Morgan O'Hanlon 00:00

You're listening to Season Two of Better Outside, a Texas Parks and Wildlife production. This season of Better Outside is brought to you by Minn Kota and Hummingbird. Humminbird delivers intuitive fish finders that give you a clear, detailed view of what's below, so you spend less time managing technology and more time fishing. I'm your host Morgan O'Hanlon,

David Yoskowitz 00:22

and I'm David Yaskowitz, Executive Director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Morgan O'Hanlon 00:26

In this episode, we head out to West Texas, where we'll get lost and found with Texas game wardens. Stick around, because we'll be right back after this break. Season two of Better Outside is brought to you by Minn Kota, built to fish, and Hummingbird, making every cast count simply clearly better. When you pair the Humminbird fish finder with a Minn Kota trolling motor, you'll have the brains and brawn to dominate the water. Some people have their local Texas game warden on speed dial, others may know them from the Animal Planet show Lone Star Law, but David, for anyone who isn't already familiar with the Texas Game Wardens, can you tell me who they are?

David Yoskowitz 01:10

Well, game wardens are first and foremost our state's conservation law enforcement entity. They are charged with protecting and conserving the state's natural resources, our public trust resources, which we all enjoy, whether we're hunting or fishing, we're going outdoors to bird watch, or we're getting on the waters to do a day's worth of canoeing or kayaking, they're there for our safety, they're there to protect our natural resources. Secondly, they're state police. They are available as needed and called upon to do a number of different things outside of conserving our natural resources and protecting our natural resources. Part of the work that they do is search and rescue, and when the time comes, and they're called up, they're there, usually first on the scene. Off pavement is where they do their best work, and unfortunately, we've seen that all too often, whether it be on our state lakes or inland waters, or as in the july 4 floods from last year.

Morgan O'Hanlon 02:16

Well, in that first aspect of their job, I've gotten the pleasure of getting to see game wardens in action all across the state, working our state waterways, patrolling for any sorts of animal infractions, things along those lines, but the second aspect of their job, the search and rescue aspect, is something I just recently got to experience in January when we were out in Big Bend Ranch State Park, looking for a lost hiker, so to speak. Now, they weren't actually missing. This was a volunteer who ventured out into the desert. Yeah, thankfully, nothing about this was real, except for the striking abilities of our game wardens and state park police, who were out there on the desert. And that's where I'm taking you today. We're going to go out there and watch them in action and see what this process of search and rescue operation is all about.

David Yoskowitz 03:09

Well, Morgan, let's do it. Let's go outside.

Morgan O'Hanlon 03:11

Let's do it outside.

Speaker 1 03:42

Staple in a dog, make some noise, my dog can find you.

Morgan O'Hanlon 03:46

Earlier this year, I went out to West Texas to help Gay Morden search the desert for a lost hiker.

Speaker 2 03:52

Hey Kenny, I got signed back on here.

Morgan O'Hanlon 03:56

Don't worry, it was just a training.

Speaker 3 03:58

Yeah, that's not old at all. Maybe two days, we haven't had any rain. To

Morgan O'Hanlon 04:04

lay out the scenario, I talked to Bo Hancock, the mastermind behind this training exercise.

Speaker 4 04:09

I'm Bo Hancock. I'm a Texas game warden captain out of the Big Bend area in Texas. My district encompasses four counties that are in the top 10 geographically in the state of Texas, it's about 17,000 square miles of coverage. Historically, we average three to four search and rescues a year, primarily out of Big Ben Ranch State Park. It's 318,000 acres. You can fit every state park in the state of Texas within it, so it's a lot of country. It's nasty country,

Speaker 3 04:40

busy search, and I have zero use for these trees

Morgan O'Hanlon 04:44

out in the field. Game wardens have to contend with sharp cactus and spiny bramble.

Speaker 3 04:50

That thing just got me right in the lip.

Speaker 4 04:52

So we're preparing this week to conduct a search and rescue training exercise. The intent behind this is putting a real loss. Person into play in some way, shape, or form, being able to control that aspect in terms of safety. The results from this could save somebody's life.

Morgan O'Hanlon 05:09

This is the second time Beau has organized a training like this, and it's on a larger scale than the first.

Speaker 4 05:15

This time around, you know, I spent a year looking for the right person to do it. It takes a volunteer. The reality is somebody wants to go spend a night camping and to play hide and seek and get found, but what my ask was was four or five nights by yourself, self-sustaining. I instantly thought of Terry,

Morgan O'Hanlon 05:35

that's Terry Wade, she, her husband Casey, and their children live in Marfa.

Speaker 4 05:41

Terry and her husband and her family, they've been friends of ours, you know, for 10 years out here, so I know her experience. Terry's in her 40s, she's a very capable hiker. I know she goes backpacking, she's done a lot of through hiking. My wife and daughters have gone with her and other ladies on trips where they hike in all their water for three or four days, so I knew she was capable.

Morgan O'Hanlon 06:02

Here's Terry.

Speaker 5 06:04

I'm Terry Wade. I have been hiking my whole life, probably something I learned to love from my dad. I'm from Washington State, so hiked at Mount Rainier and on the coast. I've hiked down at Big Bend

Morgan O'Hanlon 06:18

together. Bo and Terry hatched a plan based off the book Lost Person Behavior, it serves as a textbook for search and rescue professionals and is based off real and possible scenarios,

Speaker 4 06:29

different geography, different age groups, different experience, different weather determines based off those instances what a person, a lost person, is likely to do. When we're dividing and devising our game plan, we're taking what we know about a person and all the information that we have, and we're coming up with a plan based off of that. Who are they? What have they done? What would they normally do? You know, someone who is elderly, you know, might not go as far. Someone who is sick and inexperienced might not go as far or stay on trail. Someone with Terry's experience is more likely than not to stay on trail or be drawn to attractive, you know, geography, like something that's worth exploring. I didn't want her to create a character that I didn't know, and then for us to then base our search off of, you know, what I do know about her. So we'd be searching over here, thinking, well, Terry would do this, and then she's climbing mountains, that's out of character for her. So I told her, you know, study this book, think about what you would actually do, find a reason within that that you can't get out, right? More likely than not, for her, it would be injury, maybe she got sick, maybe she got dehydrated, fell victim to the elements.

Morgan O'Hanlon 07:36

Here's what Terry came up with,

Speaker 5 07:38

so yeah, Bo gave me the book just to kind of try to identify with maybe someone. It was kind of hard for me to identify with someone getting lost, because I've grown up outdoors. I've never been lost outdoors, and so I chose to identify with someone who got injured and just couldn't get out. Basically, just a woman who went out for a hike, and I don't know, broke her leg or something, and just was so seriously injured that she couldn't, couldn't get out.

Morgan O'Hanlon 08:16

And here's how that scenario has played out so far. The

Speaker 4 08:20

initial call came in on Monday, so Terry and her husband had been camping in Big Ben. They were there Saturday night together. They had brought two vehicles on Sunday morning. Terry decided she wanted to stay and do some more exploring and spend one more night there at the campsite. Casey had to go back to work, so he left Sunday evening. She was going to be back Monday to pick up their son at school while he was at work, except for she did not show up, and so ultimately that's it. That's all the information that we have. Nobody but her knows where she, where she is. She doesn't have a cell phone. I don't know how much water she has. I don't know what she has in terms of protection, whether she has a tent or a way to sleep out in the wild, and we don't have a way to get a hold of her, so we've got to figure all that out. A

Morgan O'Hanlon 09:05

lost or missing person scenario always starts with a call or report. In this case, park staff got a call from Terry's husband on Monday. After they get that call, the first step is to gather important information that'll help search and rescue later on.

Speaker 4 09:19

Who is it? What's their name? All the normal stuff that might be found on a driver's license. What's their experience level? What kind of shoes did they have? You know, so on and so forth. At that point, they make a determination on, we should probably do a hasty search. Right? Let's find out where their vehicle is, find out where their campsite is. Are they lost? Are they late? Are they at the trailhead, and they don't have cell service. Let's go see if they're there.

Morgan O'Hanlon 09:41

If they don't find the missing person during that hasty search, other search and rescue officials start to get involved by day two. Between 10 and 20 people, mostly game wardens and local law enforcement, will have arrived on scene,

Speaker 4 09:54

and we're going to expand upon on the second day that initial hasty search of this is the trail. We believe, so let's bump out a little bit time and search the surrounding trails or the surrounding areas. Now, if at that point we still have not found the person you know, while my guys and gals are searching, I'm communicating with leadership about other resources and other possibilities, whether that's our aircraft, more drone pilots, more canine, more boots on the ground, you know, and then it just kind of evolves until you have everybody here, which is hopefully what you don't get to.

Morgan O'Hanlon 10:27

Ideally, there would be multiple search teams composed of several skilled search and rescue professionals amongst the game wardens. Several special teams have skills that make them especially valuable to the search and rescue effort. Canine handlers use dogs as tools to help them track people, animals, and substances. Members of the rural operations group have tactical training used to help serve warrants and track suspects on the run. The Warden Search and Rescue Team focuses on swift water rescues, but their tracking skills have made them increasingly in demand for land rescues as well. On Thursday, day four of the lost person scenario, I head to park headquarters at Big Ben Ranch to watch the training in action. My team includes two game wardens, canine handler Royce Ilse and Cody Hicks, and park interpreter Omar Uddav, but to reach a remote search area, we first board a helicopter piloted by Robert Mitchell, one of the game warden's five pilots,

Speaker 2 11:22

when he gives us the thumbs up, just take you and your backpack, come over to the side, and go straight in from the side, just keep your head kind of low, watch your tap. Hey, Scan the hip. The

Morgan O'Hanlon 11:32

helicopter drops us off near a road close to the northern border of the park. There, Royce briefs us on the search.

Speaker 2 11:39

So, basically, as we're going, just try not to get ahead of us.

Morgan O'Hanlon 11:43

We'll walk behind Royce and his canine, Izzy, so that we don't disturb any tracks or scent trails.

Speaker 2 11:49

Really, just as good for us to stay kind of down in the creek along the edges together and let her push out in front. You see something like, "Hey, I think we need to go search this, let's go search it together. Questions, concerns, all good, cool. Let's rock.

Morgan O'Hanlon 12:06

As we walk, a drone hovers above head.

Speaker 2 12:10

Gonna push down this over to those caves on the other side,

Speaker 3 12:13

big caves, long case.

Morgan O'Hanlon 12:17

That's Game Warden Cody Hicks. He's based out of Presidio County, and is a skilled tracker.

Speaker 3 12:22

If she needed shelter, that's a good overhang. It's deep, it goes back in there. If I was in a tight spot, that'd be where I'd want to go. If I could make it to it, maybe we get lucky. Maybe she's taking a nap in there. We

Morgan O'Hanlon 12:37

start heading toward the caves. He pointed out,

Speaker 2 12:40

man, there's a lot. There's different sign up here.

Speaker 3 12:44

These are these are fresh, like they look just like Izzy's going up in there in terms of depth and everything else.

Speaker 6 12:51

Izzy, hew hew, sit.

Speaker 2 12:55

So I'm just deploying her for an article search, because if she was in here touching rocks or anything like that, she should pick it off. There's a footprint right here. Only thing I'm worried about with that one is that eight, I had no way to age it, but it does go this way, so we'll just keep going up that way.

Morgan O'Hanlon 13:14

We found signs that someone was here, but we can't say for certain if it's Terry, our missing hiker. Our only option is to keep heading down the creek bed.

Speaker 2 13:22

Sucky time of day to try to track

Morgan O'Hanlon 13:25

the sun overhead makes it difficult to discern tracks in the sandy creek bed. Even so, Royce's sharp eye picks something out.

Speaker 2 13:32

Look at this, Cody. I've been seeing nothing but animal sign. Can't tell this two animals are a heel. It looks like a heel.

Speaker 7 13:39

Looks like a heel.

Speaker 2 13:40

Hey Morgan, step next to that way. You see that footprint right there. Try to drop the edge of your heel on the front of that line, right next to that one,

Speaker 6 13:49

like

Morgan O'Hanlon 13:50

here.

Speaker 2 13:50

Yeah, put your heel like right there. Pretty good size,

Speaker 3 13:54

male, female, is it bigger than hers?

Speaker 2 13:56

No, about this, about the same. I'm pretty darn close. They're gonna mark it on my GPS,

Morgan O'Hanlon 14:02

but as we continue down the creek bed, we lose the tracks again.

Speaker 2 14:06

I got nothing here. You check that track trap right down there. A

Morgan O'Hanlon 14:10

track trap is an area of soft soil or sand where footprints make clear impressions on the earth.

Speaker 3 14:15

Yeah, we can, we can bend around there. Nothing here, bunch of sign, but if we found a logo, that'd be awesome.

Morgan O'Hanlon 14:23

Cody checks the logos on the soles of our shoes to rule out our footprints.

Speaker 3 14:27

You vibrant souls, there's a little logo right in the middle. Me with three lines on the very back, Royce squares on the back, squares on the toe,

Morgan O'Hanlon 14:42

we walk for a few more miles before we come across more tracks. The

Speaker 3 14:46

ridges on that sole are still pretty high. Left foot, there's the inner part of the arch rounded on the front part of the toe, headed this way.

Speaker 8 14:57

See if that's the same one. Yeah, same. One,

Speaker 3 15:01

it's got this diamond right here, that's the kind of unique feature in the back, in the heel, it's got kind of an oblique diamond off to the to the side.

Morgan O'Hanlon 15:09

The tracks veer off into a side trail. Nearly all the desert plants have long, sharp thorns that snag our clothes and dig into our skin.

Speaker 3 15:17

I think every time I breathe, something else on my clothing caught that stupid plan. I would not make my way through here if I was a lost or injured hiker. That's not happening.

Morgan O'Hanlon 15:27

Not far down the side trail, we lose the tracks yet again.

Speaker 2 15:31

You got anything going up that side, Cody? Up that little trail on the left? I mean, like foot sign. I don't have anything good over here? Hey Matt, we are pushing back down into the creek. Think our logic is leaning towards she's going to go downhill and stay in the creek. We don't have sign going up the trail anymore, and so we're going to go back down here and see what we can pick back up.

Morgan O'Hanlon 15:59

So far we've walked about five miles. It's past 2pm The sun is high in the sky, and time is running out. The search training will be called off at four.

Speaker 3 16:08

So, this should wind its way all the way up to Ternaros Creek, and it opens up pretty good there. And then Toneris Creek starts to run east-west.

Morgan O'Hanlon 16:17

Just as we begin to reassess, Roy sees brush-looking tracks.

Speaker 2 16:22

Hold on, she turned right here, here, here.

Speaker 3 16:29

Hey, Royce, here we are. I just got a few right here coming in, and that's the diamond pattern this way, right foot, left foot, right foot.

Speaker 2 16:40

Good up here, Cody. Moving on, sign busy, cinch man. Signs looking good. That's pretty damp right there.

Speaker 7 17:00

Hey, Roy, she got me on 510

Speaker 2 17:02

floor.

Speaker 9 17:03

Give me a status update on what you know of this area.

Speaker 2 17:07

Yeah, so from my current location, we got a single small footprint that's say less than 48 hours headed north and is pretty much staying in this draw as of right now, the last good ways Izzy just started working it about a half mile, three quarter mile back, like there's actually odor here. So I'm gonna keep following her and let her work it out. Let me look at the map.

Speaker 3 17:35

That junction up there should be to narrow

Speaker 2 17:45

I still got the print up here. Track it up, good girl. Track track, Izzy. Drag it up.

Morgan O'Hanlon 17:59

Izzy starts to pick up speed, and she's searching more intensely than before.

Speaker 2 18:03

Oh, hey, look at here,

Morgan O'Hanlon 18:06

Royce can tell she's onto something. Yeah, she

Speaker 2 18:10

caught it over there, and then came straight over here. Now she's just trying to figure out how to get up to it.

Speaker 3 18:16

So she picked up speed when she went across, and oh, there's another creek going up there, keep, keep going around this bend. There's two trees on the left, and then there's like a little creek cut out going up there. Maybe that's where it's at.

Speaker 2 18:32

Hey Matt, you copy?

Speaker 7 18:33

Yeah,

Speaker 2 18:34

Dizzy's really starting to work the track, so maybe it's getting fresher.

Speaker 7 18:38

Also, a water source, probably time I'm not calling you about now on the left.

Speaker 2 18:43

Yeah, hey, drone, get to me if you can. Poacher one, come to my location, search it up.

Speaker 7 18:53

We're looking for it.

Morgan O'Hanlon 18:56

Izzy's running now, and we're jogging. Keep up. Finally, we see a woman standing under cottonwood trees in the creek bed.

Speaker 2 19:04

She's Adam. She's at her.

Speaker 7 19:06

Need a priority instruction. We've got Callie on walk big though. They're gonna be just up the creek bed around the fence, probably underneath the trees

Speaker 2 19:15

of their barking at her girl search, I Yes,

Speaker 10 19:27

good girl.

Speaker 2 19:30

What a good girl. All right, can I got her. We're good. How are you? How are you? I'm

Speaker 9 19:39

good,

Speaker 2 19:40

Royce. Nice to meet you.

Morgan O'Hanlon 19:50

When we come back from the break, we'll hear from Terry, our training scenarios lost person, and get her perspective from the other side, that and more after a word from our sponsor. Motors Minkota trolling motors are built to deliver dependability for bay boats and skiffs season after season, so you can own your spot and stay locked in to the moments that matter. For over 40 years, Hummingbird has operated with one goal in mind: create difference-making days for anglers out on the water, day after day, year after year. They've done just that. It's no wonder they've become America's favorite fish finder. When you pair the hummingbird fish finder with a Minn Kota trolling motor, you'll have the brains and broad to dominate the water, you I hardly had time to chat with Terry out in West Texas. Just a minute or two after we found her, there was a helicopter ready to whisk her away to safety, just like what would have happened in a real search and rescue scenario. So, after I drove back to Austin, I called Terry to hear about her time out in Big Bend.

Speaker 5 21:03

Hello,

Morgan O'Hanlon 21:03

hey Terry, how are you doing?

Speaker 5 21:05

Hi, I'm good. How are you?

Morgan O'Hanlon 21:06

Good, can you hear me? Okay,

Speaker 5 21:08

yeah.

Morgan O'Hanlon 21:09

So can you kind of walk me through the day by day, basically from the time you were out there with your husband to kind of the time when we came and found you,

Speaker 5 21:19

Casey, my husband. He and I went down Saturday to kind of help me get an idea of like where I wanted to go, most of the time at Big Ben Ranch I've stuck to the trails, he went with me to kind of just help me get an idea, and so we did about five miles on Saturday, it was slow going, I think we guessed that I would be moving about a mile an hour going across country with a heavy pack. Bo had asked me to not move the whole time, he wanted me to get where I was going on Monday and then stay put, like by sunrise Tuesday morning, to not be moving, so I intentionally got as far as I could Monday, which was the most exciting day, because I was moving all day. Monday morning I headed from La Motha to where I was parked, where I was camped. I kind of crossed on the south side of La Motha, the big mountain and cut down to Leyva Creek, like I really wanted to get all the way up to Teneros, for some reason that was just a big goal I had in my mind.

Morgan O'Hanlon 22:32

As far as where you ended up, why do you think that would have been an attractive spot for a missing person to kind of set up camp?

Speaker 5 22:39

It was soft. I was under some cottonwoods, out of the thorns. I don't know, it just felt like kind of a softer place to land, maybe. I mean, I was walking around barefoot, so for Big Ben Ranch to feel safe enough to walk around barefoot, it seemed like a pretty soft place.

Morgan O'Hanlon 23:00

Are there any other takeaways you had from this, this exercise, or anything else you think I might want to know?

Speaker 5 23:06

I loved being a part of this. It was just really cool watching the way everybody worked and seeing the dogs at work, even though I knew it was practice. I just kind of got caught up in the moment, and I don't know, it's just really cool to be a part. I think if I were actually lost or injured out there, I would want those guys down there looking for me.

Morgan O'Hanlon 23:36

David, have you ever been lost in the swamp, the woods, or the desert,

David Yoskowitz 23:42

not of my own free will. As a young boy scout, we were purposely lost and charged with trying to find our way back, and luckily that was successful.

Morgan O'Hanlon 23:54

And what have you learned from those experiences as a boy scout? How do you prevent getting lost beyond saving. How do you find your way out of those scenarios?

David Yoskowitz 24:06

Yeah, it's preparation, it's experience. If you're going to go on a one day trip, a half a day trip, a multi day trip, you know, one of the important things is that you let somebody know, hey, I'm going out on the lake today, I'm going on a short backpacking trip for three days, so that's important, that somebody knows where you're going. Another thing is knowing you know the weather, making sure you're prepared with all the right food that you need to have, with all the equipment that you need to have, you know, as you go and you get more experience, you get a little bit more confident, but that doesn't mean you should get any, be any less prepared.

Morgan O'Hanlon 24:44

And fortunately, in those worst-case scenarios, where you're not able to find your way out of the wilderness alone, we certainly have a number of skilled search and rescue professionals here in the state of Texas, don't we?

David Yoskowitz 24:56

That's right. I mean, as we just heard in this podcast earlier on. That Texas game wardens are a big part of that search and rescue capability here in the state,

Morgan O'Hanlon 25:05

and there are definitely a large roster of organizations, federal, nonprofit, state, that can help in these scenarios in any search and rescue operation. Why do you think the Texas game wardens, in particular, can play a pivotal role in these lost person cases.

David Yoskowitz 25:25

Yeah, that's exactly right, Morgan. I mean, we have a lot of local entities, state entities that can bring resources to bear for search and rescue. Game wardens play a really critical part in that full package of ability to do search and rescue, and that is that we are game wardens, are comfortable working off the pavement, that's where they do their work really every day, and so to be out in the back country looking for somebody to be on the water looking for somebody that that is where they're comfortable with, and you know governmental entities and individuals, they look to us because of that experience,

Morgan O'Hanlon 26:02

and we're recording this in 2026 There's a lot of things changing in Texas right now. Our population is getting bigger amidst all of this change. Is there a growing need for search and rescue in these times?

David Yoskowitz 26:16

Yeah, there's just as you said, you know, there's there's more people in Texas now, there's more people coming to visit Texas. They want to get outdoors, which is a great thing. We want them to get outdoors. We want them to be prepared as they get outdoors. Sometimes people find themselves in conditions, even though they prepared, that they hadn't foreseen that they need help. Some people haven't done the preparation, and they need help. And our Texas game wardens, along with local city, county, and other state entities, are there to be the search and rescue that sometimes happens.

Morgan O'Hanlon 26:50

Perfect. Well, I certainly would be happy to have them out if I were ever lost in the woods. They handled the whole operation really sharply, and it was really incredible to see them in action.

David Yoskowitz 27:02

Yeah, they are top notch, the best in the country. No doubt,

Morgan O'Hanlon 27:20

you've been listening to Season Two of Better Outside, a Texas Parks and Wildlife production. This season is brought to you by Min Kota and Hummingbird. This episode was written and recorded by me, Morgan O'Hanlon. Story edited by Wes Ferguson and Aislin Gaddis for Free Range Productions. Audio production and sound design by Austin Sisler at Eastside Studios in Austin, Texas. Our theme song was written and recorded by Walker Lukens and Grant Edley. Artwork for the show is by Aaron Zachary. You can find Better Outside on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or head to Better outside.com where you can find show notes, photos, more great stories from the Texas outdoors. If you like better outside, you can find more work by me and other outdoors writers at TPW magazine.com that's Texas Polecat waco.com And you can support us by subscribing to the magazine for only $2 a month. That's all for this episode, see y'all next time, and thanks for joining us outside.

28:24

Bye.