PORT ANGELES — Kayla McComb had started to lose hope that her boyfriend and their 22-month-old daughter would be found after two nights in the dense West End forest.
Less than 5 miles away, sleeping on the ground, Jared Egnew, protecting the little girl, had also begun to fret about his chances of finding his way to safety.
“I had started to wonder if we would ever find them,” McComb told the Peninsula Daily News in an interview Monday afternoon.
Egnew had taken the girl, Madison — Maddie for short — for a drive after she became fussy at their Lyre River Campground site about 11 a.m. Friday.
The Ford Taurus slid into some mud and became stuck on a forest road off East Twin Rivers Road.
So Jared began trekking back with Maddie to state Highway 112.
Meanwhile, an all-out search led by the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office — including a helicopter and search dogs — was launched Saturday and continued Sunday morning.
Egnew’s and Maddie’s disappearance, meanwhile, was reported by news media across Puget Sound and throughout the nation.
But all Egnew knew at the time was that he was lost.
Trail ends
“I saw some trails and I thought they all led back to the highway — but then the trail just ended,” Egnew said Monday, just one day after his rescue.
“I heard a creek, and I thought that the noise was the highway, so I started going down there.
“Then it started to get dark, and I knew we’d have to find a place to sleep.”
So using a cigarette lighter he had on hand to start a fire and giving his shirt to wrap Maddie up and keep her warm, he spent the night alternating between dozing and keeping an eye out for wild animals.
“I saw a few cougars, but they were mostly just keeping an eye on us,” he said.
“But there was a bear.
“I had to hit it right in the nose with a big stick to scare it away.”
Ultimately, life skills garnered from a childhood spent near woods came in handy, he said.
Through the brush
Feeding Maddie salmonberries and drinking river water out of an old plastic bottle he had on him, he carried her on his shoulders fighting his way through the brush.
“She has a lot of scratches from where the brush would snap back at her some, and I do, too,” he said.
“At first I thought, ‘I’ll go through hell and high water to get home, and it will be OK.’
“But then after the second night, I thought, ‘Now I have been through hell and high water and I’m still not there.’
“All I wanted was to get her home.”
Maddie seems tired after her days in the woods — alternating between wound up and cranky, McComb and Egnew said.
“We are going to the doctor as soon as possible to get both of us checked out,” Egnew said.
“We want to make sure that we don’t end up sick from drinking the river water.
“I’ve been feeling kind of feverish, and she is kind of congested, but we just want to make sure.”
Close — but so far
Egnew arrived close to the road several times without realizing it and was following the Lyre River, on which their tent was set up, for a while before abandoning that strategy.
“I was close the road, but I had no idea,” he said.
“I couldn’t hear a thing.
“I ended up doubling back because the trail was just too tough for Maddie.
“I had to find a safer way for her.”
Once the rescue helicopter soared overhead, he said.
“I was burning my shirt and some leaves, trying to get their attention,” he said. “But they couldn’t see me.
“That was really frustrating to me.”
McComb said she was worried and stressed, and slowly losing hope.
“They even ended up stopping the search on Saturday night,” she said.
“I think if they had sent up the thermal helicopters they would have found them.”
Finally after two nights in the woods, Egnew finally found his way to the highway and was picked up by a pair of Canadian tourists Sunday about 10:30 a.m.
The group called sheriff’s deputies, who picked up Egnew and Maddie and took them back to the campground.
“I’m so glad,” McComb said. “All I wanted was for my babies to come home.”
A group of local residents, including McComb’s father, Pat McComb, Todd Tjernell, Quinn Meyers, Tom Graves and Mike and Paula Lykman, took out four-wheelers and dirt bikes on the back roads to look for the father and daughter.
Mindie and Andy Hart, who were familiar with the area, also helped out in the search, McComb said.
“There was also a local guy from Joyce, who we don’t know his name, who was looking at maps and guessed the route that they would have taken — and he was right,” McComb said.
“We are really grateful to him.”
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
