Pastor's dying words still an inspiration

The journal, carefully protected in a zip-top plastic bag, slipped beyond his reach after about five days on the rocks. Desperate to maintain communication with his family, he began writing on the blank pages at the beginning and end of his Bible. When those filled, he wrote in the margins of the instruction sheet for his camp stove.

As his suffering continued, the Rev. Turner's mood turned darker, despairing. Smith describes it as "faith on the edge."

The Rev. Turner wrote:

"God is with me, but I am angry with him. What is the purpose of this ordeal? Will I ever know, or continue to be puzzled, angered, and feel quite abandoned by the one I serve?"

More than a week passed, with daytime temperatures in the 90s and nights dipping into the 30s. The Rev. Turner's handwriting weakened; a mood of acceptance took over.

"Fill me with peace, Lord," he wrote. "May the conditions not deny my love for you."

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No one knows for sure how long the Rev. Turner survived, wedged between those rocks. The Fremont County coroner reported that he died of hypothermia and dehydration on or around Aug. 11, 1998.

Some 70 friends and parishioners from the Treasure Valley and beyond joined dozens of professionals to look for the hiker. They searched on horseback, by foot, by helicopter. They put up posters and scanned trailhead logs to identify people who might have seen him. The scale of the search was daunting — hundreds of square miles spanning two counties and both sides of the Continental Divide. And the Rev. Turner had diverted from his planned itinerary, a fact he noted with regret in his journal.

"I feel so foolish taking this longer pass," he wrote on Aug. 5. "So lonely, more than I imagined. Who would have guessed that four days would have gone by and no one has come this way?"

The search was called off after about two weeks, with the understanding that it would resume if there was a break in the case. That break came five days later, on Aug. 28. Andy the dog walked out of the wilderness, skinny, sore and accompanied by two hikers.

Family and friends mobilized to resume their search, hoping the Rev. Turner's trusty dog would lead them to him.

Andy led them in the right direction, Diane Turner said. Searchers were about a mile from where the hiker was trapped when a radioed message turned them back: A hiker, who had found the Rev. Turner's body Aug. 31, made it out of the mountains and into the Sublette County sheriff's Office, carrying the Rev. Turner's wallet.

A year later, Diane Turner carried her husband's ashes on her back, following his path into the Wind River Range for a memorial service with family and friends.

They trekked two days to Island Lake, where the Rev. Turner had described "amazing beauty that fills my soul."