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3-Pronged Search for Jeeper on Rubicon Trail
August 1994
On Sunday August 28, 1994, searchers received a call to search for a missing jeeper in the Buck Island Lake area. The incident was exceptional for several reasons, one of which was that El Dorado County Sheriff's Deputy Mike Gregor happened to be in the missing person's jeeping group in the vicinity of Buck Island and Rockbound lakes.
The subject, a 33-year old man from Elk Grove, was part of a large group of jeepers who were traveling the Rubicon Trail that weekend. On Saturday afternoon, his friends had seen him around 1500 near the dam at Buck Island Lake. But no one saw him after that, and his friends became increasingly worried as dark fell. Finally, convinced he was lost or hurt, they got in touch with Mike Gregor and asked him what to do.
Mike, after hearing their story, realized that this was a SAR incident and decided to get a SAR callout started. Ordinarily, an incident this deep in the backcountry would have meant a delay until morning to get to the nearest phone. However, Mike was able to contact the Sheriff's Department via a ham radio link and arrange a limited callout of 10-12 foot searchers and a few search management people.
Dennis Wagoner did the callout between midnight and 0100 Sunday morning, rousing 11 foot searchers and 2 search managers.
The SAR members met at the Sheriff's Office at 0600. They had come ready to board a helicopter and fly into the Rubicon trail with cliff rescue gear and medical equipment, and were prepared to stay out overnight if necessary.
Plans Officer Gary Cecchetini arrived at the SO with the foot searchers. By now nearly 16 hours had passed since the subject was last seen, and Gary quickly realized that the potential search area was huge. At 0700 he supplemented Mike Gregor's orginal request with orders for a full callout.
Back on the Rubicon, Mike Gregor had not been idle during the night. He had organized the jeepers into search teams, and they had started out as soon as there was enough light.
Unfortunately, the air transport arrangements turned out to be a fly in the ointment. Helicopters are often a snafu in search and rescue, and this incident was a reminder of that. Exact details are scarce, but apparently no helicopter was available until later in the morning and then only at Big Hill, and not Placerville Airport. So the SAR teams left Placerville about 0800, heading for the Big Hill heliport.
By now there were three distinct groups on their way to find the lost subject: the jeepers on the scene, the searchers planning to fly in, and the full callout coming after them. But as it turned out, it wasn't any of these groups made the find.
Early in the morning some campers near Buck Island Lake thought they heard someone calling for help. When they tracked down the source of the calls, they found a 33 year old man who had fallen, sustained some serious injuries and had spent a cold night outdoors. The alarmed campers flagged down the first jeep they saw, and shortly thereafter it was confirmed that this was the man everyone was looking for. The general relief, however, was tempered by the arm and leg fractures that the man had sustained.
At first, the plan was to call Life Flight or Care Flight to fly the subject to the hospital. However, it so happened that a private helicopter was on its way to the Rubicon that morning with supplies for the jeepers. When advised of the emergency, the pilot agreed to carry the victim to Barton Memorial Hospital in Tahoe.
But nothing is simple with helicopters, it seems. This straightforward decision could be carried out only after negotiations with Barton (not just anyone can land there), a search for an airport that sold Jet-A fuel, and coordination with Care Flight (they were three minutes behind with another victim).
However, the patient was successfully delivered to the hospital shortly thereafter. The keyed up but relieved searchers turned around and headed for home (no doubt a little disappointed that there would be no airlift after all), and the entire SAR organization settled into Weekend Mode once again.
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