A long-distance runner was lost for 30 days in a Washington state forest before being rescued from the brink of death.
For 39-year-old Robert Schock, what was supposed to be a one-day excursion turned into a months-long fight for his life without food, shelter, clothing or cell phone service.
,[The ordeal] It has affected me,” Shock told people“And because of it my age has increased by several years.”
“Hopefully, I’ll get those years back.”
The musician from Blaine, Washington had planned a 20-mile trail run when he arrived at North Cascades National Park with his dog Freddy on July 31.
“I’m an ultra runner,” Schock said in an exclusive interview. “I am not a pedestrian. I don’t backpack and don’t go on multi-day trips. I don’t know how to fish. I want to complete the course as soon as possible and come back home. So I didn’t have any shirt. I had a pair of shorts, I had Freddy and a dog pen. These were the only things in my small bag.”
Shock was not prepared for the fact that his curiosity would lead him so far.
He set out to see them for the Chilliwack River Trail via the Copper Ridge Trail, crossing the river by cable car. However, their old map did not account for wildfires in 2021 and 2022, which destroyed parts of the trail
“When I left there, the mark wasn’t there,” Schock said. “I was curious to know what happened to this route and my curiosity led me to proceed further.”
This was the point when he lost his way.
The next day his cell phone got damaged. On the third day, sent his dog to explore their house.
Shock started losing track of time. “I wasn’t doing well.”
He found a place to build a nest where bears had previously lived. He used to survive on whatever he got.
“I ate that thing all day, and it tasted just like a normal mushroom you’d eat on a pizza or something,” he says. “It was the only thing besides berries that I had to eat the whole time, they were so bad.”
Shock confessed that as the days passed, his cries for help became less frequent – as he began to lose hope.
Meanwhile, on August 4, the Whatcom Humane Society in Washington state called Shock’s mother, Jan Thompson, in North Carolina and told her they had found Freddy, but could not reach Shock. Thompson then realized that she had not even heard from her son since her previous missed call on July 31.
Across the country, he had no idea that his son had planned to run away. On August 5, he called the Whatcom Police Department, who soon informed him that his car had already been found.
Thompson rebuffed officers who suggested that her son had gone into the woods intentionally. I knew it wasn’t like that,” she said. “To be honest, it never occurred to me that he died in the park, despite the odds.”
By day 30, he had collapsed on the banks of the Chilliwack River with severe dysentery and “really felt like I was close to death,” he told People.
“I was sitting there naked and knew I wasn’t going to make it through the night,” he said. “So I was like, ‘I’m going to scream for the last time.’ I said, ‘Help!’ ,
This time, his screams were heard: members of the Pacific Northwest Trail Association were returning to their camp after doing maintenance work on a trail when Shock screamed for the last time.
He was soon airlifted to a hospital where he spent another month recovering, during which time his mother and stepfather stayed with him.
“I learned the details of his story in bits and pieces,” Thompson said. “Part of me doesn’t want to know because I can’t bear to think about how she suffered.”
Shock’s recovery now continues in Ohio, where he grew up at the home of his father and stepmother.
He told People that he plans to return to the Pacific Northwest to continue his musical aspirations and racing — though nowhere near the North Cascades, he admitted.
Among the first responders and rescuers who found her nearly lifeless body, Schock said, “It would be an understatement to say how truly grateful I am to those who were there that day as it came that much closer to the finish line. Was.”
