A hunting trip for three members of a Payette family and a family friend was nearly in the books as a pleasant if uneventful success as night approached on Oct. 15.
Nicole Meacham, one family member who wasn’t on that trip into Washington County, said she received a phone call at home at roughly 8 p.m. from her husband, Michael Meacham, informing her that the hunting party would be loading up soon for the return trip home. First, however, Michael Meacham and the couple’s 16-year-old daughter, Alexandria, needed to retrieve a deer that had been shot minutes earlier by Michael and Nicole Meacham’s 11-year-old son.
Nicole said she received a call later that night from Washington County dispatch informing her that Alexandria had phoned in a report of an ATV accident involving her dad. By now darkness had fallen, the temperature would be dropping to below freezing, and the stranded father and daughter were the focus of a search and rescue effort.
Although Alexandria had barely managed to get enough signal on high ground to place her 911 call, Nicole said, the daughter was also able to receive a text message that Nicole now sent. Nicole asked about Michael’s physical condition. Alexandria texted back with a piece of bad news: Dad had a broken leg.
Nicole said she decided to phone her own father, Payette resident Phil Burley, to have him drive out and participate in the search, especially since Burley was well familiar with the terrain. She said Burley quickly rounded up several friends and headed out.
The deer hunt took place off of Sheep Creek Road and over Dodson Pass, on Bureau of Land Management ground, Michael Meacham said. He said Alexandria had shot her own deer fairly early in the day, but her brother didn’t hit his until shortly before dusk. The deer took off running before it died, traversing approximately a mile of ground, Michael said. He added that they could pretty readily see where it had gone, however, so he decided to take Alexandria with him on his ATV to retrieve the animal while the other adult in the party, friend Josh Lucas, of Payette, went back to the pickup with Meacham’s son, who is also named Michael.
Partway to their intended destination, Meacham and his daughter were slowed by ground obstacles.
“I couldn’t navigate myself through the dark and the rocks and stuff, and I got myself into trouble trying to go through a little draw or ravine,” Meacham recalled.
He instructed Alexandria to wait on higher ground, out of harm’s way, while he tried to drive the ATV out of the draw. Dutifully, she walked up the slope and seated herself on a big rock to watch and wait.
To Alexandria’s horror, her father soon rolled the ATV, disappearing underneath the overturned machine, which was still running.
“I couldn’t see him and I couldn’t hear him,” Alexandria said.
After that very anxious long moment, she did hear him, however. Meacham was at least conscious enough to shout to be heard above the sound of the engine. He told Alexandria to switch off the motor. The father then struggled to slide himself out from underneath the machine and into the open.
Alexandria was meanwhile “freaking out” over the situation, Meacham said. “I drug myself from under there and told her to calm down,” he said. Meacham couldn’t go any farther, however, because his ankle was badly broken.
Alexandria responded well, and began performing the tasks most immediately needed, starting with going to higher ground to try and connect with 911.
The Weiser Signal American later reported that the girl’s call went to Baker County, which relayed the emergency information to Washington County. Matt Thomas, Washington County sheriff, told the Weiser newspaper that, in addition to local resources, the search and rescue effort also featured a helicopter from Two Bear Air Rescue in Kalispell, Montana. The helicopter is specially equipped to hoist an injured person from a constricted space.
Thomas told the Independent-Enterprise the special helicopter was indeed put to use lifting Meacham out of the narrow draw.
That rescue didn’t occur until Monday morning in daylight, though, and the intervening night was a long one. Meacham said his daughter built a small fire a few different times. The fires furnished only a modest amount of heat. At other times Alexandria slept with her head on her father’s chest. He said he feared that she might suffer physical damage from the cold air if she slept too long, so he periodically awakened her and contrived various errands to get her walking around.
Meacham told the Independent-Enterprise that he was proud of how well his daughter took care of him.
“She was my hero. … She got all the calls made that she could make. She made sure that I was covered up and warm,” Meacham said.
“I was desperate and I was scared, but I didn’t have a choice. I had to help,” Alexandria said.
Sometime after daybreak, Alexandria encountered her first searcher. It happened to be none other than her grandpa, Phil Burley.
Meacham and Alexandria were soon both transported together via Life Flight to St. Alphonsus in Ontario, where the father had to remain a couple of days.
Meacham said he underwent a surgery which included inserting a titanium rod just below his knee and continuing far down his leg. On Friday, two days after he was released, he said he was currently experiencing some pain, but the good news was that his leg was expected to “fully recover in about a year … like it never happened.”
Meacham and Alexandria were both on crutches last week, but they said Alexandria’s injury was only an ankle sprain. She had sustained the injury while stumbling around in the dark the night of their ordeal. On Friday she said the sprain wasn’t serious, and she was nearly ready to put the crutches aside.
Meacham said he drives a tow truck for a living, but he also manages the towing company, so there will be plenty of desk work to keep him busy once he returns to work.
He said one lesson he takes from the hunting trip’s mishap is to delay retrieving an animal if it’s too far away and the sun is going down.
“What I should have done was waited till morning,” he said.
Exposing the Big Game 