Lost six year old boy
By Joe
Erickson
Riverside
County has a wide variety of terrain that a
search and rescue team needs to be familiar with
and able to operate in. From below sea level in
the lower desert to the top of Mt. San Jacinto
(10,805 ft.) Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit
(RMRU) will respond to a call for help. We
perform rescues for people known to be hurt or
stranded, and searches for those who are lost,
regardless of the terrain or time of day. Most
often the call for help is received at night,
usually when the readers of this Newsletter are
snuggled in their warm blankets.
This mission
started out as a lost female in the San Jacinto
Mountains. While en-route the pagers relayed the
message of a change in the operation. The RMRU
volunteers were advised to proceed on to Thomas
Mountain road, off Highway 74, in Garner Valley.
A search was being initiated for a lost six year
old boy.
Several months
ago the RMRU solicited several thousand dollars
from donors and service clubs. The goal was seven
thousand dollars for a new pager system to
replace our old "unreliables." Thank
goodness for the new system. This system enabled
the RMRU to respond to the Garner Valley search
much more expeditiously. We arrived just before
dark.
In the eight
years I've been with the RMRU I have heard
comments regarding how long our response time is
and how long the operations are in length.
Riverside County is huge. It takes me an hour and
thirty minutes from the call-out time to my
arrival time in the Idyllwild area, and I keep my
gear packed and in my car for almost instant
response.
A search
involves many methods and each situation may
utilize many or all the methods that we know.
Basically, we determine the general area and the
closest road or trailhead. We interview those
involved in an effort to get a good description
of the person, their clothes, and footgear. It
helps to know if the lost person has been in the
area before, if they were prepared for the
terrain and weather. We go to the Point Last Seen
(PLS) and search for tracks to determine a
direction of travel.
A group of
eleven children had gone camping with some adults
at one of the remote campsites on Thomas
Mountain. They chose a site near the summit where
the fire lookout tower used to be. The children
explored and hiked and had fun all day. In the
afternoon, about 3:00 pm, a group of the children
spotted a deer and charged off to find it. One of
the boys, Gregory, six years of age, had decided
to return to camp and was last seen going in that
direction. (Two mistakes here: 1) Children should
be supervised at all times in the mountains, 2)
never let someone travel alone in the mountains.)
Gregory never made it back to camp.
RMRU
volunteers were paired off for search area
assignments. They carried gear for an all night
search. Extra flashlights are standard equipment
in our packs, as are extra bulbs and batteries.
When tracking at night one flashlight that is
dimmer works well because it has less tendency to
wash out shadows.
We arrived at
the campsite before we needed flashlights and had
two areas of immediate concern. A visor was found
above a campsite opposite from the PLS. The other
spot to start from is the PLS (more on that
later). The visor was on the side of a dirt road
leading up to the summit. There were many
children's footprints around that area. I went
back to the group's camp and asked for all the
shoes in camp so we could use the process of
elimination to determine Gregory's shoeprint. We
were told that the other children in camp had
spent some time searching, resulting in many
footprints up this road and down from camp, past
the PLS, on another dirt road.
Darkness
quickly overcame us and we concentrated our
efforts on these dirt roads, working the prints.
One team on the left berm, one in the middle, and
one on the right berm. Many vehicles had, and
were, driving up these roads, obliterating most
everything, making our work go very slowly.
To Gregory's
favor the weather was in the seventies. After
many hours of fruitless searching, we decided
that if he was on the mountain he was probably
sleeping comfortably. At almost 4:00 am we opted
to get some sleep for a fresh start at about 6:00
am.
Gregory's
mother had come up to the camp. She did some
calling around and I assume someone told her the
search had been on for about twelve hours. She
told us her son had been educated about strangers
and she felt he may not respond to searcher's
calls. I had explained earlier to the adults in
camp that Gregory probably would be up and moving
in the early dawn when it was the coldest, and
first daylight appeared. I also explained that we
would most likely see him by air from the
helicopter within the first two hours of flight.
Six a.m. came
soon enough for me as I did not sleep well. I'm
sure the other RMRU team members on this call,
Rick Pohlers, Kevin Walker, Steve Bryant, Glenn
Henderson, Rob Gardner, Walt Walker, and John
Dew, slept fitfully also. We resumed the search,
concentrating on the PLS and all the terrain
downhill from there. We all had ideas as to where
to search. Probability said Gregory had not made
it up to the dirt road or he would have seen
camp, and most likely arrived there. Further,
there was no significant evidence to support that
he was on either dirt road.
We had Rob Gardner and John Dew go
down to the highway to meet the helicopter at
base. They were flying when the foot search
restarted. (Hurry up and find this little boy
before the chopper does, you guys!).
Glenn
Henderson and I started down a minor drainage
looking and calling. Moments later I yelled over
to Glenn that I heard a faint voice in the
distance, downhill and a little to the north. I
heard the voice again and reported into the radio
somewhat excitedly that I had voice contact. The
response was delayed, but the expected
"where' came back. I really didn't know
exactly where I was, so I said "downhill
from the PLS." This didn't help much as this
is big country, with several drainages leading
away from the PLS. Walt came back on the radio
and said guide the helicopter in. I couldn't
because I was under trees and brush, running full
steam in the direction of the voice. The
helicopter was out of my sight. The voice was
more distinct now and I could yell to Gregory
telling him to stay where he was.
Gregory had
found some large rocks for shelter. I was about
twenty yards away now, separated from the little
lad by some dense brush. The chopper had made
it's way over and with the help of the men in the
helicopter I found my way around the brush. When
I reached Gregory and began to talk with him, I
said his mother was looking for him, and he began
questioning me. 'What's her name," he said.
"I don't know" was my response. He
said, "What does she look like?" So I
described her and he came right along. We crawled
under some bushes to where the chopper had set
down in a small clearing. Just then Glenn and
Kevin popped out of the surrounding brush,
evidently led by the sounds of the chopper.
We flew
Gregory down to base and waited for his mother to
arrive. Gregory was refueled with many cups of
hot chocolate and warmed up. I had gotten a ride
to retrieve my car and missed the happy reunion.
However, when I showed up at the Garner Valley
fire station where everyone was gathering,
Gregory stood up and announced to his mother,
"that's the man who saved me," as he
walked over to me. And, that six year old boy
shook my hand and said, "thank YOU."
|