LIHU‘E — There was no shortage of relief and gratitude in 72-year-old Pam Dohrman’s voice Tuesday, one day after she was found alive and well in the Koke‘e wilderness. After managing to get lost during a routine Saturday afternoon hike
LIHU‘E — There was no shortage of relief and gratitude in 72-year-old Pam Dohrman’s voice Tuesday, one day after she was found alive and well in the Koke‘e wilderness.
After managing to get lost during a routine Saturday afternoon hike near her Koke‘e cabin, Dohrman spent two nights alone in the woods, with limited food and almost no water. She was found Monday morning by three volunteers off the Kaluapuhi Trail, dehydrated but in good condition.
“My last thoughts (on Saturday) were, ‘I’ve really blown Mother’s Day for my kids,’” she laughed over the phone from her Waikoko home, on Kaua‘i’s North Shore.
Despite the ordeal, Dohrman was in high spirits and grateful to all those who came to her aid. Although she was never scared, Dohrman said part of her was certain she was going to die, because of the remote location.
“Quite frankly, I did a bit of talking to Jesus,” she said
Dohrman prayed about death and being rescued, as well as asked God to take care of her family, who she knew would be scared for her safety.
At one point, Dohrman said she spoke out loud and asked God to take her home.
“No, no, no — not that home,” she laughed. “I mean Waikoko.”
On Tuesday, Dohrman was extremely happy to be back in the company of her husband and other family and friends.
“I’m not even going to my front door,” she said. “I’m staying in my house.”
Lost in familiar terrain
Dohrman arrived at her family cabin Saturday afternoon and decided to take a quick hike — one she knew well — before the family’s dinner.
She walked to Mohihi Road, where she sat in the grass and looked through photos on her iPhone of her family trip to Idaho and Montana last year. Around 4 p.m., she headed for home via the Berry Flat Trail.
By 4:30 p.m., Dohrman said she realized she was lost. She tried to retrace her steps, but kept ending up back in the same spot. At about 7, she said she was beginning to lose sunlight and made the decision to spend the night in the mountains.
“I’ve been a nurse all my life, so I admit I wasn’t scared,” she said. “When bad things happen, I have a tendency to stay calm.”
In an email Tuesday to The Garden Island, Dohrman described her first night alone in the woods.
“It was a beautiful, starry night,” she wrote. “I could see the North Star, but had no idea what north meant up there. Earlier, I’d seen fog rolling to my southwest, so I knew that was Alaka‘i. Other than that, I was 100 percent lost. I willed myself to sleep.”
The next morning, Dohrman said she had high hopes of making it back to the cabin, but without any water since the night before, she found herself dizzy and nauseated.
“I couldn’t go more than 5 feet without sitting down,” she said.
Dohrman spent the entire day seated in bright area of uluhi plants, in the hopes that a passing helicopter would spot her.
“I looked over and discovered I was only 50 yards from my initial sleeping place,” she wrote.
Dohrman spent the entire day there, listening and looking and hoping for help.
“I didn’t care for the idea of dying,” she said, “ because I don’t know how long it takes.”
The only sounds that day, with the exception of one rescue helicopter in the distance, were those of big black flies, which “bugged” Dohrman until nightfall.
“I verbally told them a number of times, ‘Not yet,’” she wrote in her email. “I remained in that spot for the rest of my time because all routes appeared to be impassible.”
Dohrman said she spread her pink sweatshirt out and made a silver reflector from a candy wrapper she found on the trail, before she curled up again and fell asleep.
Voices
By daybreak Monday, the search for Dohrman had resumed, with more than 60 agency personnel, family members and volunteers scouring the area in nine separate walking units.
While Air 1 rescue helicopter conducted its aerial search, volunteers Clifford and Clifton Mission, Kekoa Agustin and Dominick Abalos headed back into the Kaluapuhi Trail.
“On Sunday morning about midday, I hear voices,” Dohrman wrote. “I called out and got a response, far away. We called back and forth until I heard, ‘Is this Pam?’ I called back, ‘This is Pam.’”
In disbelief, Dohrman said she spotted a young man, Agustin, climbing down a slippery hillside. He had no shoes on, she recalled.
“I said, ‘I need to touch you and hold you,’” Dohrman said.
The young men then took turns carrying the exhausted woman on their backs up the wet, muddy and slippery hill to Kaluapuhi Trail.
“I can’t even tell you the gratitude,” Dohrman said. “They were wonderful kids.”
Dohrman was taken to Wilcox Memorial Hospital, where she was treated for dehydration and released four hours later.
One major lesson, which Dohrman plans to instill in her grandchildren, is to never go out alone without telling someone where you are going.
“Never in my life have I been so grateful, so filled with love, so happy for life itself,” she wrote.
“She’s a tough lady,” her husband Mal said over the phone Tuesday. “We just need to make sure she doesn’t wander off.”
• Chris D’Angelo, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-0441 or lifestyle@thegardenisland.com.
