PORT ANGELES — Gunny is still startled by the wind.
The 18-month-old Labrador-Shepherd-Catahoula mix bolted from owner David Coon of Port Angeles on March 23, terrorized by a logged 250-foot cedar as it fell near a popular Sol Duc Hot Springs campground in Olympic National Park.
Gunny fled on ground still covered by snow into a forbidding forest that almost snatched away his life.
Eighty days later, on June 11, the canine straggled onto a Forks-area resident’s property 35 miles away and was reunited with Coon the following day, Coon said.
The tips of Gunny’s ears were frostbitten.
His skin gripped his ribs like wet paper.
Gunny is back up to about 75 pounds, Coon said Friday, 25 pounds more than when he emerged from the wilderness.
But the ordeal hasn’t left him.
“He hears the wind blow, and he’s always looking up,” Coon said.
“He’s scared of deer, and that’s what dogs chase.”
The day after Gunny was found following 80 days lost in the Olympic National Park and national forest.
Credit the rice-grain-size microchip injected between Gunny’s shoulder blades for bringing him home, Coon said.
The homeowners whose property Gunny found had brought the dog to Dr Pat’s Pet Care in Forks.
Dr. Patricia Dowell, the veterinary clinic’s owner, said the couple who found him did not know what they were going to do with Gunny. He might have ended up in a shelter, Dowell said last week.
“The owner had pretty much given up on him after three months not finding him,” she said.
“He would have assumed the dog died out there in the wilderness.”
Dowell estimated Gunny would have lasted one, maybe two more weeks at the most, continuing to eat garbage or whatever small animals he could catch.
“He was very thin,” Dowell said.
“There was nothing left.”
Coon, 41, a sprinkler inspector for Knight Fire Protection in Port Angeles, and a buddy, Seattle resident Jason Greene, 35, a military lawyer, were walking their dogs around noon March 23 at the hot springs, Coon and Greene said.
Greene was a lifeguard at Sol Duc when he was in the Coast Guard at Neah Bay around 2005.
They said there were no warning signs or caution tape that blocked off the area where the tree crashed to earth as they walked into Loop B of the campground.
“There were no signs on the marked public trail, on the marked public area,” Greene said.
They were visiting the campground on the first day of the season, when the area opened anew to the public, Coon said.
The friends, celebrating Greene passing his state bar exam, were walking on a trail between two campsites when they heard a chain saw start and what sounded like a hammer hitting solid wood. Coon said it was a logging wedge.
That’s when he saw the loggers, said Coon, a former Marine.
Gunny was on a leash, Coon holding him by the collar.
“It was too late,” Coon recalled.
The tree came down as Coon and Gunny ran.
“I was getting hit by debris when it was crashing through the trees,” Coon said.
“It landed with just a big boom, and [Gunny] just took off running through the woods.”
Greene saw the loggers in the distance.
“It became obvious they were cutting down trees,” he said.
Coon started “speed walking,” getting 20 or 25 feet in front of Greene.
“I was like, what are you doing? He was like, we better get out of here,” Greene said.
He didn’t realize the full extent of what was happening until Coon started screaming at him to run.
Greene scooped up his 12-year-old black Labrador, Popeye, and ran behind Coon.
“All of a sudden, there’s the sound of that tree falling,” Greene said.
“It was pretty exceptional, like you see on a cartoon or something, kind of the creaking of the tree, then friction on the base of the tree, then all of sudden, the sound of that monster … dragging down everything in its path.
“When this thing fell to the ground, shoot, I mean, the earth shook, it was tremendous.
“When you’ve never experienced that before, it is insane.
“When the tree hits the ground, the shock, the impact, the shock wave, the force on the ground that shakes the ground almost jolts you off the ground.”
Greene said he was 20 feet away from the fallen tree, and Coon, 40-50 feet away.
Both estimated the tree was about 250 feet tall.
One of the loggers came over to talk with them.
“He was almost more shook up about what happened than we were,” Greene recalled.
“He was almost crying.”
The impact of Gunny’s absence set in almost immediately.
They looked for Gunny until nightfall, in the rain. There was a ravine on one side and deep woods and a road on the other.
“He could have gone in any direction,” Greene said.
“It was all equally rigorous terrain.”
Coon estimated it was 35 miles in a straight line from Sol Duc to where Gunny emerged from the woods in the Forks area.
But 10 miles probably was added onto the walking distance by the zigzag, up-and-down route the dog likely had to take to survive, Greene said.
“Eleven and a half weeks, that’s a long time for a domesticated dog to be in the wilderness,” he said.
“There’s no forgiving path to Forks on foot.
“It’s just a heartwarming story for the dog that he had the grit and determination to survive that.”
Coon said Sol Duc Resort employees helped look for Gunny, to no avail.
Coon said he was told by the resort manager that the contract of company cutting the tree, hired by the management company Aramark, was supposed to end the day before the opening.
Park Superintendent Sarah Creachbaum said in a June 18 letter, a week after Gunny was found, that she was sorry to learn of the incident.
She said the resort is under the direct management of Philadelphia, Pa.-based Olympic Peninsula Hospitality LLC through a concession contract.
The resort is managed by Aramark Management Services, which also operates Log Cabin Resort in the park.
The concessionaire is responsible for removing trees identified as hazardous by the National Park Service, Creachbaum said.
“The concessionaire’s tree contractor was falling trees in Loop B of the campground, which was closed to the public; however, a tree landing close to your party on the trail between the two campgrounds,” she said.
“We will have the concessionaire review their safety procedures for hazardous tree removal to ensure that they are implemented with visitor safety as a priority.”
Park spokeswoman Penny Wagner said in a July 18 email that that park Concessions Management Specialist Trina Lapinsky is working with resort General Manager Jay Vincent to conduct that review.
She referred questions about the plan to Vincent, who did not answer an email or return calls for comment.
Wagner identified the company that cut down the tree that scared off Gunny as Olson’s Tree Service.
The company is not listed as being incorporated in the state of Washington, according to state Secretary of State’s Office records.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
