In Ron's write-up about the evening of May 21, he posed questions he didn't answer - how did Tara and Matt happen to be at Lake McConaughy? Who were the couple who knew how to get near the river before it became the lake? This should help explain:
The “Ron”ocerous Hunt
Tammy Hansen Snell
Monday morning, May 21, my friend Tara Naughtin called, wondering if there would be a good time for our families to get together. I told her I was headed to Lake McConaughy that night to locate a place to get Ron in out of the weather, and that I’d love the company.
Since Tara is a meteorologist, there was no need to tell her the forecast was calling for storms. The early days of our friendship – nine years ago – had been spent with her teaching me bits of the science she knows so well.
“We’ll come on up and visit with you,” she said, “and if we get a chance to see Ron, that will be great.”
For the rest of my life I will be grateful that the Naughtin Six came to McConaughy that night, and for what was made possible because they did “see Ron.”
Staff at North Shore Lodge left a key in Cabin 11 for me, and I drove toward the northwest end of the lake to look for places where I could get down to the river. In some places my cell phone had full signal, and in other places zero. I hoped that when Ron finally got into an area with cell phone service I would happen to be in one, too.
Bob Roche at Samuelson’s sold me a park sticker and gave me a map of the outline of the lake. Ron and I stayed at Samuelson’s when our walk took us past the lake two years ago, and if I had a better memory for names I’d have called them to check on reservations for that night. I told Bob about Ron’s current fundraising effort and said I was looking for a good place to meet up with him and get him off the river.
Bob pointed out a few locations on the map, and said, “The point at Otter Creek is the last place before he gets out on what is now the lake proper – make sure you get him off before he gets out in the lake.” He talked about how bad the waves would be with the current wind, and said it was important to get to him soon.
Bob said I’d have a great view of the river to the east and the west if I drove up on Cedar Vue. He was right. A long section of the North Platte was easily seen from the high vantage point. Not satisfied with what I could see from the car, I climbed a bluff, shrieking when a young rattlesnake zipped sideways from where I was about to plant my foot. Periodic gusts of wind blew sand against my legs and face. I searched the expanse of water I could see, but saw no sign of Ron or the Plattepus I. Occasional spatters of rain fell. I drove down a dry boat ramp and followed a few trails to where they ended in tall brush, then went back to the top of Cedar Vue.
Even if I did see Ron from up here, I thought, and managed to get his attention, I still had no idea how to get close enough to the river to pick him up without a hundred meters’ walk through a swamp. I drove to Otter Creek to check the roads there, and met up with Tara and Matt and their kids. Dominic, Bonnie, Maverick and Glory hadn’t planned on spending their evening at the lake strapped in their van, but they were their usual cheerful, adorable selves.
Tara and Matt’s crew went on to Cedar Vue to keep watching for Ron, and I went on to Spring Creek, wondering if Ron had already gotten onto the lake and was working his way around the north edge. I pulled up onto a rise and flashed my lights for a while. The clouds were getting darker, the wind was getting stronger, and my worry was now a creature big enough to need its own seatbelt.
Up on Cedar Vue, Tara was explaining to the kids that the reason plans had changed was because they were helping search for Ron. “Like a safari?” Bonnie asked. “Yes,” Tara said, “We’re on a Ronocerous hunt.”
After a couple discouraging phone calls in which I was told it simply wasn’t possible to get to the river, I called Samuelson’s to ask if they knew of anyone who was familiar with roads or trails to the river’s edge. Maybe a local guide? Cheryl recommended calling Jake and Kyna Latendresse at Al and Dee’s/JK Outdoors.
Early in my conversation with Kyna (pronounced CANE-ah) another call came in – from Tara and Matt.
“We have a visual!” They’d seen Ron’s yellow rain jacket maybe a mile or so east of Cedar Vue, which would put him in Otter Creek territory. This was good news – he wasn’t out in the lake.
But he soon would be.
I went back to the call with Kyna, and she said there was a road at Otter Creek that went along the river bank. I told her I was going there now, and she offered to head that way, too.
My phone beeped that a message had come in while I was out of range. It was from Ron, and it horrified me. I still have the message saved on my phone: “Hi! I’m feeling screwed out here,” he said, “I’ve got thunder and lightning; I don’t have any good place to pull over. I can’t tell how far I am from the lake. I’m going to put my phone in my pocket and answer it if you call me. And see if you can help me figure out how much farther I have to go to get off the river and into the lake, and if I do, do you have any idea where to pick me up – because I don’t have much time or light or anything to go very far on the lake to get to a takeout. Talk to you soon, I hope. Bye.” Attempts to return his call failed.
At Otter Creek I found the road Kyna had told me about, and went as far as a sandy patch on a bend in the river. A movement on the water quite a ways downriver caught my eye. It was Ron. I jumped up and down on the bank, swinging my red coat over my head, then flashed the car lights and honked the horn. He disappeared behind tall brush.
Kyna and Jake drove up in their truck. I told Kyna I’d seen him, pointing downriver and saying I needed to get to the end of the point but didn’t know how.
“I can get down there,” she said. Kyna jogs in the sand regularly, and told of two roads – one along the edge of the river and another on higher ground.
I climbed in with them. Kyna went along the river for a ways, then went to higher ground in the hopes Ron would be able to see us and come our way. She honked the horn, hoping he could hear.
At the end of the point Kyna and I got out of the truck and peered into the growing darkness. I waved a flashlight in each hand. Jake drove to the top of a dune and aimed the lights out over the water, flashing the lights and honking the horn. Exposed to the wind, Kyna and I were getting stung with flying sand and whacked by flying tumbleweeds.
As Jake came down off the dune, Ron and I finally connected by cell phone. I yelled that Tara and Matt had seen him, and he needed to go back upriver. He said we couldn’t have seen him – he certainly couldn’t see anything, no lights, no truck. He said he could have heard a horn earlier, but it could also have been the wind. I insisted that he turn around and go upriver, telling him that he’d get to a place where he could see our car parked right on the bank next to the river. He was dubious. He didn’t think we were in the same place. He didn’t think any of us could have seen him, and he was convinced we weren’t nearby, so why try to go upriver?
I asked him to look south, at house lights on the hills. Did he see two pairs of lights, each pair with a yellow light on the west and a white light on the east, with the eastern pair being closer together? “Yes!” Great! Now go upriver!
Jake drove back west along the higher road until there was an opportunity to get on the road next to the river. Once there, he drove east, downriver, honking, the headlights shining on the tall reeds waving crazily in the wind.
Suddenly, at a break in the reeds, Ron appeared next to the bank, chest deep in the river, pulling his boat against the current. A glorious sight.
Jake pulled the Plattepus I well up into the brush. We put Ron’s gear in the back of the truck and Ron and I climbed in with it. Jake and Kyna drove us to our car, where we transferred the gear before all of us headed towards the Otter Creek area.
The storm descended. Pouring rain made it difficult to see. I couldn’t imagine how we’d have found Ron if the rain had started even a few minutes earlier. The Ronocerous Hunt had been a roaring success, thanks to Tara and Matt spotting him, and Jake and Kyna reeling him in.
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