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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
May 17, 2012     Shelton Mason County Journal
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May 17, 2012
 
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Thursday, May 17, 2012 Week 20 The Voice of Mason County since 1886 --- Published for Mason County and Darlene Hale of Belfair -- $1 By NATALIE JOHNSON natalie@masoncounty°com On May 7. Union resident David Snider, 55, set out on what he thought would be a pleasant afternoon hike near the North Fork Campground in Olympic National Park. The following Saturday morning, a King County search and rescue helicopter found Snider tired, cold and a little de- hydrated, but alive, and in the middle of the park several miles away from where he started. Snider walked from his car at the North Fork Campground along the trail to Irely Lake. "I was just going to possibly go for an afternoon hike," he said. As Snider walked farther up to an area near Three Lakes and the Tshletshy Ridge he en- countered more snow than he expected, which obscured the trail. "I knew I was near the trail but I wasn't exactly on it," he said. "The bad decision was to take a shortcut." However, when night fell, Snider realized he was much farther from the trail than he thought. "When the moon came up I re- alized I wasn't where I thought I was," he said.. "I was probably a quarter mile from the trail." Snider has been hiking since the sum- mer of 1980, and has hiked many times throughout the Southwest, as well as Olympic National For- est. He used his skills to survive in the park for four nights, and tried sev- eral strategies to figure out his exact location, and try ~o find the best place ~o either signal for help, or cross the park to the Quinault River. which could lead him back to his car. First, Snider navigated diffi- cult terrain to the top of a ridge to get his bearings, and then tried to move across the park. On Tuesday morning, he tried to cross a creek. While try- ing to get to the water, Snider slipped down a ridge. "Right before I crossed was where my glasses got caught by a blackberry bush," he said. "[ knew I was Snider de- near the trail scribes himself as "extremely but [ wasn't exactly on it .., The bad decision was to take a shortcut." nearsighted," and only has good vision within 4-6 inches from his eyes. ~Before Tues- day afternoon he had already battled snow and steep ter- rain. After los- ing his only pair of glasses, the task of finding his way out of the woods became even more difficult. "It was kind of scary. I looked for them for an hour, an hour and a half," he said. Snider gave up the search for his glasses and used a stick he found near the creek and his trusty 20-year old walking stick to get away from the creek and continue his efforts to find his way out of the forest. Although he is an experi- enced hiker, Snider found him- self fighting panic during the beginning of his ordeal. "I had ~o go through this funny psychological transfor- mation -- the first day or two I was so scared. Eventually that dissipated," he said. "I was able to do things I never thought I could do." When Snider set out Mon- day, he had a backpack with him. including extra clothing like a wool sweater and cap, three liters of water, six Cliff bars, flashlights and a camera. On Tuesday night, he said his extra clothing came in Han- dy. "The wool sweater I had saved my butt," he said. Because his legs were most- ly uncovered, Snider wore the sweater on his legs to keep warm in what he estimated was sub-freezing nighttime tem- peratures on at least two of the See Hiker on page A-7 Courtesy pnoto Terra Kathleen Dittmer, 38, of Shelton, was killed after a car crash Tuesday on East Mikkelsen Road. Woman killed in car crash Driver charged with vehicular homicide By KEVIN SPRADLIN kevin ~masoncou~ty,co,,,n The driver of a vehicle in which a Shelton woman was killed early Tuesday morning faces a charge of vehicular homicide. Mason County residents Dylan J. Burke, Jason J. Brown and Terra K. Dittmer comprised a group celebrat- ing Cody R. Laney's 21st birthday at the Towne Pub Monday night in Shelton.. See Crash on page A-7 Former hoops star tells of drug add ction By KEVIN SPRADLIN Donning a simple, short- sleeve gray top, blue jeans and sandals, Katie Searle wasn't wearing anything that made her stand apart from a crowd. Where she chose to sit, however, spoke volumes. Searle, 28, of Olympm, sat in the front row of the Skookum Creek Event Cen- ter in Kamilche on Tuesday night to listen to the up- and-down:then-up-again tale of Chris Herren. Herren, 36, was at one time among the best high school basketball players in the country. A hard-core drug addiction derailed his short-lived professional bas- ketball career. Over 14 years, Herren, from Fall River, Mass., went from being on top of the world and a first-round NBA draft pick to sleeping in a nondescript California alley between a garbage bin and a chain link fence. Due to his drug addiction, Herren lost millions of dol- lars. He almost lost his fam- ily. And, without stretching his tale a bit, the recovering addict almost lost his life. Herren said many things during his two-hour pre- sentation that made Searle nod, shake her head, shut- ter or gasp in sympathetic despair. And then Herren said the one thing that hit home -- See Addiction on page A-7 81111U!!IJ!IIU!!I]UIIII2 ;ournal pnolos D/ Natahe Johnso[ The Garage Floor Gals, including Kelsey Smith, left, Chaney Curry and Amy Davis, sponsored by VanderWars Garage and Olympic Panel Products, took home first place in this year's Sound Learning Spellebration. Garage Floor Gals win top prize with 'Jaberwocky' By NATALIE JOHNSON nata/ie@masoncounty.com Sound Learning's annual Spellebra- tion fundraiser drew 18 ~eams and raised more than $10.000 for the nonprofit Fri- day night, said interim Executive Direc- tor Shannon Kiassell. "With the economy the way it is I think it's a fabulous year," she said. Sound Learning, formerly Mason County Literacy, is celebrating 20 years of promoting literacy in Mason and Thur- ston counties this year. The organization offers basic educa- tion and reading classes for adults, as well as help preparing for GEDs and English for Speakers of Other Languag- es (ESOL) classes. Spellebration judges Curt Bennett, left, Tamra Ingwaldson and Janice Byrd confer on the spelling of a word during the final round of the fundraiser spelling bee Friday night. ESOL Coordinator Jenny Blumen- stein introduced three Sound Learning students before the spelling bee Friday evening -- Domingo Juan, Brian Lisk and Imelda Acosta -- and asked them to briefly talk about how Sound Learning has helped them. Blumenstein drew the subject for the segment of the evening from Sound Learning's mission statement "To ed- ucate adults so they are equipped to suc- ceed and contribute in society." "There's three verbs that come from the missmn statement that we ask the students to respond ~o in ~erms of how they experience those words in their ev- eryday lives after being in the program," Blumenstein said. "Educate. succeed and contribute. " Each of the students is involved in a different program, or level of progress at Sound Learning. Juan is taking be- ginning English classes, and said they have helped him learn to ask and answer questions in English. and order food at restaurants. Lisk, who takes classes in the basic adult education program and is prepar- ing to take his GED. is learning to write See Spellebration on page A-7