Hanalei resident Pam Wilcox Dohrman, who spent two nights alone in Kokee Valley after she got lost while hiking on a popular trail, described how happy she was to hear the voices of three young men who spotted and rescued her Monday.
"One hundred percent elation," Dohrman, 72, said Tuesday in a phone interview from Kauai. "They are my heroes."
The Garden Island newspaper reported that Clifton Mission, Kekoa Agustin and Dominick Abalos rescued Dohrman while they were in the valley picking maile to make lei for upcoming graduation events.
Dohrman said she went for a walk at about 4 p.m. Saturday on Berry Flat Trail and became lost about a half-hour later. She tried to find her way back but was unsuccessful. "I got a little worried that I wasn’t going to make it home," she said. Dohrman and her family were spending the weekend in a cabin at Kokee to celebrate Mother’s Day.
She had a cellphone, but there was no signal in the valley. When night fell Dohrman thought about her children and grandchildren and how she ruined Mother’s Day. Wearing a sweatshirt and pedal pushers, she tried to stay warm when the weather dropped to the low 50s. She slept under tall trees.
At dawn Sunday, Dohrman started to look for a way out, but none was in sight. "Every way was a ravine down," she said.
She had no food or water. Dehydrated, Dohrman would walk three to four feet before having to sit down because of nausea. "I couldn’t stand up. I was trying to balance myself," she said. To stay hydrated, Dohrman licked raindrops off uluhe ferns.
She said she was calm and not afraid, though she admitted a part of her thought she would not be rescued and that she would die there.
"It was very quiet up there. All you do is listen for any kind of sound," Dohrman said.
On Monday she finally heard the voices of the three young men and recalled one of them yelling, "I got her!"
"These wonderful kids have found me," she said. Dohrman said she was overwhelmed when they carried her to the trail and saw a large search team that included more than 80 volunteers.
"I’m completely humbled," she said.
The experience taught her to never go out alone without telling someone where she is going. "I thought I would be right back," she said.
Dorhman’s mother was Edith King Wilcox, great-granddaughter of Godfrey Wundenberg, an early settler in Hanalei who was appointed by King Kamehameha V to serve as treasurer of the Hawaiian kingdom. Dohrman’s father was Samuel Whitney Wilcox, also a descendent of missionaries.
