title: Convergence of Fates
author: Sutherland, John K.
description: Thread one. An old grizzly: CP023, with an attitude and a reputation, gets rid of its radio-collar, and wanders out of the National Park boundaries. Thread two. Doug Haldane is hiking up to the town of Hudgin’s Mills, located in one of those intermountain valleys, deep in the Rockies. Fifteen miles short of his destination he sees an accident unfold on the other side of a narrow lake. A small boat appears out of the gorge between Hudgin’s lake and this one. He sees that the boat is badly damaged but is afloat. There is a family aboard that needs urgent help. He watches them for a few minutes and sees them bring the boat to shore. They appear to be injured. He is hours from a road or other rescue, so with the impetuosity of youth, he takes the matter into his own hands and swims across. Thread three. The Whitcomb family is stranded after being pulled down Lesser Hell’s Canyon Gorge in their small boat. It is a hair-raising roller coaster of a ride that few could expect to survive. They are dumped into the lake almost fifteen miles below the one they had been on an hour earlier, and needing medical help. No one knows where they are, and the weather is about to turn against them. Then, unbelievably, they see a young man swimming across the lake to get to them. They see salvation. However, nothing is as simple as it seems, and lives are irrevocably changed on that day when he comes ashore. It becomes a weekend none of them will ever forget when the disparate threads come together. Fate, decrees that there will be one very violent death, and that two lives will be forever changed.