Epic Lightning Strike Recovery Fund

Back on June 27th, there were 9 members of our group (Arizona Epic Adventures & Backpacking )out on a backpacking trip up on the Mogollon Rim in Arizona's Tonto National Forest. The group of people were amazing and everyone was getting along just fine. The hike was ibcredible and it was a gorgeous day...it simply could not have been any better.

...until about 8 miles in, where everything changed in an instant. 5 members of the group were struck by lightning. There was one fatality (Christine Garcia). And there was one air-rescued in critical condition to Flagstaff Medical Center, which was myself,  (Corey Melker). The news story can be found here . The follow-up story in which I was interviewed about the experience can be found here .



The photo shows Christine Garcia on our trip to the Pecos Wilderness just outside of Santa Fe New Mexico about 2 months ago...

I am running this fundraiser to do a couple of things. 1 - I want to create a physical memorial to Christine Garcia near the location. 2 - I want to support the effected members of our group with unpaid medical costs. This is an additional fundraiser and is NOT connected with Christine Garcia's Scholarship Fund.

The first thing I want to do is to create a permanent memorial to Christine Garcia at (or very near the site where this happened). We are going to do this legit...I am thinking one of those concrete or stone benches you see at some parks and such, right off of the trail with her name on it.

I have already spoken with Christine's family and have permission to try and do this memorial on her behalf. As far as forest service/USDA permission, that is going to be a process in and of itself. Luckily, we have someone on the inside of the Forest Service in the group who is going to look into getting something like this going. 

I am expecting the approximate costs for this memorial to run in the $1000 range. 

The second reason I want to setup this fundraiser is to help members of the group whom were directly affected by this event. What I am thinking here is mainly medical costs. I want to do my part to try and take care of the group as much as I can. While many in the group may not have gotten it as bad as I have, they are still members of the group.

Personally, I have already incurred over $7,000 in out-of-pocket expenses for my treatments to date (7/25/15)- and that is with my insurance coverage in place. So with that, I would be lying if I said I wasn't looking for help myself in this realm.

Myself aside, there were other group members who went to the hospital for treatments. In addition, there are also some members that are still going to doctors and specialists for ongoing treatments. Even with insurance, I'm sure they could use a hand!

I mean the copay on the helicopter ride is probably going to be pretty costly. I am currently seeing several specialists and racking up what I'm sure are thousands of dollars in uncovered medical costs. And that is just me...think of the costs of the other impacted members!

Please help!

See the full-story below...
Hi there. I'm Corey...also known as Poochie in some circles. Well, in my backpacking circles at least - you could say it's my trail name. Anyways, I am the founder and organizer of Arizona Epic Adventures & Backpacking  - a meetup group with 600+ members. 

I love the wild and all things it contains...especially backpacking. It is truly my passion. I run the meetup group because I love bringing other people out into the wild. I truly enjoy sharing experience with others. And most importantly, I love watching people connect with the land.

Anyways...
After work on Friday, June 26th, 9 of us got together in the valley and set out for a relatively routine Arizona hike up on the Mogollon Rim. We were hiking the East Cabin Loop, or the East section of Arizona's Cabin Loop Trail System - an overview of the cabin loop can be seen here . A full topo-map of our planned backpacking trip can actually be found here .

After some basic car-camping on Friday night off of FR95, we made the short drive to the trail-head and began to head-out. I was excited to be on this hike. It was a great day and I had done this exact trip 3 times prior.

Saturday in the Tonto national forest, the weather was perfect...absolutely perfect. Noticing all of the sun in the beginning, we all knew we would need our sun-block. So before hitting the trail, we each applied what we had as far as sun-screen goes, and head-out. The breeze was light, the temperature a bit warm, and the sun was plentiful...even there in the forest. We stopped to rest frequently to make sure everyone was doing ok with the elevation and all. We continued on...

Right under the 6 mile mark, we came to the first cabin, more specifically, the ruins of the first cabin - Dane Cabin. Here we rested and had lunch. Before we hit the trail again, we made sure that we had all watered-up at the spring flowing right there. This spring is really neat. It is actually tapped with a metal pipe that goes straight to the source. Although you could get away with drinking this as-is, I would take the time to still treat the water before drinking. 
The sky was still crystal clear...crystal. The weather and company were so enjoyable that over the next couple miles, we didn't even realize that a storm had built right on top of us.

The clouds were dark and there was thunder...however the thunder seemed at least a few miles away and there was no notice of lightning in the area. Once the clouds opened up and the rain really started to come down, we decided to hunker-down and wait out the storm. 

We put on our rain jackets, pack-covers, etc...we were ready for the rain - no big deal. The rain came and came but we expected the storm to be over in just a couple minutes...after all, we could see the clear blue sky right behind the storm. 

There we waited...at approximately (34.44472 -111.152121) we waited for the storm to pass. A couple more minutes into the rain, we heard some thunder that was pretty close...I'm thinking within the range of a half-mile or so. 

I remember then standing and saying something to one of the group members. The next thing I knew I was on the ground convulsing and seizing with mucus filling my chest.

Once that lightning struck, it was chaos. Two girls from the group who were uninjured went to run and look for help. Miraculously they came upon a campsite with a car, unlocked car-doors, and keys on the seats. In order to save a life the girls borrowed the car and brought it back to the site.

Unfortunately, Christine was already gone...she died instantly. A couple of the less-injured group-members were helping and trying to get control of the scene. With there being no cell reception, we road in the borrowed car to the edge of the Mogollon rim where we had plenty of service. 

After a few members of the group were able to contact 911, the rescuers had our location and knew exactly where we were. Now, it was just going to take time to get help.

There was a lot of activity in those couple of hours of waiting...in fact I did think I was genuinely going to die on at least 3 different occasions, and I was STILL seizing all the way through the chopper ride to Flagstaff Medical Center and an hour later. 



DPS Officer coming to save my life...

***Remember to look at Christine's Scholarship Fund! http://www.youcaring.com/christine-garcia-389510