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Two USFS Workers Stranded
By Tim Wescott
Surrounded! That is the word that
came to my mind as 21 members of RMRU and myself,
responded to the Sheriff's Dept. page on
Wednesday evening about 8:30 PM, July 21st.
"Surrounded" was the right word too,
because that essentially describes what happened
as team members carried out their assignments.
Here's how the mission unfolded. Team
members received a "heads up" (advance
notice) that a possible search for two missing
Forest Service personnel was going to be
required. An hour and a half-hour later, official
word was given and the search was on. The
subjects (a male and a female) were conducting
amphibian research in the upper drainage of the
North Fork of the San Jacinto River. This is
rugged terrain with significant elevation drops,
a watercourse that snakes through a
boulder-strewn ravine, and vegetation that is
incredibly dense on the surrounding slopes. The
area's redeeming feature on this night was that
Forest Service roads and a main highway literally
surrounded the search area on all sides. In many
places these roads actually overlooked the search
area, greatly increasing the chances of contact.
With this advantage, RMRU's ops leader was able
to deploy teams from a variety of different
directions in hopes of converging on the area the
subjects were known to be in.
I say, "known to be in,"
because the lost duo had a radio and were in
contact with Forest Service personnel. A fixed
wing aircraft had actually located them before
dark when the two had called in to say they were
lost. Apparently they had descended into the
drainage much farther than they had supposed, had
lost their bearings, and were unsure of the best
way to proceed. Although the fixed wing had given
them a direction of travel that would bring them
to a Forest Service road, darkness overtook them.
Without light it was impossible for them to
continue. They found a bivy sight, built a small
fire, and waited for first light... or help,
which ever came first. Their bivy location was
right beside the river, in dense forest growth,
with steep slopes rising up from the river
bottom. A team would have to be almost on top of
them before they would be found.
Unfortunately, little of this
information was known in the early going. In fact
the ops leader was working with information he
had been given which said the pair were in a
relatively open area, and not near water.
Incorrect information would prove to be the most
frustrating part of this mission. Teams were sent
down the Noah Fork drainage from the PLS (point
last seen). Vehicle teams were assigned a
four-wheel drive road that overlooked the
drainage to try and make contact by headlight or
horn. Another team was sent several miles below
the PLS in order to work their way up the
drainage. Although the subjects were not yet
found, they were certainly surrounded!
I was part of the team that began
hiking up the North Fork drainage about 10:15 PM.
It was tricky going in the river bottom, but by
boulder hopping our way up the watercourse, we
were able to make good time and avoid much of the
thick growth on the riverbanks. Yelling the
subject's names at regular intervals, we had
traveled about a mile up stream when we stopped
once more to yell. Being in contact with the
subjects by radio, word suddenly came that they
had heard yelling far away. Nothing excites a
search team like that kind of information! We
knew we were on the right track. Another 1/4 of a
mile of rock hopping and we were with the
subjects. Aside from being extremely weary,
hungry, and a bit bruised, both subjects were fit
to move on their own. RMRU support teams soon
joined us, and we all made our descent down the
riverbed, arriving at about midnight at a Forest
Service road that crossed the river. The subjects
and our teams were transported back to Rescue
Base, and we were all on our way home by about
1:00 AM.
I only wish every search had some of
the luxuries that this one did. We knew generally
where the subjects were, we knew they were not in
a life-threatening situation, and we could
effectively surround them with our search teams.
It was not a case of "IF" we
would find them, but "WHEN." Those are
the best kind of search missions!
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