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Hunter separated from companions
By Ed Hill
Saturday, four
men went quail hunting. They planned to hike down
the Morgan Trail into Morrell Canyon, hunt the
canyon bottom and return to the Main Divide Truck
Trail that runs along the crest of the Elsinore
Mountains. That afternoon one of the hunters
became separated from his companions. He traveled
west into Decker Canyon instead of travelling
east into Morrell Canyon. The two canyons are
separated by a low very brushy divide at this
point.
When his
companions could not locate him, they reported to
the sheriff that he had fallen down a hillside
and had broken his leg. Because of the heavy
brush, they were unable to get to him. The
sheriff called the team, and we rolled in the
early evening. I was late so I missed going in
with our first team, the hunters, and the
Cleveland National Forest rangers. They carried
our wheeled litter and the large first aid pack.
Soon it became apparent that the informants
really did not know exactly where the missing
hunter was. The wheeled litter was left where the
Morgan Trail crossed the creek in Morrell Canyon.
The first team proceeded to search the brushy
hillside just west of Morrell Canyon.
Craig Britton
drove up, and he and I were asked to go get the
wheeled litter. We asked if we could do a little
searching in the upper part of Morrell Canyon and
were told to go ahead. We hiked in, located the
litter and the Cleveland National Forest people.
We talked them into carrying the litter out while
we looked around some. Craig and I hiked all the
way up the Morgan Trail observing that it had not
had a lot of traffic on it. Not nearly as much as
had expected to find. At the Main Divide Truck
Trail the Morgan Trail split up into several
trails so we decided to see if we could find the
one that the hunters had used.
At two in the
morning, we heard that team one was bedding down
for the night, so we decided to do the same. just
as I was crawling into my bivouac bag, Rick
Pohlers, the operations leader decided to crank
up the siren on the van. As the wail died away,
we heard gunshots in the eastern part of Decker
Canyon. We radioed the news in and were told to
pack up and try to reach the source of the gun
fire. On the first try, we stayed on the ridges
and were thrown back completely. On the second
try, we ended up in a creek bed that went sort of
in the right direction and so were able to bash
our way down the canyon. At times we were
crawling on our hands and knees. At one point,
both of us fell over a small waterfall completely
hidden in the brush.
About four in
the morning, we located our missing hunter. He
was huddled in an area of live oak on the side of
the hill. He had severe leg cramps and was cold,
hungry, tired and thirsty. He was toting a forty
four magnum pistol, a large knife and a shotgun.
He had no food, no water and no jacket.
Fortunately, the night had been mild. We fed him,
watered him, and all of us bedded down until
dawn, two and a half hours later. The only
problem besides the cold, was the horde of very
hungry mosquitoes.
At first light, Craig and I were up
trying to figure out where we were. We could just
make out the corner of the Main Divide Truck
Trail. We were not sure that the hunter could
crawl out the way we had come in. So we asked if
we could be lifted out by helicopter. The sheriff
reported that he was working on it. Finally we
were told that a San Bernardino County Sheriff's
Department helicopter would do the job if we
built a helispot. Even the hunter helped clear a
small knoll.
The helicopter
showed up and first flew down to our vans in
order to be briefed as to where we were. He then
flew back toward us and was talked into our area.
We hit him with a signal mirror and the rest was
simple. He flew the hunter out first and returned
for Craig and myself. It was a very tired and
grateful hunter that was returned to his
companions and his wife. I would like to thank
the San Bernardino County Sheriffs for Picking us
up out of the brush that morning and sparing us
the long bash back to the Truck Trail.
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