Man trapped in snowbank thought he was going to die

A 67-year-old Montana musician who spent four days stuck on a remote mountain road said he wrote a goodbye letter and was preparing himself for death when he was rescued. "I accepted that I was gone because I'm not in the best of health," Louis Rogers said Monday, a day after his rescue. Rogers left Montana's Flathead region Thursday to make a trip to Calder, Idaho. He decided to take the remote Gold Creek Road, which was plowed for several miles, but then conditions started to deteriorate. About nine miles in, the road got too snowy for Rogers' Cadillac so he decided to turn around — and got stuck in a snowbank. Rogers has health problems, including diabetes and a history of heart problems, so he decided to wait for help. He melted snow to drink and occasionally turned the car on to run the heater at night. One night, he flashed his headlights at an airplane and believes he got the pilot's attention, "but nothing came of it." In the meantime, more than 200 friends and relatives spent the weekend searching for Rogers along with several law enforcement agencies. He was weak and losing hope Sunday when a Coeur d'Alene couple, Scott and Penny Kalis, decided to go for a drive in the St. Regis area in their four-wheel drive vehicle and came upon Rogers' car. "They said, 'What are you doing way up here?' And I said, 'Dying, come here and look,'" said Rogers, who showed them his letter. The couple returned Rogers to St. Regis. He did not require any hospitalization and felt better after getting something to eat. Rogers is grateful to his rescuers, Schobers Towing of St. Regis, which brought his car back free of charge, and for all the people who searched for him. "I guess I had way over 200 people looking for me. I had the FBI looking for me and I've never had them looking for me before," said Rogers, who has played guitar for big names in the country music business, including Merle Haggard and George Jones. "I want to thank everybody who was looking for me and saying prayers for me. I love them all," Rogers told The Daily Inter Lake. "You never know the friends that you have until something like this happens. I just feel really fortunate to have these friends."