Boy's actions while lost in Uintas defied expectations

BOUNTIFUL — When Brennan Hawkins was slow to wiggle out of his body harness at a climbing wall, his 11-year-old buddy yelled "catch up with me" and ran for a steak dinner with other Boy Scouts.

That's the last anyone saw of Brennan before he took a wrong turn at a Boy Scout camp and spent four days wandering the Utah wilderness before a rescuer found him in good condition Tuesday.

Some clues to what led to Brennan's four-day odyssey have emerged, though the boy has revealed few details: Factors include his partner's failure to follow a key Scout rule to always look out for your buddy, a wrong turn Brennan took in the woods and the boy's strict adherence to parental advice to avoid strangers — in this case rescue workers.

Under Scout rules, Brian Christensen and Brennan were supposed to keep an eye on each other, but Brian said he figured Brennan wasn't far behind on a quarter-mile jog along a familiar camp road. Brian said he'll never again let a buddy out of his sight.

Brian's father, Martin Christensen, was the Scout leader who invited Brennan to join his own 11-year-old son on a training outing for older Scouts at the Boy Scout camp in the Uinta Mountains, about 60 miles east of Salt Lake City.

Christensen said he "peppered" Brennan with questions on his return, trying to learn how he got lost and what he was doing.

Brennan does not remember much of the time he was missing. He has said he drank stream water but had no food for four days and spent nights huddled with his sweatshirt pulled over his legs.

However, Christensen has reconstructed the boy's most probable route after poring over topographical maps, reviewing search tactics and getting what answers he could out of Brennan.

Christensen, who brought his family and Brennan to the East Fork of the Bear Boy Scout Reservation where he would attend adult leadership training, said when Brennan didn't show up for dinner, he drove the around the campground and soon became panicked when he couldn't find his friends' son.

Christensen determined Brennan immediately took a wrong turn from the 60-foot chipboard climbing wall, walking toward his tent camp instead of the mess trailer. When he realized his mistake, he doubled back through some burned woods but took another wrong turn at the first trail he came across, the Smith's Fork Trail.