Fern Basin Rescue

Written by Glenn Henderson

The team received a call for a missing 80-year-old man out of the Fern Valley Basin Campground at 2:30 PM. I responded to the Hemet Sheriff’s station and drove one of our rescue trucks to the campground. While driving to basecamp I heard that he had not been missing only two hours but had been last seen at 9 AM. This gave him a lot more time to get further away into the wilderness.

When I arrived at base Deputy George Scott’s bloodhound, Copper, had picked up his trail and had tracked him about half a mile from camp. Our subject was off the trail and down but otherwise in pretty good shape. I got our litter and wheel and with help from other deputies and Cal Fire we wheeled down to the subject, loaded him up and carried him back to base camp. American Medical Response was waiting and started a medical evaluation. After some fluids were given to him it looked like he would be fine.

I loaded our gear back up and headed back to Hemet.

RMRU Members Involved: Michael George, Glenn Henderson, Shani Pynn, and Alex Rilloraza.