Two overdueday hikers
By
Glenn Henderson
I got the call from the
Sheriff at 9:30 P.M. on Friday evening. Travis
and I were in Irvine so I called Walt Walker to
get the mission going. We were looking for 2
overdue day hikers, Jason Stock, 28 and Heather
Billings, 24. Information was a little sparse as
usual in the beginnings of a mission but it was
reported that they were going to day hike the
Devil's Slide trail.
Upon
arriving at home to get our gear, the Sheriff
paged again and wanted to know if more than one
person was going to show up? I immediately
started calling people up. Jim Fairchild was the
only one one on scene. I was able to get some of
the Idyllwild people to respond. The pagers are a
hit and miss situation in Idyllwild. Lee Arnson
and Ralph Hoetger responded as did myself and
Travis, my son, and three people from Desert SAR.
Lee and Ralph started hiking at 12:50 A.M. up the
Devil's Slide trail. Travis and I didn't get
there until 1:30 and the Desert team sometime
after that.
Operations
leader, Jim, held Travis and I back waiting for
reports from team #1, Lee and Ralph. When Desert
arrived they were sent to the South Ridge trail
to cut off the southern end of the area that we
suspected our subjects were in. Travis and I got
some sleep waiting for daylight. We started
hiking up the Devil's Slide at 7:30 just as Pete
Carlson and his son Will arrived. Lee and Ralph
had hiked until 4:00 A.M. and then bivouacked
until 6:00. They headed down toward Reed's Meadow
and Travis and I were to head to Willow Creek
crossing. Pete and Will were right behind us and
were to possibly go to the summit of San Jacinto
peak. Before we got to the Devil's Slide saddle
Lee and Ralph found the two at Reed's
Meadow. The were really cold and hungry but
otherwise OK. Lee and Ralph gave them some food
and clothing and they started hiking out. Travis
and I arrived at the saddle and decided to wait
for them there as it is less than a mile to
there. Pete and Will arrived some time after us.
We all met up at the saddle and hiked out to
Humber park at about 10:00 A.M.
Jason
and Heather were hiking to Tahquitz Peak when
they missed the turn onto the Palisades Trail.
They walked about a mile down the Pacific Crest
Trail before they decided to head north hiking
cross county. They wandered around until
searchers found them in Reed's Meadow. Jason and
Heather were quite gracious in thanking us and
even bought all of us breakfast. Our thanks to
them. Travis and I got home at 12:15 P.M.
A mission with a happy ending.
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