The Silverton outdoor community came together to rescue a Durango woman and her black Labrador retriever Thursday after the dog injured its paws on the way down Ice Lake Trail west of Silverton.
Silverton man Jimmy Keene II carried Ludo, the Labrador, that weighed about 80 pounds, on his shoulders for 1½ miles down the trail to the Ice Lake Trailhead.
Keene said he helped, but others on the trail had become involved before he did, and the ordeal was a group effort – a glowing example of the outdoors community’s spirit as a whole.
Durango resident Chelsea Mullenax and her dog were coming down a series of switchbacks on Ice Lake Trail when Ludo began to struggle. The dog’s paws were cut up somewhere on the tough series of switchbacks, Keene said.
“There was no way that she could carry him; she was on her own,” Keene said.
Mullenax left Ludo, who had refused to walk any further, to reach her car and drive to Silverton where she could call for help.
Her husband, Sam Mullenax, posted to a Silverton community Facebook page asking for help for his wife and injured dog. Keene learned of the situation from there.
Keene talked to Sam Mullenax over Facebook Messenger, who relayed that San Juan County Search and Rescue team couldn’t spare its small team in the event of another emergency breaking out, and that’s how he got involved, he said.
This was not Keene’s first dog rescue. In July, a visiting Phoenix family lost their 1-year-old Belgian Malinois when it was frightened off by Silverton’s Independence Day fireworks display.
Silverton area residents tracked the dog over two weeks, and Keene finally managed to capture it by the collar after baiting it with kibble and a blanket with its family’s scent on it.
On Thursday, a separate group of hikers along the Ice Lake Trail came across Ludo before Keene ever arrived. A small group of people, including Mullenax, were already on their way down toward the trailhead with the dog.
“Had no idea that there were a group of four or five hikers that were bringing the dog down, which was a huge help,” Keene said. “I wouldn’t have liked to carry that dog three miles on my back.”
Keene said he has no professional experience in dog rescues, but he has always been pretty good with tracking animals. He previously served as a communications officer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps and spent the latter half his career with the U.S. Special Operations Command, where he was deployed on airdrops “with a lot of really, really tough guys.”
He said after three combat tours, he retired to Silverton, a fond vacation destination he’d visited every year. The outdoors were therapeutic for his post-traumatic stress disorder in a way that medications couldn’t compete with. Within a year, he was medication-free.
About a year ago, he founded San Juan Mountain Adventures, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to helping veterans with therapeutic outdoor trips, he said.
Mullenax’s and Ludo’s story had a happy ending, but not every outdoors adventure does.
“Everyone comes together. … We’re laughing and being supportive of each other and everyone that was involved was really happy to be part of this little mission, if you call it, to help out this lady and her dog,” Keene said.
He said he was moved by the fact that a pair of Canadians who were hiking the trail during their first trip to Silverton had joined the group that rescued Ludo.
“They jumped in and helped at the very top,” he said, referring to Ice Lake, which is about 3 miles west of the so-called trailhead. “Very thankful for them. … But a great community of people that want to do the right thing. And I think that’s really how the outdoor community is as a whole.”
cburney@durangoherald.com
