Joseph Balderas, Friend and Coworker

Nome has experienced a tough loss, one of our own went missing. Earlier this year, on Monday, June 26th, news went out that our coworker, Joseph Balderas, had taken a trip out into the backcountry on Saturday and had not shown up for work that day. Search and Rescue efforts were already underway and getting organized by the time the Community Center caught wind of his disappearance on Monday afternoon. If you've never experienced a friend going missing, it's an incredibly gut wrenching experience. As an organization, Nome Community Center immediately shut down all of our programs to join the search efforts. Kimberly and I found ourselves out hiking/ scouring the countryside for four of the nine long days that the search lasted.

Neither of us have taken part of an organized search and rescue effort before. This was also true for many people who came out the woodwork to try to help. Although the event caused many people to be anxious, something can surely be said for the organization of our local responders. Despite the obvious physical obstacles like the terrain challenges and dangerous wildlife (bears), the search was handled very well. However, those nine days of searching yielded no signs of Joseph.

The search was not some small group of volunteers trekking through the bushes near his truck, either. The Coast Guard had a Jayhawk helicopter with thermal imaging capabilities flying over a 30 mile radius of Joseph's truck. There were two additional R-44 helicopters supplied by Bering Air for several days of the search, and 5 total search and rescue dog teams brought in. There were well over 60 searchers who volunteered for the search. This included a team lead by the fire dept. and leadership from the Alaska State Troopers.

          
          
          

After the first day of searching, Kimberly and I found ourselves taking lead for several of the smaller search groups. However, after several long days of hiking, 4-wheeling and bushwhacking, we were spent. We did experience our first encounter with bears on one of our hikes. After about 4 miles of hiking along a nearby river path, our group spotted two large blonde colored bear cubs across the wide (yet shallow) river. They had been playing with each other and either heard us or caught our scent because they quickly stopped playing and started making their way down into the river to appease their curiosity. We were on the far bank of the river  (first picture) with a lot of willows between them and us so we kept a close eye on them. We decided that we didn't want their company and called in to the main search group and asked for the helicopter to make a pass nearby to scare the bears back up the hill where they came from.

Day after day of no news eats away at you. Having that recent memory of seeing Joseph in passing that Saturday morning, makes it feel like it's impossible to be true. How can he be gone. Is there more that I could have done. And of course, the thought of if I could only go back and convince him to spend that day differently, would he possibly be here with us now. I have to remember that Joseph is without a doubt in God's hands.