the road and high centered when she tried to finally turn around.
Many thanks to those that responded, the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office helicopter crew and our friend that took time out of his busy life to help a someone he didn’t know in need.
Good lesson, which I learned last year. I discovered that Google couldn’t get me out of my neighborhood, but instead had me circling thru residential streets. :0)