Lost Mountain Bike Rider

March 2, 2014
Skyline Drive Trail, Corona
2014-006

Written by Pete Carlson

At 8:30pm on Saturday evening we got a call that a Mountain Bike Rider was lost somewhere off the Skyline Drive Trail road that goes up into the National Forest Land. This is a road that is gated so only hiking and biking are allowed on the road. The Rider had left home Saturday morning at 7am to ride to Santiago Peak which is a long day’s bike ride. It had been raining most of the day and was still raining at this time. The Sheriff had tried to drive a 4 wheel drive vehicle up the dirt road with no success. The Rider had called his Wife to say he had fallen and was not sure where he was at this time. The best we could do was put him in an 8 miles distance from a cell tower up on the ridge. With bad weather, no exact location, and no way to drive the roads the Sheriff and RMRU decided to wait until first light Sunday morning to start searching.

By 8am March 2 we had RMRU members, Desert Search and Rescue members, the Riverside Sheriffs off-road vehicle enforcement team (ROVE), and the Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team (SERT) all at base and making assignments. It was decided to put RMRU and DSAR members in with ROVE members in Quad Vehicles and send up 5 teams on different dirt roads. While all teams where out doing assignments we got word that a motorcycle rider had found the Mountain Bike Rider at 9:45am. He was in the brush off the side of a road up near Santiago Peak and he was deceased. All teams but the one on the road he was found returned to base. That team continued up the road to meet up with the motorcycle rider.

All personal involved in the search wish to extend our condolences to the family and friends of the Mountain Bike Rider.

RMRU Members Involved: Steve Bryant, Pete Carlson, Alan Lovegreen, Dana Potts, and Ty Whittersheim.