Routine day hike becomes three-day nightmare, and more

Routine day hike becomes three-day nightmare

Scott Mason, a 17-year-old Eagle Scout, is doing fine after being stranded for almost three days on New Hampshire’s Mount Washington. Having sprained his ankle during a routine day hike, Mason decided to take a short cut down the 6,288-foot peak. But when unexpected snow runoff and rough rivers blocked his passage, he was forced into areas without marked trails and couldn’t make it down the mountain. He slept beneath pine trees and in large crevasses, and started fires with hand-sanitizer gel. He was finally spotted by rescuers after he decided to head up the mountain, toward a weather observatory. “I would never hike alone again in snow conditions,” he commented.

Finding joy in daffodils

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The children of Joy Zamoiski wanted to give her a special present for her 85th birthday, in April. They knew that their mother had always loved gardening. So last year, on the grassy hill of her home in Candor, N.Y., they planted some 13,000 white and yellow daffodil bulbs. When Zamoiski looked out at her yard one day last month, she got the surprise of her life: The blooming daffodils had been set in a pattern that spelled out her name, J-O-Y. “We were thinking about writing something,” said her daughter Nancy, “and ‘Zamoiski’ was way too long.”

When $10,000 flies in the wind

Ian Taylor, a landlord on Canada’s Prince Edward Island, was en route to the bank to deposit more than $10,000 in cash. But he had forgotten to close the zipper on his banking bag. Suddenly, a strong wind ripped the bills away from him and sent them flying everywhere. A frantic Taylor called for help and got it: Passers-by scooped up the cash and gave it back to him; when Taylor counted it, he found that every single bill had been returned. “They were down underneath vehicles picking up the money,” he said. “They were saying, ‘Whose money is this?’ It was just amazing.”