Bountiful Scout leader lost his life while giving to others

Doug McLachlan was excited about the Scout campout and the chance to climb with his son to the top of the state's highest peak.

The Bountiful father of eight never made it. He was killed Friday afternoon when he and two others were hit by lightning as they ran for cover in a thunderstorm in a remote area of eastern Summit County.Another Bountiful man and his son are recovering from the strike after being flown to a Salt Lake hospital. The remaining Scouts and leaders were too far from the trailhead to attempt to hike out after the incident. They stayed overnight and began the trek out Saturday.

McLachlan was the eighth Scout-related death in Utah in eight years.

Ryan Deakin, also of Bountiful, remains hospitalized in good condition at the University Hospital. His 12-year-old son, Trevor, has been released from the hospital.

It's not known whether the men and the boy were hit by the same bolt of lightning, said Summit County deputy sheriff Alan Siddoway.

Siddoway returned to the bluff where the lightning hit the group Saturday to retrieve McLachlan's body, which had been covered and marked with a white cross by helicopter crews after mechanical difficulties precluded them from getting the body out of the area.

After Utah officials concluded it would take 12 hours to reach the spot near the Utah-Wyoming border, search and rescue crews from Uinta County, Wyoming, tried to reach the area by horseback.

The helicopter reached the area first and McLachlan's body was taken to the Henry's Fork Drainage area trailhead Saturday morning, where it was driven to the state medical examiner's office.

The ordeal began Thursday when the Bountiful group embarked for a three-day campout.

McLachlan, an assistant Scout leader in Bountiful's Barton Creek LDS Ward, went along with his son, Alex. The six boys and five men planned to hike to the top of Kings Peak, the state's highest peak, located just over the Summit County border in the Uinta Mountains of Duchesne County.

The route is rocky and accessible only by foot or horseback. Located in the Wasatch National Forest, the trailhead itself is about 150 miles from Coalville, Summit County.

When storms began to roll into the area Friday, the Scouts canceled the planned hike to Kings Peak. Leaving the rest of the group back at camp, McLachlan, the Deakins and another man went fishing at Cliff Lake, Siddoway said.