"No one knew where we were"
But something went wrong. The car got stuck in spring snow, and as the two worked to free it, Smith twisted her ankle.
After hours of trying to get the car out, Walton, who walks with a cane, decided it was time to go for help.
He was never seen alive again.
"I was more worried about him than I was myself," Smith said, "because if he falls, sometimes he couldn't get up very well. He wears braces on his legs."
Smith said Walton had muscular dystrophy.
"I don't think he liked to look at himself as having a disability," Smith said. "I knew he was weak. I had twisted my ankle and couldn't walk out."
Walton planned to hike out to South Umpqua Highway. He set out April 13, leaving Smith with the car. The two had a plan: He would take her cell phone and go for help, and she would stay with the vehicle and honk the horn every half hour to try to alert someone.
No one came.
"I started to worry when it got dark," Smith said. "I heard all those stories about people getting stuck, That's why I thought I wouldn't survive because no one knew where we were."
Smith decided she had to save herself. On the morning of April 15, Smith decided it was time to take action.
"So I started the car, and I tried going forward and backward and finally the car started moving a little bit and I kept working at it until I got it out," Smith said.
She drove to a nearby house and called 911 around 9:45 a.m.
Search and rescue crews from the Douglas County Sheriff's Office went to work searching for Walton.
Search and rescue crews found Walton's body about 50 yards off the roadway to his body and one to two miles from where the vehicle had been stuck in the snow.
"I was really fond of him, and I know he was getting that way with me," Smith said. "It was really nice. We were really close. I didn't want to let him go."
Services for Walton have not yet been arranged.
An autopsy is scheduled. The sheriff's office said the death does not appear to be suspicious.
