Picnickers find stranded Utah couple on Nevada mountain

Tuesday, July 29, 1997 | 9:07 a.m.

"I was scared as a bunny," Jacqueline Gay, 66, said Monday.

The Hurricane couple were found Sunday by picnickers.

The Gays left July 19 to get a disabled car in Nevada.

They took a wrong turn and were advised at a service station of a shortcut over a dirt road. They bounced over the rutted road for several miles, then became stuck half off the road on Eagle Point, near Panaca, Nev.

"Don't ever believe a shortcut," Jacqueline Gay said. "I'll take the long way out before I ever take a shortcut again."

They spent three days in their truck, expecting someone would come along. Then they tried to hike out, but became lost and ended up back where they had started.

They had nothing to eat, but they found a spring-fed pond about 1 1/2 miles away.

Sheriff's deputies from Iron, Millard and Beaver counties performed air searches and the couple's son, Paul Gay of St. George, rented a plane and searched. He and his friends and family also searched by foot and car.

The couple were found Sunday when Loren and Amy Wilkin and Shawn and Jennifer Lytle were picnicking and decided to drive to the top of the mountain to look for deer.

Shawn Lytle heard George Gay, 72, yell and then found him and his wife.

"We'd heard about them but we didn't think they were anywhere close," Lytle said.

"I thought he was an angel from heaven," Jacqueline Gay said. "The only thing I could think of was, 'What have you got to eat?"'