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Family missing on Christmas
By Kevin
Walker
After a most
enjoyable Christmas with my wife Patrice,
daughter Bridgett and family too numerous to
mention, we had indeed settled down for a long
winters rest, when low and behold what was it?
Why it's the telephone. Kevin, call your people
and have them meet at the Elks Lodge near Piņon
at 6:00 AM for a search for a family overdue
since Sunday. After finishing my calls and
getting gear set out, I was able to get a very
short winters sleep and then get back up and
drive to Piņon.
When we
arrived we learned that a man and his wife and
four cousins ranging in age from 9 to 15, had
been left at the Santa Rosa Peak turnoff on
Saturday, and had planned to hike from there over
Santa Rosa and ultimately reach La Quinta on
Sunday. That would be a large undertaking even
for our marathon hikers on the team. At 6:30 Don
Landells arrived with helicopter 816. Fellow team
member Jim Fairchild and I were assigned to fly
with Don and try and at least cut tracks as the
group had been overdue for three days, and had
been out for a total of five. It was quite cold
out, and the snow above on the Santa Rosas made
it seem even worse. Another problem we had to
contend with was that a storm would be moving in
to the area later in the day. Jim and I loaded
our packs, climbed in with Don and were off.
First thing we did was pick up the dirt road that
leaves the highway and follow it towards Santa
Rosa. Soon we were into the snow following
numerous four wheel drive tracks on the snow
covered road. When we reached the Santa Rosa
summit the only thing we saw was a Blazer still
buried in the snow, that Don had been days
earlier looking for. We moved on following the
road towards Toro Peak. About halfway between the
two peaks Don spotted tracks leaving the road. It
was a small group going in a very strange
direction. This had to be our group. Tracking in
the snow was fairly easy, as the tracks stayed in
single file and seemed to be contouring around
Toro Peak. Along the way we saw where the group
had spent the night under a pine tree, and then
moved on. We followed the tracks until they left
the snow and then things got hard, as it was now
desert tracking conditions; hard ground, rocks,
etc. Occasionally we would find prints here and
there, and be able to keep going. Then there was
a period of time that we saw nothing. It was at
this point that we were about to fly back to base
and prepare for a ground search. As we were
starting back Don said that there was an old
Indian site not far that had soft sand, and that
it would be an excellent place to check for
tracks.When we flew over wouldn't you know
it - there were the tracks. Don landed and we all
got out to check closely. After a little studying
Jim was able to make out two adult sized tracks
and four children. This was it, back in the bird
and off down the large open valley which heads in
the direction of Borrego. We did a quick search
hoping to catch up with the group, but this was
to no avail as we got down to the edge of Borrego
and found nothing. We started back up again
planning to go back to the general area that we
saw the last tracks, and then search slower
again. As we flew back towards the open valley
Don said he was going to fly along the northeast
side of the valley since the group had seemed to
be trying to go that direction generally. Both
Jim and I thought that Don was crackers but in no
time we spotted smoke from a small fire. There
was the group. Don found a spot, let Jim and I
out and then flew off to get high enough to
contact base that we had found the group. Jim and
I found them all to be in fair to good shape. One
of the boys had lost his shoe the previous day
and was now walking with many socks on. And one of the others had extremely
sore feet. We helped them gather gear, and Don
returned. Three of the boys and the woman went
out in the first load, and after a short wait the
man, last of the boys and Jim and I were on our
way out.
Everything
turned out fine, but because of the gear they
had, and their condition if they would have had
to stay out in the storm that shortly followed,
things might not have turned out so well. At any
rate everyone was happy to be out, and they
looked forward to going home and having a late
but joyous Christmas.
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