OREM -- A group of Boy Scouts and their leaders spent an unexpected night stranded in an Emery County canyon Saturday while rescuers searched the remote area on the San Rafael Reef.
The group of four adults and five teenage boys returned home to Orem about midnight Sunday night. No one was injured, and the hikers reported suffering only hunger and fatigue from their ordeal."Some of us went without food," said Phil Brown, Scoutmaster of Troop 179.
Brown emphasized, however, that the group was able to drink water filtered from the bottom of Eardley Canyon, and Saturday night was spent -- although without sleeping bags -- relatively comfortably around a campfire.
The troop was scheduled to complete an 8-mile hike through the canyon by Saturday afternoon. But the roughness of the terrain caused slow-going, and steep canyon walls at the end of the hike made leaders think better of trying to climb out of the remote canyon.
"It got to be dusk and the canyon walls were very steep, so we decided to spend the night," Brown said.
Emery County Sheriff Lamar Guymon said his office was notified Sunday about 1 a.m. that the group was overdue. The Emery County Sheriff's Posse and family members of the hikers searched throughout the night, Guymon said.
On Sunday morning, the group decided to hike out the way it had come. Meanwhile, rescuers continued their search and an airplane also scoured the area.
Rescuers made contact with the hikers about 1 p.m. Sunday. The last member of the group made it out of the canyon about 7:30 p.m.
Brown said the terrain was "very rocky" and that the steepness of the canyon walls at the end of the hike was a surprise.
Boy Scout officials from the Utah National Parks Council office in Provo monitored rescue efforts throughout the weekend. Scout Executive Tom Powell said his office provided search and rescue crews with a description and location of the troop leaders' vehicles.
You can reach Edward L. Carter by e-mail at carter@desnews.com and Brady Snyder by e-mail at bsnyder@desnews.com.