Woman missing from campground
by Walt Walker
It was very
early on a Sunday morning (in fact it was the
middle of the night) when my telephone woke me
up. Of course, it was a call for a mission. The
Riverside County Sheriff's Department had been
notified that a 21 year old woman was missing
from the Black Mountain Group Campground, which
is on the western slope of the San Jacinto
Mountains at the 7380 foot level.
A church
college career group of young adults were
spending the weekend together enjoying the
mountains. Saturday morning around 10 a.m. Julie
Gang told another camper that she was going for a
day hike and would be back in the after-noon. As
far as anyone knew she was carrying a small
day-pack with possibly two cans of soda and a
compass. When she had not returned by early
evening the group searched the immediate area and
drove up and down the Black Mountain dirt road.
Their search was fruitless and two people drove
off the mountain to call for help.
RMRU members
were contacted via the telephone and our paging
system. They were given the basic information and
advised to respond to the Black Mountain
Campground. Shortly after 7 a.m. RMRU members
began arriving at the camp-ground. They were met
by Sgt. Dave Duncan from the Banning station. The
first RMRU search team into the field was Bud
White and Henry Negrete. They headed in the
direction that our missing subject was last seen
(basically eastward). We requested the sheriff's
department to contact Landells Aviation for a
helicopter to fly search teams to back country
locations. Steve Bryant and Jim Fairchild were
assigned the dirt road that heads easterly
towards Camp Lackey. Rob Gardner and I were
assigned to cut a line west to east below the
campground. The next two teams were to be flown
in by helicopter. Glenn Henderson and Kevin
Walker were assigned to hike down the Fuller
Ridge trail from the Linda Stoner helispot which
is located at the top of the Fuller Ridge. Rick
Pohlers and Ray Hussey were given the assignment
of hiking from the Deer Springs junction up
towards the Fuller Ridge. They were to be flown
in to a small meadow below the junction. Mel Krug
and Gil Carr had just arrived when Steve radioed
that he and Jim had found tracks cutting across
the berg and heading west toward the edge of the
mountain that drops off in the direction of the
Twin Pines Boys Ranch.
The base of operations that had been
set up at the Black Mountain Campground was moved
to the Boulder Basin Camp-ground which is right
on the edge of the mountain facing west. This was
done to improve radio communications to the field
teams since it appeared that our missing subject
had dropped over the edge and was heading down
slope. Since there are some fire roads and jeep
trails on the lower slopes below Black Mountain
we requested the Hemet Search and Rescue Team to
respond with some four wheel drive vehicles. With
Bob Sairs manning the radios at base the rest of
us drove down to the U.S. Forest Service station
at Vista Grande, which has a helispot behind the
station. Ray and Rick were assigned to join up
with Jim and Steve. Shortly the four of them were
following tracks down-hill to the west.
Just before 10
a.m. Don Landells arrived at Vista Grande with
one of his Bell Jet Ranger helicopters. Glenn
Henderson and Kevin Walker quickly climbed aboard
and were on their way to the prime search area.
For about 30 minutes the helicopter flew a
contour search pattern below where the tracks
were located. Don spotted some tracks and Glenn
and Kevin were let off on a boulder on the ridge
near the tracks. Steve hiked down to Kevin and
Glenn and confirmed that the tracks were the same
as the ones above. Don returned to Vista Grande
and picked up Mel and Gil and flew back to the
search area and expanded the aerial search to the
west and east. Once again the air search did not
find the subject. Mel and Gil were let off on the
ridge below where Glenn and Kevin had been put
off. Don returned to Vista Grande and picked up
another crew consisting of Rob and myself. We
again flew contour search in the prime area. We
have learned from prior searches that many times
a second flight over the same area finds the
missing subject. With fuel getting low Rob and I
were dropped off on an old road. We hiked cross
country to the drainage below where the tracks
were heading. We started up the canyon with the
usual problems of finding your way through the
dense brush and around and over boulders. The
teams above us continued to look for more tracks.
Four jeeps with two members each
responded from the Hemet Search and Rescue Team.
They were quickly assigned, by radio, the
different dirt roads that we wanted to be
covered. With the bird refueled Don returned to
the search and picked up Rob and I off of a large
boulder. We decided to greatly expand the search
area. We then flew the entire trail from the
Fuller Ridge trailhead (elev. approx. 7800 feet)
to the top of Mt. San Jacinto (elev. 10,804
feet). On the way back we flew aerial search on
both sides of the Fuller Ridge and the area above
Jensen Canyon. Returning to the area where tracks
had last been seen by a ground party we began
another contour search. While flying to the west
I spotted Julie amongst the dense brush. Years of
flying @s an aerial observer and a little luck
helped, as she was wearing a light blue shirt and
faded blue jeans, which are not easy to spot from
the air. We circled over Julie and we motioned by
hand signals for her to stay where she was. Don
spotted a large boulder and brought the bird down
onto the top of the rock. By putting one foot on
the runner I helped Don a little to hold the bird
in position as Rob passed me his pack. Rob then
slid out of the bird and I gave Don the lift off
hand signal. As he flew of f to fly other teams
of f the mountain Rob and I fought our way upward
through the brush toward Julie. She was doing the
same thing downhill toward us. She was generally
in good condition except for some dirt and
scratches. However, she was very thirsty and
slightly hungry. So we sat her down and gave her
some food and water.
Rob and I helped
Julie over to and up onto our one runner boulder.
We told her what to expect and what to do around
the helicopter. Don had flown out one field team
while we were getting ready. On his return we
radioed that we were ready for a pickup. He
brought the bird in for another one runner
touchdown with the aid of our hand signals. I
climbed into the back seat and slid across. Rob
helped Julie into the back and we buckled her in
and I gave Don the signal to lift off. In a very
short time we were at Vista Grande. Bernie
McIlvoy came out to meet us and assisted Julie
away from the bird. Julie was reunited with her
mother with a big hug. In a series of quick
flights the rest of the field teams were flown
off the mountain.
We quickly
asked Julie about her night out and how she had
become lost. We use this information to assist us
in future searches. During our own critique we
discussed her information and talked about what
we had done, both right and wrong.
|