Couple stranded 6 days on remote road
SALT LAKE CITY — A Texas couple who set out for a day trip to Lake Powell while on vacation in southern Utah ended up narrowly surviving six harrowing days stranded on a rocky, desolate dirt road that was impassable in their rental car, authorities said Friday.
Helena Byler, 78, was found lying on the road Oct. 2 by a rancher who happened to be checking on his cattle in the area of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Kane County Chief Deputy Alan Alldredge said. She was confused and severely dehydrated.
After spotting an SOS sign made out of rocks and flowers, search-and-rescue teams aboard a helicopter found her husband, Gerald Byler, 76, later that day in a nearby trailer he had taken shelter in. He was severely dehydrated and unable to move, but could speak with rescuers.
The couple from Houston might not have survived one more day in the remote area with no cellphone coverage and where it’s normal to go a full week without any cars using the road, Alldredge said. They had hardly any food or water, drinking only from puddles that formed in the ground after rains.
Helena Byler of Houston, Texas, said Friday that she sensed they were on the wrong road, but that her husband insisted on continuing.
“I told Gerry: ‘Sweetheart, this doesn’t sound right.’ And he said, ‘No it’s OK.’ ... He wanted to continue. See, us women know better,” she said, chuckling.
She said that after popping a tire in their rental car and getting stuck, they realized their GPS app was leading them to Lake Powell trail, not the lake.
They started walking back on the road and spent the first night in the open as it rained and lightning struck nearby.
The next morning, Gerald Byler couldn’t go on, his leg hurting too much, so she set out to get help.
“We had to do something about it, so when the GPS said 16 miles, I said: ‘I can do 16 miles,’ ” Helena Byler said. “I guessed I would do what I saw on the History Channel: drinking your own urine.”
Helena Byler kept walking to get help, but she didn’t see anyone until five days later when the rancher found her.
Gerald Byler said there was no heat or water in the trailer, but that he was protected from the wind.