Ferguson Lake & Rescue One Memorial

Daddy decided that we would take a short off-roading trip on Saturday afternoon, so we quickly loaded up the truck and headed out. While we had been to the general area before, we had never made it all the way back to Ferguson Lake. Ferguson Lake road snakes through the Imperial long-term visitor area where many snowbirds stay during the winter months and weaves through Senator Wash and some of the Chocolate Mountains until you arrive at the end of the road. There is nothing, but beautiful scenery, hiking trails, and wildlife once you arrive.

Climbing to the top… Thankfully, we all wore hiking boots as we never know what we’ll end up doing when we go out for one of these drives.

The pups had no issues flying up the hill; we were obviously slowing them down. lol!

Once we made our way to the end of the road, we hopped out and took a little hike with the pups. They both love hiking and were rather adventurous. Wiley would have been happy to make his way up and down some really steep inclines, but we decided to stick to the wild burrow trails. lol! The view from the top was beautiful.

On our way in, we came across the memorial to the 3 Marines and 1 Sailor of the SAR (search and rescue) Rescue One team who went down in 2007. There was one survivor of that crash, Lance Cpl. Brian D. Stahlhut. While we knew about the crash and had a vague idea of where it happened, we didn’t realize that the memorial was in this specific area. During the original service dedicating the memorial stone to the fallen heroes, several members of the SAR unit left behind wings for their fallen comrades. I took a moment to remember the fallen Marines and Corpsman…

• Maj. Cesar Y. Freitas
• Capt. Bradley E. Walters
• Sgt. Charles L. Osgood
• Petty Officer 2nd Class Brendon W. Sandburg

Gone, but never forgotten…