As Brandon Garrett laid stranded in a ravine in Oregon last week, his dog Blue was running through the densely wooded area, toward help.
Blue, a whippet, ran for nearly four miles with glass in his snout and made it to a campsite where they had been before and where Mr. Garrett was supposed to be meeting his friend. The friend, who had been expecting Mr. Garrett hours earlier, knew something was wrong, said Mr. Garrett’s brother, Tyree Garrett.
Blue’s appearance prompted Mr. Garrett’s family and friends to search for him during the night of June 2 and the next morning, the Baker County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. He was found by his brother, who spotted Mr. Garrett’s truck in the ravine and called the sheriff’s office, which rescued Mr. Garrett with the assistance of other authorities.
Mr. Garrett, 62, had been driving in eastern Oregon, near the state’s border with Idaho, when he reached a curve in the road and went over an embankment, the sheriff’s office said.
After the crash, he crawled 100 yards from his truck and spent the night near a creek in the ravine. Photos provided by the sheriff’s office showed a white pickup truck on its side in a creek, surrounded by bright green trees and bushes.
Tyree Garrett said he found the truck in the morning after looking at spots near the creek that could not be seen from the road. He saw injured dogs lying near the truck and yelled his brother’s name, but he did not get a response.
“It stopped my heart,” Mr. Garrett said. “I just, God darn, thought for sure my brother was gone.”
It had been pouring rain and cold at night, so he wasn’t sure how his brother could have survived. The ravine was straight up and down and inaccessible without rappelling gear, he said, so he drove to get reception on his phone and called the sheriff’s office.
The rescuers arrived and heard Mr. Garrett calling for help.
Pine Valley Rural Fire Protection District volunteers and U.S. Forest Service workers used chain saws to clear a path for the search and rescue team, which put Mr. Garrett in a rescue basket. Baker County Search and Rescue connected the basket to ropes, then lifted it off the ground and pulled it across the ravine.
Mr. Garrett was put in an ambulance, then airlifted to a nearby hospital.
“He’s got a cracked ankle and his body itself is just really bruised and battered,” Tyree told The New York Times. “So it’s going to take him a while at his age to get back on his feet.”
Mr. Garrett had been traveling with three other dogs that were found alive nearby, his brother said. One of the dogs had surgery for a broken hip and injured its femur and another had broken its leg in two spots.