UPDATE: Hikers found:Firefighters used a heat sensor on the helicopter to locate four lost hikers.The hikers were airlifted out of the Angeles National Forest at 11:24 p.m. Wednesday, Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Fredric Stowers said. They had been missing since Sunday.The hikers had built a small fire near the east fork of the San Gabriel River just south of the “Bridge to Nowhere,” a popular hiking destination. “They were able to get a hit on the fire,” Stowers said.The three men and one woman were transported to the East Fork Ranger Station.The temperature was about 39 degrees at the time of the rescue, according to a state weather station.Officials said the hikers were believed to be in good condition and were not hospitalized.
ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST — Four hikers missing since Sunday are believed to be stranded in the forest north of Glendora, authorities said.
Three men and a woman from Orange County went hiking near the Heaton Flats Ranger Station Sunday and haven’t been seen since, Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Craig Boyett said in a written statement.
“Mountain Rescue officials and Aero Bureau personnel have been unable to access the area where the hikers are believed to have taken refuge, due to poor weather conditions, and treacherous water and debris flows,” Boyett said. “Weather permitting, a rescue operation will be coordinated for Thursday morning, which will involve two helicopters and a ground rescue team.”
The missing hikers were described as a 34-year-old Lake Forest man, a 31-year-old Lake Forest man, a 33-year-old Orange man and a 23-year-old Costa Mesa woman.
Heaton Flats is the starting point for the hike to the “Bridge to Nowhere”. One hikes up the E. Fork of the San Gabriel River and there are numerous river crossings. In the spring, when the water level in the river is high, it’s fun (and a little dangerous) to wade across the fast-flowing river (using a walking stick). After a heavy rain, it would be deadly to attempt to cross it. So could it be that they went up the river and waded across before the water flow became too high to cross? If they had seen weather forecasts that predicted heavy rain and knew something about how much the flow increases during (and just after) a major rain, then they should never have forded the river. Doing so in effect “burned their bridges behind them”.
An example of flow increase: Prior to the just-ended rainstorms, the Arroyo Seco stream (near Pasadena) flowed at only 4 cu. ft./sec. But during the recent storms it reached a maximum of over 2000 cu. ft./sec (500 times as much flow).
Will any of them still be alive after exposure to the rain? It depends on the clothing they wore (hopefully the type that stays somewhat warm when wet) and their rain-gear.
The rescuers didn’t know where the hikers were so to the rescuers, the hikers were lost. But the hikers knew where they were and weren’t lost. Instead they were stranded due to high water flow in the river, making it dangerous to cross (except at the bridge to nowhere which is a high highway bridge in the middle of the wilderness where the road that once led to it has long since been washed away.
Instead of going down the river they hiked up, they could have gotten out by climbing up the side of the river canyon and then hiked back via traversing the sides of the canyon. There’s no trail and there’s a lot of wet brush to go thru. It might have taking a day or two to get back this way (much slower than on a trail) but they then wouldn’t have needed to be rescued. One problem is that there is a lot of slipping footholds on such a wet slope where the mud/sand that you step on slips away down-slope. But there’s also brush to stop you in case you fall. I’ve actually gotten back this way by climbing up the canyon side (in dry weather). I did this because someone I was with was afraid to ford the river.