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Five teenage girls missing
By Steve
Bryant
An early
evening call out sent RMRU on its way to Joshua
Tree National Monument for a search. Upon
arriving and signing in, we were briefed that a
group of five teenage girls from the CEDA School
in Running Springs was missing. Although the
girls were well equipped, snow was falling and it
was thought best to bring the girls back to
Headquarters. At about 11:00 PM we went into the
field, with Mary Bowman taking one RMRU van to
serve as radio relay to Headquarters. The rest of
us went to the girls' destination, near Fried
Liver Wash, and hiked around for about two hours
looking for tracks - no luck. We did have a nice
hike in the desert, with a couple inches of fresh
snow and a reasonably warm night.
We later went
back to Headquarters, and got about an hour's
sleep, before going to a local restaurant for
breakfast, courtesy of the National Park Service
(thanks!) Most RMRU members had to report to
work, this being Monday, but Ray Hussey and Steve
Bryant were sent out again down a wash to search
for tracks. Again, no luck, but while we were
enjoying the beautiful clear cold sunny weather,
we heard a lot of helicopter activity, and soon
heard over the radio that the girls had been
found. Ray and Steve were soon picked up and
returned to HQ. The girls had been found, safe
and sound, so we returned home a lot happier than
on the Laura Bradbury mission.
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