Man and dog swept down falls
By Ed Hill
For most of
the year, Strawberry Creek is benign. The water
dances along, murmuring over the stones. It
tumbles down through Strawberry Grotto over a
series of waterfalls and cataracts. In early
spring after a winter of heavy snowfall, it
assumes a different character. There is a loud
roar as the water smashes it's way through
Strawberry Grotto on it's way down the mountain.
These are the times that one must respect the
power of the water; it can and will kill if given
the chance.
On Friday, May
7th, two young couples and their dogs went hiking
down through Strawberry Grotto. They were from
San Diego and were enjoying the awesome sight of
a large volume of water rushing down the canyon.
One of the dogs, a black Labrador retriever ended
up in the water and was swept away. In an effort
to save the dog, George Stamnitz entered the
water and was also swept over a waterfall. The
remaining people hiked out to summon help.
We had planned
a weekend of tracking, orienteering, and good
fellowship in the Piņon Flats and Martinez Peak
area. The call for help found us driving out to
the roadhead. Some of the members were diverted
early, and Jack Bowman was sent out to the
roadhead to catch any stragglers.
The first
indication to me that a mission was on was when I
arrived at the roadhead and found nobody there.
After a ten minute wait, I saw what might have
been a rescue vans' lights and heard a radio. I
walked over there and found Jack sitting in his
truck. Shortly I was on my way back to Strawberry
Grotto.
Teams were
already in the field searching both sides of
Strawberry Creek. The water was the highest that
we had ever seen. Usually it is not too difficult
to cross the creek. This time there were only two
places to do so safely. The teams found nothing
and returned to base camp for a slow careful
search the next day.
Equipped with
pikes loaned to us by the fire department, we
returned to the creek with the intent of probing
every pool and every pocket of fast water. We did
our probing while being held on belay. In several
cases we rappelled down to a pool and jumared
back up when the job was done.
Midday we
found the body of the dog. She was caught under a
large tree that had been swept over a waterfall
and had itself been caught at the base. The poor
dog had been swept over two waterfalls. At this
point we had a very good idea that we were
searching for a body. Bernie McIlvoy wanted to
move the tree a bit in the case the man was also
caught under the tree. We attempted to move it
with a mechanical advantage, but all we did was
damage our rope and a Gibb's ascender.
After that we
moved slowly upstream probing in all the pools
and places where a person could be caught. Mel
Krug had brought his wetsuit, and he and Bernie
took turns wearing it. The water was so cold that
you only wanted to be in it for a few minutes at
a time.
In a small
pool most of the way down the first waterfall,
Bernie felt something different from what he had
been feeling all along. He was sure that he had
located the dog's master. He could hook the body
with the pike but could not dislodge it. The body
was being held in the pool by the force of the
water. He tied a line to the pike and had three
team members pull. They couldn't move it, so he
called for more manpower. Mark Hebert crossed the
creek on a line, and two other people on the far
bank joined up to make six people on the line.
That was enough to dislodge the body, and it came
tumbling down the creek toward the second falls.
I was in the shallow water above the second falls
and was able to swing the body into the bank.
From there it was a relatively straight forward
task to get him into a body bag and transport him
to the road at the top of the hill.
My guess is
that he had never seen fast water before and had
no idea of what it could do to him.
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