Kelly Guzman, 45, of Denver was expected to be released from a hospital today after treatment for frostbite and hypothermia. When found by searchers Sunday in the Arapahoe National Forest, she was barefoot and wearing only shorts and a fleece top.
Guzman is an avid outdoorswoman who often hikes alone, including tackling some of Colorado's 14ers -- mountains that reach above 14,000 feet in elevation, her husband, Tom Ashford, told AOL News.
Courtesy of Grand County Search and Rescue
Rescuers carry Kelly Guzman on a stretcher. She was found Sunday in the Arapahoe National Forest, where she had been wandering for 11 days.
But a series of poor decisions, possibly caused by going without the medication she takes for lupus and other medical conditions, caused her to wander away from her car on a maze of logging roads deeper into the forest, he said.
Guzman's bad luck began on June 8, when she was cited for driving under the influence of drugs. Ashford said his wife, who uses medical marijuana, retrieved her vehicle the next day, then said she wanted to go away to clear her head.
But Guzman didn't tell family where she was going. Ashford said when he contacted police on June 12, he didn't know where to tell them to look.
"We didn't know which way she went,'' he said. "I assumed she probably went south because that's where we usually go hiking."
Guzman's SUV was found stuck in a creek on Thursday by an off-duty officer who was out four-wheeling about 70 miles west of Denver, Grand County Sheriff Rodney Johnson said.
Johnson said the road was built up about four feet higher than the creek. "For some reason she drove right into it," he said, speculating that Guzman was driving at night and couldn't properly see the road.
When Guzman abandoned the vehicle, she left a reflective blanket and a red rain poncho weighted to the roof of the car to attract attention. She had also tried to make some fires in the area, and left a "V" of sticks, likely indicating the direction she was intending to head, Johnson said. She didn't have a cell phone with her.
Up to 20 searchers and four dogs looked for Guzman, who had left several trails of barefoot prints around her car and along old logging roads that crisscross the area, Johnson said. Bear tracks were also found in the area.
When searchers finally found her -- collapsed, delirious and 30 pounds lighter -- on Sunday, Guzman was four miles as the crow flies, or six miles on foot, from her vehicle. She was 1.5 miles from a campground.
"When I asked her why she wasn't dressed properly, she said she wasn't intending to go hiking," said Guzman's mother, Sally Edwards.
Edwards said her daughter told her she spent three days in the car, rationing the protein bar she had and using the battery at night for warmth when it snowed and temperatures dipped to freezing. Then the battery died.
"I thought I can't spend another night here just sitting," Guzman said in an interview with CBS4 in Denver. "I was just trying to figure out what would be the next best move."
She told the TV station she tried eating grass to survive, and walked in the cold stream to try to ease the pain from the cuts to her bare feet.
A spokeswoman for St. Anthony Summit Medical Center in Frisco, Colo., said Guzman did not want any additional interviews.
"All she had to do was backtrack out, but sitting for three days with no food, drinking only stream water, she was disoriented," Ashford said. "She kept thinking she would see a house or cabin. She would get sidetracked. "
Guzman was 11 miles from the highway when found.
"Of course the big mystery is where her shoes were. They weren't in the car, she doesn't know, " Ashford said.
Guzman, a retired real estate agent whose children are ages 18 and 20, told her mother she was "deathly afraid."
"If they hadn't found her that day I don't think she would have made it another day. I really don't," Edwards said.