No rescue required
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Here’s the second story in the last few years about being lost on Sumas Mt. – the latest one in The News, Oct. 15.
After realizing they were lost, they called the police, who dispatched a search and rescue team that located the two men and brought them down.
In the early 1930s, seven 13- and 14-year-old boys plus one adult headed up Sumas Mt. from Matsqui to (Lost) Chadsey Lake on the Easter weekend. When we arrived at the lake it was frozen, so we walked over to the island. Here we made a camp fire by the log cabin that was built during the 1920s.
While we were finishing our lunch it started to snow, so we decided it was time to head down the mountain.
All of a sudden we realized we had made a wrong turn, because we ended up looking down on Sumas Prairie, so we had to backtrack to try and find the way down to the Matsqui side of the mountain. Most of us weren’t dressed for this kind of weather – especially our shoes weren’t much protection from the snow.
But we trudged on as it was getting dark. Suddenly we saw a light in a window. It was Joe Smith’s home at the foot of Sumas Mt. When we got closer to Page Road, we saw a group of people. It was our families organizing a search party for us. Oh, the greeting we received was just awesome.
Here we made it down without cellphones, police, or search and rescue. Also, Sumas Mt. wasn’t so crowded, with fewer homes, roads, etc. over 75 years ago.
We didn’t even make the Abbotsford, Sumas and Matsqui News at that time about our harrowing experience on Sumas Mt. that day.
Ernie Poignant
v2
