A 77-year-old Utah man who was stranded for two days in the snowy Southeast Idaho mountains credits a higher power for his survival.
After his rescue on Wednesday, Paul Meiling went back to his West Jordan, Utah, home to his family and countless well-wishers. In an interview on Thursday, the self-described “LDS chap” believed God was by his side as he struggled to survived.
“I may have been stranded, but I wasn’t alone up there,” he said.
It all started on Monday with a trip to Pocatello. Meiling, a collector of historic memorabilia of the American West, came to town to donate a stack of old books regarding the subject to Idaho State University. In the early afternoon, he filled his 2010 Toyota Tundra with gas at the Costco on West Quinn Road, bought a hot dog and then headed back home by traveling south on Interstate 15.
On the way, he decided to take a backcountry side route in northern Oneida County. An avid fly fisherman, Weilling had fished the Daniels Reservoir multiple times and felt he knew the area around the fishing hole well enough to take a scenic route.
He exited I-15 at the Arimo exit, traveled through Robin and headed down Sheep Creek Road. His plan was to follow the roads leading to Malad and then get back on I-15. However, when he turned on the isolated Dairy Creek Road, his truck got stuck in the heavy snow.
At that point, Meiling found himself stranded in an isolated area with no cell phone service.
“It was a side journey, but nobody knew where I was, and that was the problem,” he said.
When his wife, Bonnie, and the rest of his family couldn’t get a hold of their patriarch, they started contacting local law enforcement officials and media outlets. As for the stranded Paul, his focus suddenly shifted to surviving the elements.
A partially retired rural real estate appraiser, Meiling always kept some survival gear in his truck just as a force of habit. Luckily, as the temperatures dropped to below freezing on Monday night, he had crucial survival gear at his disposal, including water, gloves, a parka, extra socks, boots and matches.
“Take away any one of those items and the end of my story changes,” he said.
Not far away from his stranded vehicle sat an abandoned 1910-era structure, which he used that evening to serve as a temporary shelter. He dug a small pit in the floor and used plaster and wood planks from the walls to build a fire.
During the times he was bunked down in the cab of his truck, he ran the vehicle heater for 30 minutes, then turned the ignition off for approximately an hour or so to help preserve gasoline.
On Tuesday, the situation was becoming more desperate for both Meiling, his family and searchers in both Idaho and Utah. At this point, the family grew concerned about the possibility that Meiling might have been the victim of foul play.
Meanwhile, with a snowstorm and even colder temperatures on the horizon, Meiling took a desperate step — he set the structure he had found the day before on fire in the hope that somebody in the distance would see the smoke in the sky and come to his rescue.
“I didn’t think anybody was going to come up that road till next year,” he said. “I tried to preserve the building, but I was at the point I didn’t care if the police came up here and arrested me for arson. I just wanted to somebody to see where I was.”
It was around this time that he said he really started to feel the hand of God reaching down to help him during this ordeal.
For one, his daughter and son-in-law flew into Utah from Connecticut on Tuesday. Short after his daughter's arrival, she told other family members that if dad wasn’t found by Day 3, then he had most likely met his demise. At that same time, Meiling was thinking those same words.
“I didn’t know it at the time, but I could feel what she was thinking,” he said.
When the structure fire failed to attract any attention, he found a second abandoned dwelling nearby. To his surprise, he found a stack of coal when he walked through the back door of the structure. He used the coal to start a small campfire that kept him warm for almost 12 hours during Tuesday night’s frigid cold spell.
“It was nice to get coal for Christmas," he laughs. "I believe that coal was put there for my use, and who knows how long it was there."
When the sun rose on Wednesday, Meiling decided to take further action. He found a green garden hose in the dwelling and twisted it around to spell out “Please Call.” He also found an old coffee cup in the dwelling, which he placed near the garden hose with a note listing his name, cellphone number and a brief description of his ordeal.
Then, despite being cold, tired and dehydrated, he started walking back down Dairy Creek Road.
Meiling marched for approximately five miles through the snow before he found a location with cellphone service in southern Bannock County. When the bars on his phone appeared, he quickly called his son Jeff. Ironically, Jeff was only 30 minutes away in Malad, participating in the search for his father.
Before long, Meiling was rescued. Emergency responders said that when he was found, he immediately offered to pay for the structure he burned down on Tuesday.
He was checked out by medical personnel and transported back home to Utah for a reunion with his family. Despite two days in the mountains battling a snowstorm and below-zero temperatures, doctors said he was dehydrated but otherwise healthy. Meiling's family was surprised he didn't suffer from hypothermia or frostbite.
Shortly after his rescue, he said he heard the song, “There’s No Place Like Home for the Holidays” on the radio. The song brought tears to his eyes.
“All’s well that ends well, but I wasn’t sure I was going to make it,” Meiling said. “There were a lot of people out there looking for me, and I am thankful to all of them.”
At the Meiling household, this holiday season will be particularly special, as they have already received the most miraculous early Christmas present they could ever receive — their patriarch, who is back safe and sound.
