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Lake Gilmore/Desolation Search
July 1999
At an hour much too early on the day after celebrating Independence Day, Deputy Terry Fleck toned out a SAR call for Dave and Christine Shultz, two Lake Gilmore hikers, who never returned to their campsite after purportedly climbing Mount Tallac to watch fireworks the night before. Terry actually received the first 911 call via cell phone from RP Lisa Tobe (at Lake Gilmore) at 3:00 a.m. that morning, but decided to hold the tone-out until first light (thanks, Terry, for the extra 3 hours of sleep).
Amazingly, the following group of bleary-eyed dedicated volunteers found their way to into the upper parking lot at Lilly Lake staging area to begin searching for the Schultzes: Haen, Matikosh, Truesdell, Hayworth, Butts, Dickenson, Holcomb, DelVecchio, Whatford, Moore, Hambel and Wilson. Terry put in a call for CHP assistance, and Air 23 responded code for the assignment while Richard and I assembled the Cal Coord repeater system. After a quick briefing and assigning of teams, Glen Alpine, Mid Tallac, Tallac and Bay View trails were being assaulted by orange-wear.
Within one-half hour of vertical travel, the foot teams were notified that Air 23 had spotted campers at Gilmore, spelling out the letters "OK" with their packs and jackets in a patch of snow. Assuming this was a good thing, Fleck thanked Air 23 and sent them on their merry way and recalled all but one foot team (mid-Tallac: Haen, Matikosh and Truesdell) to continue on and verify that the Schultzes had really been located. We sprinted into Gilmore campsite at 8:50, and made contact with RP Lisa and previously-lost-but-now-happy campers Dave and Christine.
Apparently the Schultzes could not find their way down from Tallac in the dark after the fireworks show, and their fellow campers at Gilmore became concerned. Lisa explained that she was a new SAR volunteer with Plumas County, and conducted several searches up and down the Gilmore-Tallac trail before finally calling 911 to report Dave and Chris missing. After getting information on the Schultzes, and taking a quick cool-down dip in Gilmore (brrrrrrr), we took the scenic, shaded stroll out of Desolation and met with Fleck back at Command at 10:40 a.m. By this point the Independence Day festivities were just a distant memory!
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