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Female hiker separated from group
By Jim
Fairchild
A day hike in
the mountains with friends and wonderful
activity., Occasionally something goes awry, such
as one person getting separated from the group,
or left behind. Both these problems arose on
Saturday when Meriche Petrich, 43, of Cypress,
found herself alone on the Fuller Ridge Trail.
This caused her to hurriedly look for friends in
a bit of a panic, then she lost the trail where
it seems to be indistinct. She headed steeply
downhill on the north side of the ridge, into the
East Branch of Snowcreek. To have persisted down
this ever steepening face would have brought her
to cliffs and waterfalls. Before long she slipped
and fell, losing her grip on the hiking staff.
She was able to recover the staff, then changed
her direction and climbed for a while - until
late in the afternoon. She came to a hump that
had a flat space and stopped for the night.
Warmed by a small fire, she made it to dawn, then
continued upward.
Meanwhile, her
friends had re-grouped at the roadhead and
discovered Meriche's absence. They re-deployed
Saturday afternoon to look for her, then reported
her as missing. RMRU was called, and several of
us gathered at Camp Lawler to organize a search.
Because most of our faithful members were still
descending Tahquitz Canyon, we called in Sierra
Madre. Soon Dave Ezell and Ed Hill were
proceeding up the Fuller Ridge Trail. Before long
two teams of Sierra Madre searchers were on their
way up the Marion Mountain and Seven Pines
Trails. After dawn, Walt Walker and John Dew flew
some search with Mike Donovan piloting the
Landells Aviation helicopter. Then Brian Hixson
and Gordon Lee were flown in with two Sierra
Madre members to strategic spots for more ground
search.
Before too
long a van driven by an Outward Bound instructor
arrived at Camp Lawler, the passenger was
Meriche. She had ascended to the trail, turned
the right direction (west), and continued down to
the roadhead. She was fine, hungry and thirsty.
She had seen the helicopter, but was in thick
forest. She had been too far downhill to hear the
searchers shouts. We were thankful for her good
health and return.
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