th eir surviva l pl an , he filled up th e jug
and p r oceeded to walk t o wards
Inde pendencia . Bu t as he wal ked
d own th e road , Larry felt that he
sho u ld go ba ck to the others since they
sti ll we re n 't o u t of dange r yet.
Hu ffma n reversed di rections and
headed back up the mountain .
On his wa y ba ck to the others , Larry
stopped by the waterhole agai n and
d ec ided to try the wat e r. H e
d iscovered that it was , after a ll, as
good as drinkable water could be . By
the tim e he reached the to p it was
night once again .
For everybody , Sunday night was
the worst : aside from the ch illing co ld,
both camps _were uncertain about ea ch
other's fate . As Huffman huddled near
the sm a ll fire he had built , he d idn'(
know if he would ever see his famil y or
the rest of the group ever again . Down
on th e slope, the Oxleys and Martinez
were almost certain that Larry wa s
dead since they had expected him to
return by nightfall . Harry Oxley was
sure that they would all be dead soon .
At dawn on Monday, Huffman
resumed his hik e and proceeded down
the sid e of the mountain. At th eir
camp , Harry, Brad and Al prepared
to continue t h eir assualt on the
mountain top .
Convinced that thle .
" It .was iike a blade cutting th ro ug h
your jacket" sai d Al as he d escribed
the winds.
A couple of hours later, the m oon
rose above t he mountains and Harry ,
wh o couldn't slee p anyway, got up to
loo k for the shack . As it turned out ,
they had camped only a qua rt er of a
m ile fr om Rancho Nuevo , so they
wa lked th e final dist ance to spe nd th e
rest of the night in th e sh a ck .
At t he shack , Brad a n d Al
immediately fell asleep upon the iceco ld floor wh ile Huffman a nd Oxley
took turns sleeping on th e table a nd
th e cha ir. Cold as it was , th e shel ter
provided by the shack made all the
d ifference in the world as it ke pt the
cold winds from cutt ing t hro ugh
them . T hings were be ginnin g to look
up.
On Monday Larr y's bus iness
manager, Randy Garel l, had notified
search and rescue authoriti es in San
Diego about the disappearance of th e
four men. Preparations for the sea rch
were put into motion: info rma tio n on
the mi ssin g riders was su p p lied by
their families. Mike's Sky Ranch was
notified of th e rescue o pera tion , and
ow ne r M ike Leone began h is own
check on t he m e n also. Custo ms
inspectors and m embers of the
Am erican Consul at e in Tijuana went
into action to determine the route that
the Oxley-Huffman -Martinez party
had taken before th eir d isa ppea ra nce .
By late Mond ay afternoon, volu nteer
grou nd units wer c in t he sea rc h a nd
p re pa ra tio ns were made for an air
sea rch to begi n a t d awn th e next da y.
Early T uesday m orn ing the Ox leys
d ra nk as much water as th ey co u ld,
a nd , wit h th e Sparkletts j ug fu ll ,
H a rry a n d B rad took off towa rds
Independen cia .
La rry stayed be hind at the shack
with AI since the ro tund Chi cano's feet
wer e the consistency of ha mbu rger
a nd he couldn't possibl y tak e anothe r
step . Huffm an h imsel f had h ik ed
a bo ut 75 mil es, ' and h is feet wer e
al most as b a d off as A I's. In t he
m eantim e, Larry set a co u ple of tr ees
o n fir e and sto ked the stove as well in
o rde r to attra ct the attenti on of a ny
search a nd rescu e a irplanes.
On th e easte rn si de o f th e
mounta in , rescu e
p il ot
Ralph
Schoonmaker sp otted the ' bik es and
eq u ipm ent that had been a b ando ne d
and foll owed the arrow that had be en
improvised a t the campsite . At II :00
a .m. , Tuesday Schoonmaker spo tted
th e shack with Huffm an and Martinez
waving at him with th e ir riding
jackets . A not e d rop asked if '
everyth ing was OK. Larry a n d AI
indicated yes. Everything was fin e.
As th ey walked d ow n th e dirt road
to Independencia , H a rry an d Brad
heard a shout: a poo r In di an a nd his
family had called out to them . Oxley
exp lai n ed the si t ua tion a s best he
cou ld to the In d ian a nd offered to pay
him if he'd take th em to to wn for food
and gas. The I nd ian agreed , a nd
Harry and Brad hopped on board his
a ncie n t Chevy p iekup for t he ride . At
Independenci a . the Ox leys bought
refrie d beans , crackers, a nd several
cans of fru it juice. Gas for the bikes
was also picked up , and they retu rn ed
to th e shac k,
On ce t hey returned to R anc ho
N uevo whe re Larry an d Al had been
wa it ing for th em , they decided to try
to recover the bikes. Ha rry and Br ad
would ri de do ub le on Larry's bike with
some ex tra gas over th e m ount a in and
ba ck to wh ere th e bikes ha d been
aba nd on ed ; Fr om t here, th ey wou ld
r id e ba ck to th e shac k, a n d get
Huffman , wh o would go ba ck with
them to event ua lly ge t a ll th e bik es
back.
The Indian drove the Oxleys up . to
where Larry had abandoned his !like
at the water h ol e . Still tired and
exhausted, Oxley got o n Huffman's
Yamaha wit h Bra d o n the ' b a ck
carrying a gallo n ca n of gas in each
hand. As th ey reached tlie top, they
hi t a rock . crashi ng a nd brea king a toe
o n Brad's left foo t. Immed ia tel y it was
rea lized it would be foo lish to tempt
fat e again in trying to recover th e
bikes . H arry a nd Brad rode back to
th e shack where it was q u ickl y and
unanim o usly 'decided to get the hell
home as soon as possibl e .
W ith Larry riding h is bike , the
o thers rode in th e truck and finally,
iro ni ca lly, went to Va lle de Trini dad .
T here, they were treated and received
th eir first m eal since Sa tu rda y a t a
Seventh Da y Advent ist cli nic . From
th er e t he y hir ed a driver to take them
to Ensenada whe re they would tak e a
bu s to Teca te; but o nce th ey got there
they learned that the next bus would
arrive Wednesday morning, A few
extra pesos encouraged the driver to
drive them ba ck to EI Condor.
They reached EI Condor a t 3 :00
a.m . Wednesday m orn ing and
discovered th at fr iends , includ ing Bob
Maynard , T im Fish er a n d Murra y
J ohnson , were ca m ped a nd pre pared
to go on the search in the m orning .
" Bob Maynard said. ' I knew exactly
where you g uys we re ,' '' H u ffman said
about th eir reunion with their friends.
" He says 'You should've stayed ' there ;
you sho ~ld've never left th e bik es.'
And I th ough t : God, m ayb e h e's
righ t,"
But la ter, wh en he was back ho me',
Larry had m ore tim e to a na lyze the
sit uation . " T sta rted th inking abou t it
(what Ma yna rd had said) . I figure that
if we had stayed where we were - they
al ways say for you to stay by the b ike .
you kno w - it wou ld 've been fr om
Sa turd ay n igh t to Tuesday morning at
11:00 without any water. And I do n't
thi nk H a rry a nd Bra d wou ld've made
it. ..
Huffm a n went on to exp lain tha t
Brad Oxley weighed onl y 130 pounds ,
very thin when you consider th at he is
five foot ten . And Harry normally
• dri nks a gallon and a hal f of wa te r a
day; during t he tim e th at they wer e
lost , he was in des pera te need of water.
Harry lost five pounds; Larry. six ; AI,
10 ; and Brad , th e m ost : he shed 15
po unds as a result of th e heat , co ld
and expos u re.
" T he se a rc h people were reall y
happy to se e us for a couple of
reasons , " sa id Larry about the
successful
se a rch
and , rescu e
operation. " O ne : they didn't exp ect to
findus alive . The last two lost parties
d ied within five mil es of us. But th ey
cou ld find o ut how we went over th ere ,
and wh y we got lost , and what
happens when you get over there. W e
wer e th e only o nes that walked ou t.
Oxley went ba ck over there with som e
signs painted ' No gas, no water for a
hundred mil es, signed Larry , AI , Brad
and Harry .' "
The Oxleys, H uffman and Martin ez
got in their vehi cles a nd headed fo r
hom e. The return was as uneventful as
wh en they h ad firs t set o ut. Only th e
experiences that had befall en th em
made the d ifferen ce. It wa s a
difference
between
h ope
a nd
uncertainty, life and dea th , heaven
and hell. Ho pe and humor prevai led
whe re there was none avai lable , as
death stared them in the face. Above
all , t hey had beaten the odds a nd wer e
alive to tell about it.
H uffman p layed th e vita l rol e th at
made thei r surviva l possi ble . " La r ry
was in strumental to our survival." says
Ma rt in ez. " But it was a team effort,
Eve ryb o d y was ' wo rki ng t ogeth er ;
keeping ou r heads toget her to make it
possibl e because yo u don't .know wh at
it's like out there . Pr etty hea vy."
By 8:00 a.m . W ednesday Harry and
Bra d O xley, La rry Huffman, and AI
Martinez, Jr. were a ll back in th eir
homes in bed and as lee p. Hom e sa fe.
Everyb ody'S gene ra l feeling since
th en has been a regard fo r life. that
ha d been ta ken for granted before ,
but is now hig h on t he priority list :
"M o n e t a r y t hings don 't m att er
mu ch , " says O xley in hi s prese nt
outlook o n life. " A nd the m o torcycles,
I would've been m ad as hell before if
'a m o torcycle had been rip ped off. But
now , it d oesn't matter if o ne h ad
gotte n rip ped off. o r if all of them had
been lost , fo r a m atter of fa ct . This
SOrt of thing cha nges you complet e."
Larry likewise fee ls different about
life after Baja: " W hat's interestin g .
yo u get back and I've slowed down a
little bit ; because before I was alw ays
go in g a ll th e tim e , and cu tt ing
commer cials and all th at. That day
after I got back, I got a call to read for
a . Der Wi en ers chnitzel commercial. I
went in be cause I had to go to L.A .
anyway on business, and I read for the
commercial. And the next day, they
called for me to come back to do a
taping, and I said ' ( don't want to
come in today. I'm here with m y kids
and that 's m ore important . . .'
Wh ereas before I'd j us t drop
everythi ng a nd lea ve .
" Now . m y priori ties ha ve changed .
T he fa mi ly is a lot m o re im portant
because I thoug ht 'C h rist: I' m m a king
all this money, I'm d oing a lot of
things I like to do ; but if I die no w at
