Pair of ATVers rescue missing woman stuck in quicksand mud for 3 days on Minnesota trail: It had to be God
Two lifelong friends found a woman almost entirely submerged in “quicksand” mud during a spontaneous off-trail ATV ride on Saturday — and later learned she was a local who had vanished three days earlier.Adam Sandbeck and Mike Gravalin embarked on a routine cruise through remote trails in northern Minnesota early Saturday, a tradition they’ve maintained for decades.The duo was originally supposed to go on an organized run for a local bar, but realized they’d mixed up the dates and opted to “find some new trails” instead, Sandbeck explained to the Minnesota Star Tribune.“Never be annoyed at your situation, because everything happens for a reason,” he said.They made it roughly 30 miles outside of their favored RV park when they realized the ATV was almost out of gas.They found a shortcut on a pothole-laden path — and came across a stranded minivan.Gravalin, a retired deputy US marshal, had a gut feeling something wasn’t right.
His first suspicion was that someone was plotting an ambush in the shadows — until they spied a body in a puddle.“I just remember saying to myself, ‘Oh my god, please don’t be a dead person’.She was completely submerged,” Sandbeck recounted to the outlet.“The water was almost coming over her mouth,” Gravalin added.When they inched closer, they could hear the woman gurgle, “Help me.”The men didn’t hesitate.
Without so much as glancing at each other, they both leapt into action, trying to glean as much information from the nearly-unconscious woman as they possibly could while calling 911.The woman was able to explain that she had fallen into the two-feet-deep “quicksand” mud when she stepped out of her minivan several days earlier.In the time since, all she could do was lay there and watch the water continue to rise ever-closer to her mouth.
By the time Gravalin and Sandbeck found her, she was dehydrated and severely sunburned.Her only reprieve came from overnight storms — but that only made th...