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Man wandered off, became lost
By Kevin Walker
It was a little after midnight when
I was awakened with news of a Search in the San
Jacinto Mountains. A man in his mid-fifties had
been missing since about six o'clock in the
evening. It was decided that it would be a good
idea to send in one team and check out the
immediate area before daylight. And then if
nothing was turned up, the whole team would be
activated for a full scale search.
Walt Walker, Hal Fulkman, Brian
Hixson and myself rode up to the Sheriff's office
in Idyllwild where we were met by the informants.
The story was quite simple, the man in question
just wandered away from the group, and .... you
know the rest. With that we headed for Humber
Park. We decided that it would be good to check
out the group's camp first to see if the missing
man had made his way back to camp. Together with
the informants, we hiked the Devil Slide Trail to
the saddle. From there the informants lead us to
the group camp. As we neared the camp, the first
signs of daylight were beginning to show out from
the East. Hal and I were the first into the camp.
Guess who was sleeping in a warm bag? Yes, with
the help of some hikers in the area, the missing
man had found his way back to camp. With that, we
headed back towards the saddle. Along the way we
stopped to catch a little sleep. After about two
hours of rest, we headed back down to Idyllwild
and breakfast.
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