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Lost Trio Found in Amador
July 1996
Three people were rescued from the Mokelumne Wilderness in Amador County on the Sunday July 28, 1996 after an erratic 2-day journey that included bad luck, bad decisions and much backtracking. Eight different agencies cooperated in the effort.
Roger, 37, had come with 8 other Bay area residents to camp near Cole Creek Lakes on Thursday July 25. At 10 a.m. Friday morning, Roger took his son and another 10-year old companion to go fishing at Long Lake, about a half mile southeast. When they found Long Lake full of silt, the three turned southwest toward several small lakes a mile away. But the three were disappointed with the silt in these lakes, too, and tried to return to Long Lake. However, despite having traveled the trail a few hours before, they became confused and lost Friday afternoon.
On Friday evening they realized they would have to spend the night out. Roger, a former Eagle Scout, picked a spot, made a shelter, and lit a fire. Adding up their combined provisions, they had remnants of the day's food — some trail mix, dried banana mix and beef jerky — 3 water bottles, a water filter, a basic first aid kit and some matches. None of them was dressed in anything warmer than shorts and short-sleeved shirts. The group spent a chilly night huddled by the fire as lows dipped into the 50's.
Saturday quickly turned into a day of blunders. They extinguished the fire and left camp, abandoning something that, with a few green branches, would have been an unmistakable signal. Then they headed southwest — away from their camp at Cole Creek Lakes. During the day Roger thought they had found Mount Reba, which has a lodge on top. He led the group on a 2-mile detour up the mountain, but after a 1700-foot ascent they found nothing and started back down. (It was later determined that they had climbed Mokelumne Peak. Mount Reba is several miles to the east).
Meanwhile, their friends at Cole Creek Lakes had been searching for them since Friday evening. The depth of their concern kept them searching all Friday night and into Saturday, yet somehow they neglected to send someone to a phone until Saturday afternoon.
It was probably about that time that the lost group found a trail and followed it southwest — away from their camp at Cole Creek Lakes. West of Morain Lake (on the USGS Bear River map, an unnamed lake west of Tanglefoot Canyon), they encountered two backpackers hiking up from the road 2 or 3 miles away. Roger confessed they were lost and accepted a gift of some energy bars. Then, inexplicably, he turned the trio around and headed back toward Cole Creek Lakes — now 8 or 9 miles away.
At 4:00 p.m. that day, the Amador Sheriff's office finally received a 911 call from a third party reporting that someone was missing. At 6:30 p.m. the S.O. received a call from the father of one of the lost boys with more details. Amador put a foot team into the field, and asked CHP Helicopter H-20 to search the area, which it did without success. On Saturday night Amador scheduled a scaled up search for Sunday morning, including mutual aid from Alpine County, another search by H-20, and 4 to 5 Woof and CARDA dogs.
On Saturday night the lost three spent their second night in the wilderness. They had seen the CHP helicopter that afternoon but, disappointingly, had been unable to flag it down.
As they were making camp that evening, Roger's son saw hikers approaching on the trail. But, as he attempted to get their attention, his father ordered him to cease his efforts and come help build the fire instead.
Sunday morning, at the SAR command post at Tragedy Springs on Highway 88, the Amador S.O. ordered additional resources from El Dorado County, including 15 foot searchers, mounted riders and management personnel. The callout started about 10:30, and searchers began to arrive at the command post at Tragedy Springs about noon. Four El Dorado foot teams were placed into the field almost as fast as they could be made up and briefed.
At last, about 2:30 Sunday afternoon, H-20 spotted the three near Munson Meadow, about 2.5 miles SSE of Cole Creek Lakes, on the wrong trail.
The three were ravenously hungry, but otherwise uninjured and in relatively good shape. They were flown one by one to Plasse's resort where, according to reports, the boys devoured about 3 full meals each. Between mouthfuls, one of the boys was asked if he would ever come back here to go camping again. "Not with Dad!" he said.
The search involved about 55 people from Alpine, Amador and El Dorado SAR, the CHP helicopter, the U.S. Forest Service, the Kirkwood Fire Department, WOOF search dogs, and CARDA search dogs.
It may be worth noting that this search was in the same general area where two brothers got lost while hunting about a year and a half ago. Like Roger and the two boys, the brothers spent several nights out and made questionable decisions — although they nearly froze to death, one brother never used the matches he had in his pocket. |