BOISE, Idaho — In the summer of 2017, Eric Valentine recalled that he was volunteering with an Eastern Oregon Boy Scout troop when they encountered a group of rafters in need of assistance.
Six years later, the 80-year-old retired judge — and former Scoutmaster — was the one in desperate need of help.
And the Boy Scouts showed up.
Valentine, who works as a freelance photographer, was hiking along Hells Canyon in early May and taking photographs when he lost his balance and fell 60 feet down a slope while trying to get a milkweed plant off one of his boots, according to a Boy Scouts of America news release.
A Boise firefighter’s wife spotted Valentine crawling and was able to flag down a group of members from Eagle’s Boy Scout Troop 77, who were out canoeing on the Snake River.
“I asked God to send angels,” Valentine told nearly a dozen members of Troop 77 in his hospital bed the evening of May 15 at Saint Alphonsus Regional Rehabilitation Hospital in Boise. “He sent me the Boy Scouts.”
Valentine is recovering from surgery but said he expects to head home to La Grande, Ore., soon. He has a broken ankle, cracked tibia, fractured back and three broken vertebrate in his neck, but that didn’t stop him from making the packed hospital room burst into laughter.
During the roughly 30-minute visit, Valentine joked that he was fully prepared for his hike — like a Boy Scout should be — except that he didn’t bring a buddy.
Nearly two dozen members of the troop were on the canoe trip, including 16-year-old Henry Cavanagh, 15-year-old McCoy Bondelid, 17-year-old Nathaniel Jacob and 17-year-old Brendan Karabensh. The boys said May 15 that they were able to spot Valentine easily because he was wearing a bright red jacket, which is something that he put on after he’d fallen, knowing that it would make him more visible.
The troop, along with former Boise firefighter Steve Rasulo, tended to Valentine until he could be transported to a nearby Idaho Power boat. That assistance came after Troop 77 Assistant Scoutmaster Nate Bondelid used his satellite phone to make an emergency call for help.
The troop members wrapped gauze around Valentine’s head, gave him water and used a towel to support his head in case he had a spinal injury. Idaho Power personnel transported Valentine to the Copper Trail Creek Area by boat, and it was flat enough there for a helicopter to land. He was then taken to Saint Al’s.
Valentine praised the Scouts, others who helped and the hospital staff at Saint Al’s.
“What are the chances there’d be a Boy Scout Troop from Eagle, Idaho?” Valentine asked. “That’s almost impossible, but not with God.”
