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Injured YMCA youth
By Brian Hixson
Just as my
brother-in-law and I were completing an evening
of working on a Honda Odessy, my mother called
and said there was a rescue and that I should go
over to Walt Walker's house for information. Five
minutes later I was standing in the Walker dining
room listening to Walt go over information with
Bernie McIlvoy on the phone. After the
conservation was over, Walt told me that there
was a possible injured YMCA youth in Little Round
Valley. Being that it was now 11:00 p.m. and we
had been having good weather, it was decided that
it would be best to send in only two members that
night to access the situation. And then the
following morning a helicopter could fly in and
pick up the injured youth. Bernie said he would
hike in that night. With that, I said I would be
able to hike in with Bernie.
Shortly after
midnight I met Bernie at the Fuller Ridge Trail
roadhead. Before leaving Riverside, Bernie picked
up a team radio out of the #2 van. With the radio
along we would have communication with Walt back
in San Jacinto, via the SAR base radio located in
the Hemet Police Department. There was no moon as
we hiked up the Fuller Ridge, which made it
necessary to use flashlights all the way in. It
was not exactly a scenic hike. After several
hours of hard hiking, we reached Little Round
Valley. As we hiked into the valley we called
out, but got no answer. After about a half hour
of that we decided to get a little rest, before
daybreak.
A little was
correct, in that we slept for about one hour and
then the first slivers of morning light could be
seen on the ridge tops above us. We left our
packs in the upper end of the valley and then
split up to see if we could locate the Y group.
After about 15 minutes of searching and calling,
Bernie spotted someone in a sleeping bag. After
waking the groggy camper, we learned that the
group in question was camped just out of the
valley. As Bernie and I approached the group, it
looked as though a bomb had went off. There were
clothes and food items laying all around where a
group of sleeping bags with warm bodies had spent
the night. When we awakened the group, we found
what we were looking for.
As Bernie
examined the youth , e to d us of how he and his
friend had been playing the day previous on a
snow drift (what was left from a very big
winter), and how he had slipped and fell off of
it backwards, landing on his back. There was
indeed quite a bit of tenderness in the lower
back region. With that I radioed out we needed a
chopper for an air evacuation. We did not have to
wait very long before we heard the familiar sound
of a Bell Jet Ranger. Piloting the chopper was
veteran mountain pilot Don Landells. After Don
was down in the valley, we carefully loaded the
boy into the bird for a quick ride out to Camp
Maranatha in Idyllwild.
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