Calls for help
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August 02, 1980 |
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By Kevin Walker
Just as my dad Walt Walker and I were completing an educational program for a group of Boy Scouts from England at Camp Emerson, the camp ranger asked for Walt, and said that team member and Idyllwild resident Mary Bowman was on the phone with a possible rescue. After talking with Mary we decided to drive on up to Humber Park and just see what was going on. When Walt and I arrived we were met by a deputy and a local resident. The gentleman told us that he and his neighbor had heard calls for help up on Suicide Rock. Another catch was, earlier in the evening, a woman separated from her group as they were returning from the rock. The group went back up to look for her, and while they were in looking, the young woman made her way back to Idyllwild. Anyway, Walt and I decided to hike in and find out if the calls for help were coming from the group of climbers who went back in.
We had no sooner crossed Strawberry Creek when we came across the group returning to Humber. We informed them that the woman from their party had hiked down into Idyllwild. And after asking a few questions, we found that the group had been calling out Hello ... Hello. And to the residents below it sounded like Help ... Help.