RIP Scott...

I am sitting here in the quiet listening to the crickets, roosters, and lizards trying to makes sense of the last couple days.

As soon as i saw the vast mountain range I tried to mentally prepare myself for the steep climb ahead. we parked our motorcycles underneath the closest mango tree and tried to get ourselves situated. Scott moved my bike because he thought the way i parked it was not sufficient. I made a comment how I am used to letting guys think they are helping me out. :)

The climb was steep and i was complaining already about 15 minutes up. My ears popped and i had lost most of the energy i was hoping my bowl of oatmeal and mango would provide through the afternoon. We did stop several times to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the ocean and mountains behind us. Scott told us some story about elves helping out the locals. I only wish now I would have paid closer attention to what he was saying.

After about an hour we reached a house and about 30 minutes later reached the cave. It was a beautiful place a little ways off the trails. The giant spider webs suggested that nobody has been there, at least not for a long time. The tree leading to the cave was beautiful and hung over it as if it was protecting something. I assessed the area and began destroying cob webs as soon as i knew where i wanted to set down my bag. Scott and Lee began discussing the possibilities of what might be below.

We tied the rope to a nearby tree and lowered down a bag of supplies. By the time the bag reached the bottom we had run out of rope. So we knew that it was 150ft deep, 8ft wide, and about 20ft long. Scott insisted on being the first one down. He began testing the rope, deciding if it was going to be safe or not. A few moments later he said that he was kind of slipping and we decided not to go down. So he said, pull me up.. Lee began to pull the rope back up and Scott said he couldn't hang on.. and he let go. He fell from the top of the cave.

Lee yelled a couple times to see if Scott would respond and we heard nothing. He decided to go down and administer first aid. I took of running with my cell phone to find the nearby house we passed. nobody was around and i realized that i had just left before I knew if Lee had made it safely to the bottom. So i ran back to cave.

Lee had only made it safely to the bottom but fell about 30 ft onto his left side breaking his elbow. i took Harrison and we went to go get help. I was completely disoriented and took a few wrong turns. after an hour and a half i was able to get some cell phone service. realizing now I was about 2 miles from the cave.

I can not remember what was actually going through my mind until after i had reached someone to come and get help. The SWAT team arrived along with the fire department, mountaineering club, locals, and friends of ours to search the mountains. Nobody knew where the cave was and I didn't even know the name of the place we were at.

I found out later that the SWAT came in because the area we were trekking is a well known area for the NPA (new people's army... a terrorist group here). that also explains why there were no other houses or anyone living on that mountain.

After a couple hours of trying to direct the SWAT team, they made it to the cave and contacted me to let me know. I grabbed Harrison and we went back onto the trail and I tried to backtrack the same way we came... There was a group of people out yelling for us. The way the mountain range is laid out, the voices are very misleading. about four times it sounded like people's voices were so close and we were trying to follow where it was coming from, then we would loose them completely and not hear anything for a long time. But we were able to meet up with them on the path right before dark and get off the mountain. i had never been so relieved to see a group of Filipinos.

they were able to get Scott and Lee out of the cave. Lee is out of the hospital now and Scott's body is in Manila with the Australian Embassy getting ready to go back to his parent's home.

Scott is an amazing guy. He was only in the Philippines for 2 years but made a huge impact on the environmental causes in several towns as well as touched many lives. His memorial was held at a beach last night. The stories people told were really great to hear. I still can not really grasp the reality of the situation. But i know that God has had his hand in it. we were able to get off the mountain before dark.

I don't know how to end this... because it is still processing in my mind. I thought after writing this it would be better... but my head is still spinning.

i got all of our belongings from the police department yesterday and got the pictures off my camera today. but i think i will not post any of them.