It was a sunny Saturday, September 25 when 17-year-old Minh Le and I set out on an adventure to the Ice Caves East of Granite Falls.

Le, originally from Hanoi, Vietnam, is currently a student at EvCC.

We had a GPS device, but found it didn't offer directions to the caves. We instead decided to go to Ashland Lake, which resides at the foot of Mt. Pilchuck. I had done the Ashland hike the year before and felt it would be easy.

Our first stop was the Verlot Ranger station around 11 a.m., where we picked up a list of the ten essentials we would need for hiking in the mountains. Several of these we did not have with us, as our intent was just a day hike and didn't think we would need items like matches, a knife or any overnight camping equipment.

Le and I reached the turn off on the trail for Ashland Lake around 2 p.m. We took a lot of pictures, passed numerous trees growing out of rocks, saw a lot of beautiful plants and crossed over bridges, following what we thought was the trail.

The territory was not looking familiar as we reached a boulder field. I hadn't recognized it from my previous hike, so we turned around and headed west, where the sun sets, and tried to get back on the trail.

We realized we needed help when it was approaching 7 p.m. and we hadn't found the trail yet.

Le decided we should hike some more to find the trail and suggested we hike up the boulder field, so we scaled up the rocks. After about a half hour we were running out of water and decided to try and find a water source that might lead us down to the trail.

We found some water, but the terrain started to get very steep. We turned around after filling up two bottles of water and hiked back to the boulder field, where I decided to call for help. For some reason I couldn't reach 911 on my cell phone, but I could call my mom in Lake Stevens, and she called 911.

The Snohomish County search and rescue team was able to call me for a short time, but I was unable to call them back. They wanted to obtain our GPS coordinates, but we were unable to do so as I couldn't call out after 9 p.m.

We were getting cold and tried star gazing to distract ourselves and discussing the possibility of life in the universe. The distraction didn't work, and we got so cold that we decided to follow the lights to the east to find a way down the mountain.

Le and I soon came to realize that we would not likely find our way down until the morning. We scaled back up, grabbing tree roots and branches and pulling ourselves up. We finally rested near the trees, still just as cold and now even more tired as before.

We later learned that The Snohomish County search and rescue team had arrived at the trailhead before 10 p.m. Officer Danny Wikstrom from search and rescue explained they likely would've found us at the boulder field around midnight, had we stayed in one place. A helicopter may have reached us sooner at the boulder field, but Le and I thought such a rescue would have been too expensive.

Wikstrom advises hikers to leave a detailed itinerary when going on hikes. This is so those back home know when to call for help if hikers don't return on schedule.

"You need to sit, think and observe the surroundings and make a plan if you're hopelessly lost," Wikstrom said. Most importantly, stay where you are and attempt to call 911.

Former Boy Scout and EvCC student Charles Olson recommends dressing in layers for winter hiking, wearing several pairs of socks.