A Durango woman diving in Lake Powell on New Year’s Day found a GoPro camera in 40 feet of water and then found the owner in California via social media.
“What you find on the bottom of a lake is usually junk,” said Mark Oliger, who was diving with his wife, Allisa, when she came across the GoPro, covered with zebra mussels. “But we cleaned it up and found that it worked.”
The camera contained hundreds of photos and videos, including an image of a rear window of a vehicle with the inscription “Cross Country Trip” and a list of cities visited.
When the Oligers returned to Durango on Friday, she got on YouTube and plugged in Road Trip and the name of one of the cities on the itinerary.
She found a video and was able to identify a person she had seen in a GoPro video.
Oliger then sent a Facebook message to Dan Burkovskiy of Riverside, California. He had lost the GoPro six months before when a kayak capsized.
Oliger mailed the GoPro back on Monday.
“I figured I’d never see it again,” Burkovskiy said by telephone Monday. “What’s lost is lost.”
Burkovskiy, 23, who manages a family trucking business warehouse in Riverside, woke up Saturday to find a Facebook request for friendship.
“I thought it was some kind of spam, so I went back to sleep,” Burkovskiy said.
Later, he discovered he’d been tagged in a Facebook photo.
“I saw my GoPro, and I jumped out of bed,” Burkovskiy said. “I thought: Oh my God.”
Burkovskiy said he will treasure all the contents of the GoPro, but that the images of Monument Valley are special for the desert scenery.
daler@durangoherald.com
