Lost teenage solo female hiker
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September 2, 1983 |
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By Bill Blaschko
The phone rang Just at 11:30 P.M. And of course the only reason for a phone call like that is RMRU. The team assembled at Humber Park for a search for Tina Warren, age 16, of Huntington Beach. It seems that her grandmother had left Tina at the trailhead for the Southridge trail to Tahquitz Peak, two days earlier. Her plan was to hike solo in the Tahquitz area and then return after a day to Humber Park. That left quite a bit of mountain to search.
Anyway, teams were formed and we set up the devil slide to the saddle. From there we would search in teams of two. Tahquitz Valley, Skunk Cabbage, the Angels Glide trail, Willow Creek, and of course Caramba at the top of Tahquitz Canyon would be checked as quick as a team could reach it. As we hiked towards the saddle we talked about error in hiking solo, especially since Tina did not know the mountain well. As we approached the saddle Kevin came up with the idea to check with the rangers at Long Valley below the tram. Luckily for us, especially my team since we were assigned to go to Caramba, news came back from base that Tina was sleeping behind the Long Valley Ranger station. With that we made a 180 and headed back to my home in Idyllwild where everyone could get some sleep before going out to Lamb Canyon for a search (see 1983-030).