Two hiked in, one hiked out
By Jim Fairchild
Lawrence Maira, and a friend were
backpacking in the vicinity of Fuller Ridge and
Deer Springs. About their second evening, some
confusion as to location occurred. They camped on
the west side of the Middle Fork on Snowcreek,
where there is a spectacular view over, down, and
up that can be seen. Folly Peak loomed high above
to the southeast with San Gorgonio Pass 5000 feet
below.
The next morning they packed, then
headed down northwesterly. Soon they saw Camp
Lackey, owned by Riverside's YMCA. For some
reason they left their pack high on the mountain,
and split-up for find the camp, having lost sight
of it because the gullies and thick trees. The
friend made it to a point where he could see
camp, then returned to the packs. Mr. Maira was
not there. So, he went to report Lawrence's
disappearance.
Following organization and
deployment, Henry Negrete, Ron Pierson, and the
writer, accompanied by the informant, hiked
together up the mountain from Camp Lackey to find
the packs. If Mr. Maira was not there, we'd track
him from either the packs or the last campsite.
After some wondering and watching searchers in
Western's helicopter driving about in the sky, we
found the packs, but no lost subject.
We found good tracks scuffing
downhill, but the informant said the tracks were
his. We then searched uphill after checking the
area carefully.
Our search pattern led up a ridge
featuring huge tall pine trees, enormous
boulders, and views of Mt. San Jacinto's North
Face. Tracks led to our backpackers' last
campsite, but no tracks led elsewhere except
those leading down to camp.
Other RMRU teams were searching
above and below our area. We took a different
route back to the packs. Ron went far below and
found the lost hikers prints. The informant was
getting quite concerned and agitated about his
friend's absence, so we called for pilot Pete
Gillies to pick him up at the helispot 300 yards
from the Pack's location.
Ron and Steve and I prepared to
charge down the mountain following tracks into
the rugged, precipitous West Fork of Snowcreek
and catch up to the elusive lost subject. But
wait! That last garbled radio transmission hinted
that our subject was located. Sure enough, he had
hiked down to Cabazon and was OK.
Pete rounded up the search parties
and flew us to Vista Grande Ranger Station. Hence
another great exploration of beautiful terrain
was over.
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