By Charly SHELTON

The day after Thanksgiving is many things to many people. It is the national holiday Native American Heritage Day, in the stores and malls around the country it is Black Friday and, for Cynthia Moyneur England, it is an anniversary day. Twenty-five years ago, she and then 11-year-old Ryan McIntosh spent a cold weekend stranded on Dawson Peak near Mt. Baldy. And last weekend, England and McIntosh returned to hike to the top of Mt. Baldy again in honor of the anniversary.

On the day after Thanksgiving in 1991, England was out with a friend and her four children to hike Mt. Baldy. About halfway through the hike, most of the kids were tired and decided to turn back to the parking lot with their mom. England and McIntosh pressed on to the summit, promising to meet everyone back at the cars later that day. The pair reached the peak of Mt. Baldy just as the weather started to turn. Their tracks were washed out and they lost their way back, winding up on another trail which led them to neighboring Dawson Peak, where they spent the next two nights. The storm brought gusts up to 100 miles an hour and eight inches of snowfall.

With the wind chill factor, temperatures reached about -40° on the mountain. England had brought along three matches and was able to get a fire started but the storm blew it out and wet the remaining matches. They threw gauze and paper money on the embers to reignite the fire and kept it burning the first night, but went without fire the second night. After 43 hours stranded, they were rescued by San Dimas Search and Rescue team on Sunday morning.

After some recovery time, England was permitted to go back to work. Despite her harrowing ordeal and some frostbite, she would not be deterred from getting back out there.

“I was back at my office, still recovering from frostbite injuries but I was able to go back to work and I was evaluating a new patient,” England said. “It turned out that he was with the San Dimas Search and Rescue team and he was actually on my rescue. It was just very interesting that there was a search and rescue team member in my office doing physical therapy. So I started asking him questions about what it entailed [being on the team] and what the requirements were and he got the ball rolling for me.”

England signed up to be a member of the SDSAR not long after her own rescue and was commuting from her home in Anaheim to be a part of it. When she and her husband moved to the Pasadena area in 2000, the commute became more difficult and five years ago, she joined the Montrose Search and Rescue team, where she is currently a member and training officer.

Many of her fellow MSAR team members came out for the anniversary hike, including Mike Leum, his son Hunter Leum, team captain Robert Sheedy and team lieutenant Doug Cramoline, as well as members of the Sierra Madre Search and Rescue team. Altogether, 28 people including McIntosh started out on the hike and about 15 hikers stayed through to the end, summiting Mt. Baldy after a three-hour hike. McIntosh made it to the top.

“We had a great day,” England said. “It was the anniversary of my hike 25 years ago and what made it really cool was that Ryan McIintosh, whom I had not stayed in touch with, the 11-year-old boy who was with me, showed up and it was a complete surprise to me. And he was just thinking he was going to hike part of it, you know 25 years have passed, but he ended up hiking to the top. It was just a really great day.”

On the way down the mountain, England said, the weather became eerily similar to the weather on the day that she  and McIntosh became stranded. Hail and gusts of wind estimated at 50-70 miles per hour followed the hikers back to their cars, but the end of this hike was very different.

“I’ve [hiked the mountain] enough times in the past 25 years,” England said. “I know that mountain so well because I’ve climbed it so many times, but what really touched me was having all my friends up there.”

  Charly Shelton, Cynthia ENGLAND