Girl Scout leaders missing
By Ed Hill
Thursday
afternoon, Greta Elliot and Jackie Kovak, leader
and member of a Girl Scout Troop from Huntington
Beach left the Mountain Station of the Palm
Springs Aerial Tramway to take the mile and a
half loop trail through Long Valley. When they
failed to return, the other Scout Leaders
notified the sheriff who in turn called us.
I was just
getting ready to shower after three sets of
tennis when Walt called me. I called my people
and got my gear together and drove out to the
Valley Station of the Tram.
We had a quick
conference and decided what we would do first. We
decided to send three teams into the field.
Bernie McIlvoy and his son, Eugene, would hike
towards Round Valley. Jim Fairchild, his dog Cody
and I would look around Hidden Lake. Kevin Walker
and Brian Hixson would search in Long Valley.
Hank Schmel would act as relay, and Mary Bowman
would hold down base. We were given a description
of the two women and were told what kind of
tracks they would leave. In a search like this we
would spend most of our time attempting to cut
tracks.
Jim and I went
up the trail toward Hidden Lake and in the soft
dust we could see tracks that might have been
theirs. These tracks were heading toward Hidden
Lake. At the junction of the trail to Round
Valley we carefully checked to make sure that
they did not go to Round Valley. We ran into a
hiker who was coming back from Willow Creek
crossing. He told us that he had not seen the two
women or had talked to anyone who had.
Kevin and
Brian reported that they had seen plenty of
tracks in Long Valley that might have been the
right ones. They had followed them over the
escarpment toward the desert but each time they
had followed the tracks back up to Long Valley.
When they had reached the creek in Long Valley,
they searched back up the creek to the ranger
station and then bedded down for the night.
Jim and I
looked around Hidden Lake and then went over to
Desert View so to see the lights of Palm Springs.
We hoped that the two women had not descended
into Long Canyon attempting to walk out that way.
We went down a draw that leads down to Long
Valley and started to follow the creek into
"the Narrows" where it drops down into
Long Canyon. We found once again tracks similar
to the ones that we had been following. We were
entering very steep rocky country, and were
forced to climb out of the gully we were in and
into the next one to the north. We found a good
track going down this gully to the creek. We
decided to bivouac for the night and search down
canyon in the morning.
At five
thirty, we woke up and were hiking by six. The
canyon was less forbidding in the daylight than
it had been the night before. We dropped about
three hundred feet down the slope and soon ran
out of tracks. We climbed back up and continued
along the escarpment.
When we
reached the saddle that the old Skyline Trail
used to go through we spread out to check the
adjacent slopes. Jim yelled and from far down the
slope we heard an answer. Jim sent Cody on ahead,
and we started down the trail. The trail has not
been maintained for thirty years and is badly
eroded in places. We found the women sitting on a
ridge overlooking Chino Canyon. They were hungry,
thirsty and scratched from the chaparral down
below.
They had started out on the trail in
Long Valley and somehow ended up on the Skyline
Trail. They had followed it down to the 3800 foot
level where they had lost it in the thick brush.
That evening they had decided to climb back up
rather than try to force their way down to Palm
Springs. They had gotten part way up when it
became dark, and they spent the night behind a
log. At four in the morning, the cold had woken
them up, and they had continued climbing.
We fed them
and gave them canteens of water from our packs.
When they were ready we started back up to Long
Valley and the tram station. Jim and I took a
good look at their soles. Both were wearing
running shoes, and their sole patterns were
different from what we had been following.
However, we had looked in the right places.
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